The Puffer Forum

I picked up 2 SAPs on monday and put them in quarantine, temp 28 deg. Today when I got in from work one of them had 2 little white spots on it and neither of them would eat. They are small - less than an inch.

Is this ick? and how should i treat it? I read the article in the library, should I just add normal table salt?

Water parameters are all perfect.

Thanks

If they look like salt grains, that would be ich. Table salt is fine.

thanks Boxermom. I also have white spot treatment and flubenol 15, should I be adding either of them? Or any other treatment for that matter?

We don't have much salt in the house so I've got to go and buy some today, anything that I should avoid due to chemicals being added etc?

thanks

Nope, no need to add anything else when treating ich, and chemicals like white spot treatments tend to do more harm than good, especially with sensitive fish like puffers. Just heat and salt is all you need. Make sure you keep the treatment up for a minimum of 2 weeks after you've seen the last spot on the fish.

As far as salt, any kind of salt will do. Table, rock, marine, aquarium, etc.

Well the white spot seems to have gone without any treatment, maybe they never had it in the first place

they are both feeding well, taking both little snails and blood worms! I will try and get some pictures soon!

Keep an eye out for it, it can live in the gills, unseen, for a long time.

ok, thanks for the tip, will keep my eyes open.

you were right the white spot came back a few days after my last post. I have been doing water changes every 3rd day, upped this to every other day now. They still have white spot, any ideas what I could try or still keep doing the same?

Ive been adding salt and the temp is up as per the article in the help sections.

Thanks

Salt and temp will work, just gotta give it time. Keep the treatment up for a minimum of 2 weeks after the last time you see spots on the fish in order to be sure they're gone. They can only be killed in their free-floating stage, they're immune as long as they are attached to the fish (not immune actually but have a hard shell that nothing really penetrates).

unfortunately the smaller one of the 2 died last night. It hadnt been eating for a few days so I thought it might be on its last legs. The other one dosent seem to have many spots on it and is much bigger and stronger and has noticeably grown since id have him.

hopefully it will be ok for him