Treating a Spiny Box Puffer for Ich

[SoonerFan732]

I have been treating a Spiny Box Puffer for ich the last week in a QT. I am using the hyposalinity method (this is the seventh day). I have SG at 1.010. For the first few days the ich seemed to almost completely clear up. The last two days it has gotten much worse than it was at first. He has stopped accepting food.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

 

[luvabunny]

When my puffers had ich, it happened exactly the same way. They would get better for a few days, then it would re-appear worse than before.

I was treating the entire tank with a product called kick-ich by Ruby Reef. I got it at CCA. I'm not going to say it helped, but it certainly didn't hurt anything. Since your fish is in QT, your could safely double the dosage. I would slowly raise the temp to approx 85*. This causes the ich parasite to go into high speed life, and it will reach the end of it's life cycle faster. You cannot kill the parasite while it is on the fish, only when it is free swimming, so the faster you can get it to let go, the faster you can kill it.
Be sure, at high temps, that you run plenty of air bubbles thru the tank. Dissolved O2 will be minimal. Be manic about keeping the water quality high, and do lots of water changes, paying special attention to siphoning the bottom where the dead and dying parasites will be. Get them out of the tank on a very regular basis.
Try to get him to eat anything. Live guppies, live ghost shrimp, anything at all that will entice him to eat. Also, by the 7th day, your ich will be used to the hyposalinity method, so I would go ahead and slowly start to bring it back up.
If this is a fish you've recently gotten, ich is to be expected, but if this is a fish you've had for some time, you need to find out what caused the outbreak. Usually it's some kind of stress- adding a roomie, poor water quality, even strangers coming to visit.
In all honesty, I finally gave up on treating the tank, and figured if they got over it, they'll live and if not, they'll die. I did my best to keep the water quality high, and they eventually got over it, but they never gave up eating either.
Good luck!

 

[dugg]

What are you using to measure your SG? Hypo is very touchy. It needs to be right on the money to work right. It looks as if your SG is probably a little higher than your reading, and the ich babies are still able to survive and search out a host. I would suggest you check your meter, or whatever you are using, and slowly make adjustments.
Here is a link for the specifics on hypo incase you don't already have it.
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html

 

[SoonerFan732]

Thanks for the advice!

The puffer is a newly purchased specimen. He went from the store straight into a 20 gallon QT. The spots showed up the next day at which point I began the hyposalinity treatment. He had been eating very well up until two days ago.

 

[SoonerFan732]

Thanks Dugg! As it turns out the link you mentioned is the one I am following as my procedure.

I am using a refractometer. Here is a link to the model.

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...n=PROD&Product_Code=REFRACT-PA&Category_Code=

It allows for calibration using pure water. I have nothing to compare it against, but I agree that my salinity isn't as low as I think. I began lowering it again last night.

Kevin

 

[SoonerFan732]

I lowered the SG to 1.009 Thursday night/Friday morning. The ich seemed to clear up some through yesterday. Today its coming back as bad as it was before. Is this typical of the Hyposalinity method for Ich?

 

[djc1026]

It depends on how bad the infection was/is. Sometimes what you are seeing is the parasites leaving the body. If you look closely you may find holes in bunches on the fish's body, especially on the head, between and above the eyes, as well as by the gills. Typically, when we notice ich, it's when the parasites are attaching to the body of the fish. However, the reason fish die is because these parasites burrow into the fish and basically eat the insides. Hyposalinity is so uncomfortable, that for a lack of a better analogy, they come out of the fish to in hopes they will find a better place. When they reach the surface and get the full effect, they perrish. If your boxfish has lasted this long, that is probably a good thing and shows its heartiness. I wouldn't go lower than .009, just leave it for another couple of days. Is the fish still eating? Is its breathing noticeably more labored than it has been during the treatment? If yes and no, just keep water quality high start raising the salinity a point or two a day and continue to monitor.

I had an ich breakout shortly after establishing my tank, I lost all of my fish except my ocellaris. I treated with hypo and got nervous when I noticed all of the holes in him. I researched everything I could find on ich and decided that since it was QT, I would use copper because I didn't know how much longer he could was going to make it and thought it was a last ditch effort. I used 1/4 the dose in a completely bare tank. My reasoning for the reduced dosage was that it had already been a week or so and I figured he was extremely weak and copper can be harsh. At any rate, it worked and he is my only original fish from when I first started.

Sorry for the long post.

Dave

 

[SoonerFan732]

Thanks for the information Dave! He eats some days. When I see more white spots on him he tends not to eat and he swims all over the place. When I don't see many spots he seems very calm and eats well.

Kevin