I have a sick Arothron stellatus puffer fish. It looks like ick. his eyes are glazed over. I got him less than a week ago and he was in a bucket for almost a day. The guy I got it from took down his tank and had nothing to do with him. If I give him a garlic bath, how does it work? Do I use the salt water that is in the tank? How many drops? Is it better to use a freshwater bath?
Sick Puffer
- Thread starter d_hartke
- Start date
arizona tech
New member
how bad is the ick? could you do hyposalinty on the tank the puffer is in, a freshwater bath is very stressful ph and temp need to be the same as the main tank dip for 3-5 minutes, i have did it and it did not work at all
Hey there.
Garlic bath???? Where the heck did you hear that from????
No garlic baths.
You need to hospital tank that pour guy and treat him asap or it is going to be to late. Any thing will work for a hospital tank. A rubbermaid and a hang on back filter. Just be prepared to do lots of water changes and get some ammo-guard to knock down the ammonia.
Hypo the water to 1.009. Do it slowly over a couple days. And when you transfer him do a quick freshwater bath. Make sure the water is the same temp and ph as the display water you are taking it out of.It will not get rid of the ick but will relive some of the discomfort of it. Feed all his food soaked in Garlic. This is where the garlic comes in. You can also soak the food in selcon or another vitamin supplement as we'll. The viatmins and the garlic will help build his immune system back up
Good luck
Lisa
Garlic bath???? Where the heck did you hear that from????
No garlic baths.
You need to hospital tank that pour guy and treat him asap or it is going to be to late. Any thing will work for a hospital tank. A rubbermaid and a hang on back filter. Just be prepared to do lots of water changes and get some ammo-guard to knock down the ammonia.
Hypo the water to 1.009. Do it slowly over a couple days. And when you transfer him do a quick freshwater bath. Make sure the water is the same temp and ph as the display water you are taking it out of.It will not get rid of the ick but will relive some of the discomfort of it. Feed all his food soaked in Garlic. This is where the garlic comes in. You can also soak the food in selcon or another vitamin supplement as we'll. The viatmins and the garlic will help build his immune system back up
Good luck
Lisa
arizona tech
New member
the salt salinty is regurally 1.020-1.026 you reduce the salinty to 1.009 buy measuring with a refractometer, go up 3 spots wher it says crypto irritants aka ick a good collection of reading and treatment click on that and go to hyposalinty
Let me see if I have all this straight before I do anything. Sorry for this. Get a 5 gal bucket of water with salinity of 1.009 and ph of around 8.3. Put him in there for a day and then before I put him back in the tank, put him in freshwater for about 4 minutes.What will happen if I put him in a freshwater bath now?
arizona tech
New member
a freshwater bath is just that fresh reverse osmoisis water no salty and in a 5 gallon bucket with ph buffer water has a ph of 7- and saltwater is between 7.8-8.2 net the puffer and put him in the bucket of freshwater for 3-5 minutes and keep a close eye on him if he is stressed take him out fast, and warm the bucket water to match the tank water
Ok, I put him in a freshwater bath for about 4 minutes. The PH was 8.4 and water temp was the same as my tank. Now I am going to slowly reduse the salinity to 1.009 over the next couple of days. Leave it there for about 4 weeks, and then slowly bring it back up. Does this sound right?
Angela Short
New member
You will have die off of all the pods and worms in the live rock if you do hypo on the main tank and cause a big ammonia spike. It looks like you have a huge fish load also so it will be hard to get a QT big enouph for all them anyways.
Why are you running a chiller on a FOWLR anyways like your sig says?
You could maybe take out some of the live rock and house it in a rubbermaid with some circulation to save the life in it as it will not live in hyposalinity. But you need some form of biofilteration. Do you have sand in the tank? It will probably have enouph biological filtering capability without the live rock to keep ammonia in check if you do have sand but you still will probably have to do a few water changes. It also houses many pods and stuff that will die making a ammonia spike. And watch the PH it drops fast dropping the SG but tends to stabalize when you get it in hypo for a few days. You have to buffer the water as you are lowering it though. Tap has a much lower PH than the desired 8.3 range.
Why are you running a chiller on a FOWLR anyways like your sig says?
You could maybe take out some of the live rock and house it in a rubbermaid with some circulation to save the life in it as it will not live in hyposalinity. But you need some form of biofilteration. Do you have sand in the tank? It will probably have enouph biological filtering capability without the live rock to keep ammonia in check if you do have sand but you still will probably have to do a few water changes. It also houses many pods and stuff that will die making a ammonia spike. And watch the PH it drops fast dropping the SG but tends to stabalize when you get it in hypo for a few days. You have to buffer the water as you are lowering it though. Tap has a much lower PH than the desired 8.3 range.
The problem with the freshwater bath is it is not curing the ich it is just giving the fish relief. Ich goes through a life cycle. And you tank is full of ich. It will drop of the fish into your sand and then come back 10 fold. So the only thing you can do is either hospital them all or take the chance and hypo your tank. Just be aware that your ammonia is going to go up.
Lisa
Lisa
Angela Short
New member
A chiller in a fowler just seems like a ton of wasted money, on the chiller and the electricity to run it! If this is not a reef then where are you getting a bunch of heat to need a chiller that is unless you are running 400 watt MH's just to look at your fish :lol: Also a unneeded expence.... but this thread is about your problem with the fish. I am surprised you have been in the saltwater hobby 6 years and never had to deal with ICK before. There is a ton of great reading on the life cycle of ICK in this forum in the stickys above. That should sum it up and answere the questions of how to do hypo and why, length, SG and all. Post any more questions you may have and I will try to help 
Yes, as a matter of fact there is 400 watts. I bought the tank used and it came with the lights. Why buy new lights. Everything is used including the chiller.
Problem- how often should I change the water in a 5 gallon bucket? Should I use a UV light on it? I kinked the hose of a 320 GPH hose that goes through my UV to reduce the water flow. Is it better to just not have any water flow in the bucket? Is it better to have more water flow in the bucket? I would say the water flow now is 50-100 GPH.
Problem- how often should I change the water in a 5 gallon bucket? Should I use a UV light on it? I kinked the hose of a 320 GPH hose that goes through my UV to reduce the water flow. Is it better to just not have any water flow in the bucket? Is it better to have more water flow in the bucket? I would say the water flow now is 50-100 GPH.
Angela Short
New member
That just seems like a lot of uneeded equipment is all I am saying, not to mention jacking your power bill 
If you plan on staying FOWLER you could sell off the overkill and buy some smaller lights, have some $ left over and save money on the light bill all at once. Just a thought.
There is no way you can do hypo on a fish in a 5 gallon bucket if it has any size on it at all. You can get a larger rubbermaid (20 gallonish) to do the one fish in but if you have had the puffer in the display at all he more than likely has infected the whole tank. I would opt to hypo the tank in your situation.
If you plan on staying FOWLER you could sell off the overkill and buy some smaller lights, have some $ left over and save money on the light bill all at once. Just a thought.There is no way you can do hypo on a fish in a 5 gallon bucket if it has any size on it at all. You can get a larger rubbermaid (20 gallonish) to do the one fish in but if you have had the puffer in the display at all he more than likely has infected the whole tank. I would opt to hypo the tank in your situation.
Angela Short
New member
I am not stalking you if you noticed I replyed to all your posts in other forums, I just hit your search icon to see where all you had posted to kinda see where you were at with your big tank.
OK 1st, How long has the 210 been up and running? Does it have sand/substraite? You need something for biological filteration before you remove all the rock.
Yes you should take out all or most of the rock if you have sand and put it in a bucket/rubbermaid with a power head with the tanks water so the hypo will not kill off all the critters hiding in it.
You can put fake plants decorations or just PVC pipes in there for the fish to have somewhere to hide in away from each other. Especially if you have any bullies.
Next take out quite a bit of the water, I would start with 50 gallons on your size system as it takes a TON of fresh water to drop the salinity to 1.009. This HAS to be measured with a refractometer so if you don't have one, get one ASAP. Add FW in and keep a check on PH because PH will plumet when you drop the salinity. And buffer accordingly.
You can drop the tank right into hypo if you like as long as you keep up with the PH drop. Or you can do it over a few days so maybe the bio filter can try to keep up with the die-off of the things you can't see hiding in the pumps/cracks/sand and all.
Keep the SG at 1.009 for a minimum of 4 weeks 6 is better and raise the SG up slowley over a week by replacing top off water with salt water is a way I do it. Takes longer but it will get you there eventually, especially if you mix the top off strong.
The life cycle of ick will be halted with this methode but you must keep the SG at 1.009 to be effective. And you should really plan a QT (cycled) for all new fish you plan on getting as to not introduce another disease to the tank. I am dealing with velvet because I got lazy on my QT procedure and could loose hundreds of dollars worth of fish over it. Just lost 2 so far. It pays to QT!
After its all said and done put the live rock back in. It will also be ICK free because it has had no fish for it to host on for the same 4-6 weeks.
Also if you have macroalge in the fuge/sump it will have to come out. LMK if you have any more ?'s...
OK 1st, How long has the 210 been up and running? Does it have sand/substraite? You need something for biological filteration before you remove all the rock.
Yes you should take out all or most of the rock if you have sand and put it in a bucket/rubbermaid with a power head with the tanks water so the hypo will not kill off all the critters hiding in it.
You can put fake plants decorations or just PVC pipes in there for the fish to have somewhere to hide in away from each other. Especially if you have any bullies.
Next take out quite a bit of the water, I would start with 50 gallons on your size system as it takes a TON of fresh water to drop the salinity to 1.009. This HAS to be measured with a refractometer so if you don't have one, get one ASAP. Add FW in and keep a check on PH because PH will plumet when you drop the salinity. And buffer accordingly.
You can drop the tank right into hypo if you like as long as you keep up with the PH drop. Or you can do it over a few days so maybe the bio filter can try to keep up with the die-off of the things you can't see hiding in the pumps/cracks/sand and all.
Keep the SG at 1.009 for a minimum of 4 weeks 6 is better and raise the SG up slowley over a week by replacing top off water with salt water is a way I do it. Takes longer but it will get you there eventually, especially if you mix the top off strong.
The life cycle of ick will be halted with this methode but you must keep the SG at 1.009 to be effective. And you should really plan a QT (cycled) for all new fish you plan on getting as to not introduce another disease to the tank. I am dealing with velvet because I got lazy on my QT procedure and could loose hundreds of dollars worth of fish over it. Just lost 2 so far
. It pays to QT!After its all said and done put the live rock back in. It will also be ICK free because it has had no fish for it to host on for the same 4-6 weeks.
Also if you have macroalge in the fuge/sump it will have to come out. LMK if you have any more ?'s...
