The Puffer Forum

I have tried so hard to keep my puffer alive but I am losing the battle. The pet shop sold him to me as a freshwater puffer when he was not and he got ick pretty sure it came with him as my other fishys did not have it he continues to a blochy stomach black around the mouth and still covered in ick he is in his own tank now where i have been increasing the salinity but it still does not even measure 1.010 he does nothing other than lay on the floor and occasionaly pace up and down he has not ate in 2 days i raised the temp in both tanks and added salt to both to kill the ick the fw fish have lost almost all whitespots but the puffer has not i dont think he is going to make it he still has very dark rings on his belly it has never been white and the blacking around his mouth and sides it darker everyday i have been adding melafix and doing 25% water changes to get the ick out all other levels are good in the tank i went and bought malachite green tonight as they had nothing elsa he had had a fungus on his side but it seems to be clearing up now should i add the malachite or just wait it out he is very weak and you can tell his clock is ticking down even at the first sign of ick and the fungus he was eating well not at all now he just hides please help me help him.

Ok, slow down. First, go back and answer the questions posted at the top of this forum. Next, do you have a picture? Maybe its not ich, it could be his spines that tend to resemble ich.

What kind of salt are you using and how are you adding it?

OMG I just took my levels again and here they are nitrate:20,nitrite:3.0,hardness:300,alkalinity:300,ph:8.4,ammonia:.5 I just did a 50% water change not even 3hrs ago also at that time i added more instant ocean the hydrometet still reads below 1.010 I tried to feed him soem brine shrimp he ate only a very small amount the tank was not cycled becasue on previous advise to ammidiatly get himout of the freshwater tank I do have 3 mesh bags in there full of cyceld gravel. should I do another water change to bring the levels down also while I was watching to see if he ate i noticed one if his gills look very inflamed red inside and the other I can't even see. He is kinnda jerky to he keeps going to the heater and jerking around it the temp is at 82 degres he jerks around it a few tiems then lays down on it were the suction cup is he has plenty of air went and bought a new bubbler tonight also tot make sure he was gettign enough oxygen. How do i take a pic every time I try it is blurry. I am sure it is ick very small white spots oneday it was 1 then about 20 and now to many to count and the fw tank i had him in first got ick shortly after the first spot ont the puffer fell off leaving a small hole in his side.

The red gills indicate to me that he's suffering from ammonia/nitrite toxicity. Do a very big water change immediately and get some Prime ASAP to detoxify the ammonia and nitrites. Try to get ahold of some Biospira ASAP as well and add it directly to the filter. If you are using those ammo chips, get them out of there. If you can't get ahold of Biospira, do LARGE water changes every day and use Prime with each change until the cycle is complete. He may live through it but I wouldn't bet on it unfortunately. This is a much higher priority than worrying about the ich IMO, as it will kill him much faster.

okay should i change like 90% water i just did 50% and no I took the ammo chips immediatly after you told me they were bad they were in the for like 15 min also the pet shop does not have prime is there anything elsa i could use and how much salt should i add to the new water. I just did the water change and increased the salnity but as i said it still does nto read 1.010

Do they have Amquel+ (make sure it has the plus)? That's similar to Prime.

Don't worry about raising the salinity any further right now. Just match the salinity that you put in with the salinity that the tank is at right now.

How big is the puffer? Have you got a picture of it?

maybe 2 inches and i wont be able to get to the pet shop till tommorrow they are closed now and any tip s on how to get pics they keep coming out blurry unviewable should i add the melafix also

What size tank is he in? What other tank mates?

10 gal all i had ahndy at time of the fw to sw change no other tank mates how do i take clear pics thur glass to show you

Just take the best pictures you can.

okay I ahve taken the best I cpould get I got better videos though how do i post them so you can see?

You need to upload them to a server like photobucket.com (its free), then post the links here.

is there anyone still there? i can get photobucket to work I am still tryin I did a 90% water change and added the melafix i was looking at fishermans puffer that pasted aand i think maybe thats whats wrong with my worms inside him that would explaine the rings on the belly how do i fix that are can you i see he had the same thing happen to him and his got ick like mine but dies is there naything i can do

http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r284 ... 011788.flv


http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r284 ... 1781-1.jpg


http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r284 ... 1764-1.jpg

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r284 ... 1639-1.jpg


http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r284 ... 011768.jpg

Sorry, just too blurry to tell.