puffer with Ick?!

[jackson-.-]

I have an aquarium that's been setup about 4 weeks. I have 2 blue gouramis and have just bought 2 green pufferfish 3 days ago. As I look at the puffers, I think they have a bad case of Ick! My tank is freshwater with a little bit of salt, and I feed twice aday with flakes.

Should I treat them? What am I doing wrong?
445
446

[kimmers318]

To begin with, how large is your tank and are there any inhabitants other than the puffs and gourami? Second...are you aware of a couple of things.....that looks like a green spotted puffer in the pics.....brackish water will be needed and tankmates usually end up as food for the puff. Your gourami will not survive in brackish water, a little bit of salt is not brackish.
Also....since the tank has been set up for 4 weeks, what method of cycling did you use? If you didn't cycle fishless you are probably just heading towards the end of your cycle and the toxins in the water are very bad for puffers, hence the stress and illness.
What is the reason for adding a little salt to the water.....have you dealt with illness with the gourami? Do some research on use of salt in the aquarium, there are many different opinions as to it's uses, I am of the opinion that it is not necessary except for certain species and some illness. Since I have not had luck using it for even treatment of ICK, I stay away from it altogether.
I would suggest 1 of 2 things....return the puffs, or hurry up and set up the proper size tank for them and get yourself some information on how to cycle that tank to make it safe for your puffs. Biospira has worked well for many people, but I believe there are also issues going from freshwater to brackish in that the bacteria is slightly different and if you don't go slowly enough you will end up losing your cycle/bacteria and cause the puff undue stress.
Do you know if the puff was in fresh or brackish at the store?
Lastly, your puffs aren't likely to survive on a diet of flake, they are carnivores and as such need a meaty diet that consists of crunchy foods like snails, shrimp and clams usually.
Here are links to a couple of articles about the care of your puffs.
http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/puffer/introtogsp.html
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Brackish/T_Nigroviridis/

Good luck

[Cichlid_Man]

Kimmers is right on the money!
The Gouramis will have to come out.
Puffers are brackish and need a specific gravity of about 1.005 - 1.008.

I would use Quick Cure for Ich because the puffers may not respond to salt since they are already in it. Even though it is only a small amount.

You could try to just add the right amount of salt for puffers and raise the temp a bit to 82, and you may get away without the quick cure.

Act quickly!

[Abbeys_Mom]

Sound like you are new to fish. I would stay away from puffers till you have had a chance to get further into the hobby. I know they are cute, but they take a little know how to keep them healthy. I would take all the fish back, read the e-book and cycle the tank. Depending on how big the tank is, I would recommend a species tank (all one type of fish) or a community tank ( a few compatible fish). Either way, read the e-book.

We are not judging you. We all have been where you are. I myself bought a puffer without doing the research. Fortunately (for the puffer) I had the money to purchase him his own tank, filter etc and got the tank set up for him before he suffered from being in freshwater. I think if he had been any older it wouldn't have worked.

[Drumachine09]

Yea, like abbeys mom said, we have all been there at one point in time.

[Lady Hobbs]

The advice from the others left me with little to add other than to get the Quick Cure as well. Since you introduced ICK to the tank, the entire tank may need to be treated. Fish that are stressed out (such as being used to cycle a tank) are susceptible to disease such as Ick, fin rot, etc.

[newt0524]

hey

i think youve got to make a choice between the puffers or the gouramis. they are not compatible on many levels, from type of water, to food, to temperature to ph, etc. which ever you try to please, the other WILL die. sorry to be harsh but its a fact. your only other option is to get rid of one species and quick.

i also don't think that puffers sit on the bottom. any i have ever seen are mid to top level and are pretty much constantly moving. you may have another problem with them there. any opinions kimmers?

it's too bad the LFS (local fish store) didn't inform you about this when you bought them. take it as a lesson to learn about the fish you want prior to getting them and don't take the word of the sales people at the LFS.

newt

[jackson-.-]

Thanks for the info

By the way -- My tank is 46 gal, and the puffers are at the top just as much as the bottom (easier to take pictures when at bottom). Another thing, they seem to eat the flakes well, and I bought some dried shrimp that they really seem to like. About the salt... I add 1TBP per ten gallons.

[kimmers318]

The type of salt you add to freshwater tanks as a "preventative" to disease is not the type of salt needed for brackish species. You are not going to be able to keep puffers and gourami together, there is not a happy medium here to achieve. You will just be fighting a losing battle trying to cure the ick when they won't be able to cohabitate anyway. What starts out as cute little puppy dog faces turns into a hungry carnivore who thinks tankmates are food.
My preferred method of dealing with ick is to bump the tank temp up slowly to around 82 degrees and dose the entire tank with stresscoat at 1 squirt per gal. I dose usually every other day....every day if I see them looking uncomfortable, and do water changes every other day for about 2 weeks. Once I no longer see visible signs of ick I back off on the stress coat but continue with the increased temps and water changes. I have not yet used ick medicine.

[jman]

I have an aquarium that's been setup about 4 weeks. I have 2 blue gouramis and have just bought 2 green pufferfish 3 days ago. As I look at the puffers, I think they have a bad case of Ick! My tank is freshwater with a little bit of salt, and I feed twice aday with flakes.

Should I treat them? What am I doing wrong?
445
446
just sorry to hear dude...

[Abbeys_Mom]

Keep us updated on the situation :) I hope things work out.

[Cichlid_Man]

Hello,
Whatever you decide, you need to decide quickly or the Ich will kill all the fish.

Here it is:

Get the Gouramis out.

Add the RIGHT amount of marine salt that puffers require. (1.005 - 1.008 gravity)

Raise the temp to 82.

Add aquariums salt at the rate of 1 tsp per gallon, OR add Quick cure according to directions.

Stress coat if you want.

[KneeKickLou]

I also just had some troubles with Puffers that I got. I believe mine got a case of Fin Rot. I tried to start to treat them with PimaFix but it was too late. One of my 3 puffs died the day after treatment and I ended up having to take the others back to the store. I had my tank setup just for them with a SG of 1.005 but even with that and cycling the tank with good filter media I was still unable to keep them happy. I wish you the best of luck and hope your puffs end up better then mine did. I do believe I'll be sticking to freshwater for now.

[jackson-.-]

Thanks for the info...

Yesterday I raised the temperature and thought a bit more on the subject. Well today I awoke and found that the puffers had took a few nips at my Gouramis. So after thinking about it, I decided to get rid of them. After all, all I wanted was to have a tropical community freshwater tank. So I hope I made the right dicision, but I do know that I have learned my lesson.

...Here are pics of the two blue/three spot gouramis
466
467(with the nipped fins)