The Puffer Forum

I've got:

130gal tank
lotso other fish ... never had ich

Ordered fish from AquariumFish.net ... hermit crabs, 2 lobster, and
Got 3 puffers (2 figure 8s, and a small green spotted puffer).

http://www.aquariumfish.net/images_01/g ... r_w180.jpg

One of the figure 8s today is lethargic, barely moving.

I've read that I should raise water temp ... now @ 80F.

I've read that I should add salt to levels of 2-3tablespoons per 5 gal
I've read that I should go up to 86F

Will that kill the rest of the fish?


Thanks!

By the way ... what do you ALL think of this site ...


http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php

Understanding and Treating Ich or White Spot
by Shelli Wittig (aka Fishgal)

Good article. Did you read the part on how to prevent it? Whever you buy new fish they need to be quarantined--ESPECIALLY, bought sight-unseen from an online store.

The puffers you have purchased, don't belong in a community FW tank Please read the GSP article in our library. GSPs belong in high-end brackish water & are extremely aggressive fin-nippers. F8s belong in low-end BW & can get quite nippy also.

As far as the ich, the treatment described here will work for any fish.

Raised heat and salt is a great cure for ich, but you don't mention anything in your post about the fish having ich. Lethargic and not moving isn't an indication of ich, its of something else like perhaps water quality issues. Ich looks like tiny round dots of salt on the fish.

What are your water parameters? Did you cycle the tank? If so, how? What other fish do you have in there? As PP said, puffers aren't good community fish and GSPs and F8s each have very different water requirements so they don't belong together.

Opps, missed that. They may not have ich at all.

Sorry if it seemed like I was rough on ya, it's that you did ask my opinion about that article.