The Puffer Forum

Alright so i had a previous post asking for help on my brachish water tank because my gsp had fungus growing on it. turns out my ammonia was at 3.5 (ya i know burning my fish alive-- i was new to tanks and didnt know u needed to cycle them) so i made an emergency spare tank, and got completely new water for the first tank, added 6 tbsp salt to 30 gallons of water, looked, found, and added Biospira and the new fish. i had my water tested yesterday, 48 hours after the biospira was added, ammonia is at 0.0, nitrites are at 0.0, all seems well. i also added a small heater and the water is now at 77 degrees, whereas before it had been at 71. i also added an 800water pump and an air pump/stones to aid with circulation/oxygenation since i dont have any live plants.

now my GSP was still sick, but was looking a bit better when i had him in the second tank. i had added melafix and pima fix to the water. but now with all the fish back in the first tank, the GSP has regrown a lot of his cottony growth and my other puffer, a f8 puffer, has a lot of ick on him; ie what look like sugar crystals all over him. now they are both laying on the bottom of the tank almost lifeless. i really am trying to cure them, im adding melafix and pimafix everyday for 3 days now. im making sure they have enough food allthough they seem to have lost interest in the frozen bloodworms i give them.

what do i do now? does pima/melafix cure ick?

for those who need to know i have a 3"pleco, the puffers are about 2.5" long, i have 3 1" tetras, and 2 3" guaramis making up 17 inches of fish in a 30 gallon tank (what i have been told is sufficient?) i know the puffers will need more space when they grow up but i figure ill get to that later.

any help with curing my puffers would be greatly appreciated.

ahh okay i accidentally reposted this like 4 times in 10 seconds..ill keep this one

The salt will cure the ich, just takes a month or so to get going. You can't keep those fish with the puffers though, period, the puffers are brackish fish. You need marine salt for them. The puffers can't even stay together for all that long, the figure 8 is nearly grown and should have an SG of 1.005, and the GSP is half grown and needs an SG about twice that soon. Fungus is VERY common in puffers that are being held at an SG below their ideal, it's a plauge in fish stores where they rarely have a brackish tank. Either of those SG will kill or extreemly shorten the life of the other fish. Leave the GSP on his own in the 30, get a 15 for the F8, and another tank for the remaining fish if they are important to you.