Mcmcoker
Aquarium Advice Activist
Hi, I apologize in advance for the long post but I'm new to this and wanted to make sure I gave as much detail as possible. I have a 36 gallon fowlr that is about 3 months old now. I bought a porcupine puffer about 3 weeks ago. He seemed very happy at the store however the salesmen did express concern because he hadn't seen him eat yet but we did feed him at the store and he ate so I bought him. In the first 24 hours he was very active but the next he became very lethargic, just staying behind the down tube for the filter rarely moving and not eating the flake food the salesmen sold me. That didn't surprise me after I did some research and discovered that wasn't even close to what he should be eating. I went back to the fish store a few days later and got some silversides which he went for straight away. After about a week of having him home I began to notice a few small white spots on his fins. After extensive research I determined that he had ich. After much debate on wether to try hypo or copper I choose a copper treatment. I don't have a qt or the means to set one up. The treatment that I bought is called ich-x and claims to be reef safe so the salesmen said it wouldn't kill my lr. The salesmen said that is was a good product and they have had rave reviews about it. I began treatment. The directions were to use 5ml per 10 gal. every day doing a 20% water change at treatment time which I did for 3 days. After the third day the puffer actually looked like it was getting worse. The product said that as a dip you could dose at a rate of 10ml per gallon for no more than 30mins. In fear that I was losing my fish I decided to try this aggressive step by dipping him along with my other 3 damsils in 2 gal. of freshly made saltwater with 17ml of the medication for 20 mins. Then returned them to the tank. Also based on advice from my lfs I had be pressing garlic oil on to their food. The next morning I discovered that I had lost one of the damsils and my puffer looked much much worse. The spots on his fins had multiplied he now had spots on his skin and his eyes are now cloudy. I can only infer that this may not be ich. I cleaned the entire tank including the filter and did a 80% water change and stopped the ich-x treatment. It has been over 2 weeks since the first spots were seen. He is still covered in small white spots and still has cloudy eyes but his appetite is just fine and he is not as lethargic as he was during and before the treatment. Can anyone shed some light on what this could be. I have spent hours online reading about marine fish diseases and can't figure it out. He has no redness anywhere, no rapid breathing, his fins are fully intacted, aside from the cloudiness his eyes are fine and the other two damsils in the tank appear to be happy and healthy. Thank you for any help
