Sick Puffer

[Angela Short]

copper willk ill the same things the hypo will giving you the same ammonia spike and it is hard to keep at theraputic levels with substraite in the tank. The CC will absorbe the copper and make it hard to keep right. I would leave it at 1.013 for a day or so to let things level off then drop it on down. You must have had a ton of pods/worms in the Crushed coral to cause such a big spike so fast. Did you have ammonia before this?
Also if you are already showing white spots on the fish in the display and you just got the puffer this week you already had ICK in the tank to be showing the white salt look. It doesn't happen overnight. And you start counting the 4-6 weeks after the last spot has fallen off because hypo only kills the free swimming stages.

You mentioned you had mushrooms, they will need a light source to survive but they will not live in hypo and can infect any other fish they are put in with so you will need to rig up a temporary light over them if you want them to survive.

 

[d_hartke]

[No message]

 

[d_hartke]

The puffer was in the tank for 10 days. My LFS also said that droping the salinity will not cure the problem along. Angela said above that it only kills the "free swimming stage" what does this mean?

 

[hcahan]

The bug grows in little cysts on the fish which will then drop off and float in the water-"free swimming stage". Soon they land in the sand bed and multiple waiting until the fish lay down at night and then reattach in multiples. If you can try to use a QT tank or at least gie the main tank a 4 week fish free period to kill off the bug before restocking. Good luck, sorry you lost the puffer. They are beautiful animals.

 

[d_hartke]

I dont know what gie means. I don't have a place to put the fish while I treat the tank, so I need to treat the tank and fish at once. I started the Rx•P Marine today. I added 21 drops of garlic last night. I also add 3 or 4 drops of garlic in the food and feed 3 times a day.

 

[d_hartke]

The salinity is 1.011. The ph is good and so is the amonia leval. I added Rx-P, garlic and prime. Rx-P is a parasite treatment for fish. The problem is, the fish are getting more white spots on them. Why???????
I have been reading some of the old threads. I was told to keep the temp lower; like 74 or 75. I read that higher is better; like 81 or 82. My tank is 75 now. It was 80 a few days ago.

 

[hansonfam]

If you up the temp it speeds up the life cycle of the ich. The fish will look worse before they get better. They probably just had another wave of parasites attach to them.
The temp is up to you. Just don't get it any higher than about 80


Keep up the garlic and get some viatmins for them to add to the food as we'll.

Lisa

 

[d_hartke]

Thanks Lisa. I just read Cryptocaryon irritans, aka Ich. A collection of good reading and treatment. That was very helpful. I would recommend to anyone reading this with the same problem to read that. How about the PH buffer? Can you overdo that?

 

[Angela Short]

Yes, you need to actually test the PH Good luck!