please help my puffer!!

[raynadana1]

my porcupine puffer came down with ich, so i treated him with instant ocean's life shield, and thought it had worked, the ich came back with a vengence. now he's in qt being treated again, and i noticed some spots on his tail where the scales/points? are coming off, tail rot? he's my little baby and dont want to lose him! help!!!

 

[Jimbo7]

Post a complete work up of levels and exactly what you have done up until this point. Also post a picture of him if you can so we can make sure its ich.

 

[melosu58]

Alot of folks think that when the parasite drops off that it is gone. It just drops to the bottom and over 200 tomites come from each parasite. That`s why you see it come back with a vengence. The med you used does nothing to the parasite. Copper is too rough on scaleless fish so I would consider QT and treat with hypo salinity.

 

[raynadana1]

puffer

holy crap, no wonder he's so miserable!
just did a water test- no2- 1.0 no3- 20 hirange ph- 7.6 amonia- 2.0!! i changed 25 percent of the water with fresh water with a dechlorinator to lower the salinity, now it's at 1.023
i'm gonna check all the levels again in 30 min. then change more water as needed. how low can the salinity be dropped? also what about the tail rot???

 

[mrg02d]

holy crap, no wonder he's so miserable!
just did a water test- no2- 1.0 no3- 20 hirange ph- 7.6 amonia- 2.0!! i changed 25 percent of the water with fresh water with a dechlorinator to lower the salinity, now it's at 1.023
i'm gonna check all the levels again in 30 min. then change more water as needed. how low can the salinity be dropped? also what about the tail rot???

Whoa...WHy are the those levels that high in his QT tank? How long has he been in there?
Please explain his QT setup. (filtration, medicine use history, ect)
You need to be doing a PWC twice a day to make sure that NO ammonia is present. You can drop the salinity down to 1.009 over the course of the day, but youll need to be using a refractometer to do this.
Matt

 

[Jimbo7]

That much ammonia is enough to kill him really quick. You need to get all those levels in check with lots of water changes. You should have a cycled sponge filter on hand or something for a QT tank to process ammonia and nitrite so you dont have to do so many water changes.

 

[melosu58]

Lots of 33% PWC`s to lower the ammonia and nitrites. Both are in the lethal range. Did you cycle your tank?

 

[Jimbo7]

Its in a QT tank right now.

 

[raynadana1]

puffer

ok, new water specs- amonia down to .50 no2 down to .50 no3 down to .10. just changed another 10% of water with fresh.
what is a refractometer? i have a floating hydrometer, is that similar? he seems to be calming down, should i put the carbon filter back in? it's been out for treatment, but should it be in when doing hyposalinity?

 

[mrg02d]

ok, new water specs- amonia down to .50 no2 down to .50 no3 down to .10. just changed another 10% of water with fresh.
what is a refractometer? i have a floating hydrometer, is that similar? he seems to be calming down, should i put the carbon filter back in? it's been out for treatment, but should it be in when doing hyposalinity?

Those numbers are better, but still dangerous. They need to be zero. You Need to be doing larger PWC than 10%. Keep doing them until you have reached 100%.

A hydrometer is not similar to a refractometer. You cannot do hyposalinity treatment with a hydrometer because they do not have the accuracy required. You need to get a hold of a refractometer. Maybe you have a frendly LFS nearby?

Carbon just removes chemicals from the water so unless it is your source of nitrifying bacteria or you are still removing medicine fromt he water, id remove it.

Matt

 

[Innovator]

What size is the QT and what kind of filtration is set up? Depending on the size of the fish and tank, the more aggressive you need to be with water changes. To be honest, routine 50% water changes daily are recommended whether the params. are high or not. You can treat puffers quite readily with copper (Cupramine), but you just need to be more careful with dosages. Hyposalinity is the safest way, but also takes the longest which may or may not be in your favor. If you choose to use chemicals be sure that you adjust dosages according to water change %'s.