Puffer with ich?

[ken_wied]

Hi all.
Have a dog face puffer. Had ich (or what i thought) and put him in hypo. Is at 1.00 for salinity. I was under impression that ich was a few white spots on body. The puffer is litterally COVERED in them. They are on his eyes, fins, body all over.. Could this be velvet disease? How would i treat this? i almost killed him with a copper treatment because thats what the LFS suggested to treat ich.

thanks

 

[roka64]

Ich will drop off and from those up to 1000 more tomites will form, so, if you saw a few at first and there a lot of them now, it could be ich. Are they salt grain sized? I would raise the salinity to 1.009, that is the suggested salinity. I would also start soaking the frozen food in at least garlic, but I would also soak in zoe and selcon.
Any chance you can get a pic?

 

[melosu58]

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/puffcareinfo.htm

http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/

 

[ken_wied]

Thanks. I have him in a 29g qt tank at this time with the heater, power filter, air driven cycled sponge filter and a power head. I soak the food in VitaChem, and dose the 210g with that also. I am doing very aggressive water changes, but I dont understand how the ICH is continuing to live with low salinity levels. Its been well over 4 weeks in that QT tank, and I dont want to do chemicals with him. Ill try for a pic. My camera is dead and all i have right now is my phone camera. But, the spots are slightly larger than salt.

 

[roka64]

I would also soak in garlic guard, I have read it helps to boost their immune systems.
Are you using a refractometer to measure the salinity?
What is your salinity in the QT?

 

[ken_wied]

I will pick up some garlic guard. I use a floating hydrometer. I will be getting a refractometer soon. Salinity in QT is 1.03 as of today. Im getting it up to 1.09 like was suggested.

 

[roka64]

From my experience, my hydrometer read 1.022 once I got the refractometer, my real reading was 1.027.

 

[ken_wied]

Ok, so I got a refractometer, and salinity has been kept at 1.09. Ich has not subsided. The LFS even gave me another medication that did not contain copper. Left it in longer than the recommended time. Puffer looked extremely stressed. Did the 25% H20 change and started carbon again. Nothing worked. Now, a friend is saying a Freshwater Dip for about 2-3 minutes. He said it will be hard on the fish, but will kill whatever is on his body.
Any thoughts??? It kills me to see him like this!!!
TIA
Ken

 

[melosu58]

IME the FW dip will further stress him out and probably kill him. I have never seen a FW dip not stress a fish out and have disasterous results. JMO

 

[ken_wied]

Thanks. Im out of ideas.

 

[roka64]

Can you get a pic? This might be something other than ich, if hyposalinity isn't working.

 

[ken_wied]

my camera is broken at the moment. Here is a pic of what it looks like, just picture it on a Dogface puffer.

http://www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseases/ich/ich.gif

another pic
http://cichlidresearch.com/gifs/disease/Astatheros_longimanus_with_ich_DSC_9878.jpg

 

[melosu58]

Yes that is ich. How long did you do Hypo?

 

[ken_wied]

Hypo was about 4 weeks. It was good for about 3 weeks, the wham... re-infestation. Im out of ideas, adn so is my LFS. they are the ones that also suggested f/w dips. But, i dont know.

 

[melosu58]

Are you sure you did hypo with the refractometer at 1.009 for 4 weeks? Sorry for all the questions but I`m trying to trouble shoot.

 

[ken_wied]

yes. there was one weekend where i was out of town, and the tank had evaporated some, and it was like that for about 2 days. could that have re-triggered it?

 

[melosu58]

I will pick up some garlic guard. I use a floating hydrometer. I will be getting a refractometer soon. Salinity in QT is 1.03 as of today. Im getting it up to 1.09 like was suggested.

This is what you said on April the 7th. You need to do the QT thing with a refractometer and I would say for about 6 weeks. With the hydrometer there is no guarantee you were at 1.009. My suggestion would be to drop the salinity using the refractometer and treat for 6 weeks. You`ll need to keep the main fishless for 8 weeks anyway to break the life cycle of the parasite. I hope all goes well. Have you tried that puffer forum that I gave you the link to?

 

[ken_wied]

Thanks. I did try that forum, and there were alot of good tips on there specific for puffers. I will give it another shot. Ill keep all updated. Thanks for the help.

 

[roka64]

I agree, if you aren't using a refractometer, you may not be at .009. My hydro read .022 and the refracto read .027.

 

[ken_wied]

Sooooo, i kept the puffer in the normal salinity tank, i left for the weekend and there were no spots, he was eating food soaked in garlic, zoe and selcon. I had someone there who knows about fish, and I came home on Sunday nite and he was dead. Thanks all for your good advice. Hopefully this problem will be avoided in the future. A very hard lesson learned about not qt ing.

ken