The Puffer Forum

ok, crisis time - need some suggestion folks!

Have two juvenile figure 8s in a 25l tank (approx. 7gallon, want to move to larger tank as soon as space allows), tank is several months old and all water paparemters are fine (nil ammonia, nitrite etc, matrate levels very low). The tank is heavily planted with plenty of hiding places for the two fish, who are the only inhabitants...

Have now had them for about 4 weeks, and very quickly one of the puffers showed classic signs of ich infection, so followed advice and raised tank to 82 degrees (28 celcius for us brits!), added aquarium salt at dose advised on pack and do regular water changes (approx 10% ever 2-3 days to maintain optimum water quality). He seemed to be improving but literally overnight became listless and has lost all itnerest in everything - I have a bad feeling I'm going to lose him so have started to treat with a waterlife product (protozin), designed to get rid of Ich, but any advice from anyone else on the forum would be very much appreciated!! I've fallen in love with these little fish as has my partner, and neither of us want to lose him! The other fish is absolutely fine, but obviously I don't want it to contractthe infection....

My immediate question is have you read the profile on these in the pufferpedia? They should be in in brackish water and using marine salt to achieve this is the key to getting it right, aquarium salt is no good at all. I would think that your immediate concern after the treatmen is sourcing a bigger tank.

Can you answer the question posted at the top of the hospital forum in red please and we can help you more

Thanks - yes the plan is to get a much larger tank in the next few weeks, I was given very poor advice by the supposed experts at the suppliers..

Marine salt has been got and is to be added this evening - the values for water parameters are 0 for ammonia and nitrite, nitrate just reads "low" (no actualy values on the testing kit), salinity uncertain but as it appears aquarium salt isn't right I'd expect negligable. Unfortunately, altho researching these fish in books/online for months before getting them, the info is to say to least contradictory, hence my relief in finding this forum!

Tank size - approx. 7g
feeding - bloodworm, daphnia, brine shrimp, snails. Fed snails weekly, remaining foods fed daily but alternating which, two small meals per day (any remaining food is syphoned out and a gravel clean performed every 2-3 days). As I said, there's only these two juveniles fig8s in the tank, nothing else other than plants/rocks
Water changes - 10% every 2-3 days. All water is tap water treated with a a water conditioner to remove all chlorine/chloramines/heavy metals (I live in a hard water area), also protects slime coat
Nothing has been changed in the tank since the addition of the fish
The tank was cycled for 2 weeks prior to addition of the fish, initially fishless to get temp to settle down then a tank cycling product (not stress zyme) added to add nitrifying bacteria etc, and to provide food for the bacteria to allow them to grow and colonise filter.
Also added some filter media from a disease free, mature tank to help get the process along nicely.

Tank was matured prior to addition of fish, fish added once nitrite/ammonia read 0 but nitrates started to be detected, indicating that the filter was ready.

Thanks

Forget the marine salt for now, this is only going to complicate the situation at this stage.

First you need to get rid of the ich. Normal table salt and heat will do this, raise the temp and add salt, lots of water changes and in a few weeks hopefully you should be rid of ich. Ensure any salt is fully dissolved in water before it is put in the tank.

There is an article on treating freshwater ich in the library.

Once the ich has gone you can then concentrate on getting the brackish settings right.

Thanks all, will do fingers crossed all works out well for the little guys, makes me smile how attached we get to them so quickly!