The Puffer Forum

I have recently bought 2 GSP which my LFS told me would be OK in my freshwater community tank. Now almost all of my fish are showing signs of Ich. My tank is only 3 weeks old and i have been concentrating on getting it cycled, i now reaslise i have made lots of poor choices but would really like some help with my problem, oh and also their poop is stringy does this mean they have IP's?

New fish should always be quarantined for 2-4 weeks so they don't transmit diseases and parasites. Too late for that now though.

Yes, stringy poop usually means IPs. Read the stickied threads on both ich and IP treatments.

GSPs are not good community fish and should be in a species-only tank. In addition, they need at least 30 gallons each. And they need a fully cycled tank as they are extremely sensitive to ammonia and nitrite toxicity. If you are in the US, try to get ahold of some Biospira. Its the only product that will "instant" cycle a tank. Don't buy any other crap in a bottle, no matter what the LFS tells you.

If you can't find Biospira, you'll need to do big water changes every day, replacing the salt during the ich treatment, until the tank finishes cycling. Use Prime as a declorinator if at all possible as it will help detoxify the ammonia and nitrites so they won't kill the fish.

And welcome.

if i do big water changes, will this not ruin the cycling? I am doing 30 - 40% changes every 3rd day and treating the water with serra nitravac.
i realise i will have to rehouse my puffers, but at the moment i am just able to cope with the tank i have. the puffers are still young and only 1 inch. Also can i put salt in with the other fish? I have 1 dwarf gourami, 2 angels and 4 green tiger barbs. P.s. where can i find sticked threads????

No, it won't affect your cycle. Stop using the Nitrivec, its dead bacteria that's just adding to the bioload.

I highly recommend you start reading up on all of your fish, as they have very different requirements and aren't terribly compatible. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if your angels lose their finage pretty soon. Doesn't matter how small the puffers are, they have a tendency of being rather aggressive even with much larger fish.

Stickied threads are at the top of this forum.

Quarantine period should really be 6 - 8 weeks as the life cycle of some parasites is this long and with lower tank temperatures, the life cycle is slower.