I have a 14 inch fahaka that is pretty sick. Little bit of history. I have a wolf fish that I have been bouncing around a little bit. He has always been extremely healthy. THe first two tanks he was in everyone but him came down with ich. I just quartinted him for two weeks and put him in my puffer tank about three days ago. Don't worry there is a very heavy divider in the tank and the wolf's tank will be done cycling soon. The next day my puffer started getting little fine white spots. It does not look like ich that I am used to and does not quite look like the one time I saw velvet dz. I started treating the tank with salt and coppersafe (the only thing I could get my hands on) Now he is fully covered in these things and his mucus is starting to string. He was been lying low lately, yesterday he was completley active. He also stoped eating. He is in a 175g 7 pH, no ammonia, no nitrite. Any suggestions? I will try put pics up later.
Puffer Help!!
- Thread starter fishaddiction
- Start date
A fish can have ich with no visible signs. Also any water that moves, or nets that are shared, between tanks can transfer ich.
Fahaka puffers can tolerate 82-85 degrees pretty easy when they are sick (in my experience with them). At these higher temps the ich will go through its life cyle very fast and during it's free swimming stage it will be killed by your salt, coppersafe and the lack of oxygen. At those levels the low disolved oxygen level makes it hard for ich to live. Do frequent water changes, about %15 everyday untill resolved. Make sure to vaccum the substrate to get ich out of there.
Do not medicate to heavily, and keep in mind that your fish is scaleless which makes it more suseptable to medication side effects.
Fahaka puffers can tolerate 82-85 degrees pretty easy when they are sick (in my experience with them). At these higher temps the ich will go through its life cyle very fast and during it's free swimming stage it will be killed by your salt, coppersafe and the lack of oxygen. At those levels the low disolved oxygen level makes it hard for ich to live. Do frequent water changes, about %15 everyday untill resolved. Make sure to vaccum the substrate to get ich out of there.
Do not medicate to heavily, and keep in mind that your fish is scaleless which makes it more suseptable to medication side effects.
looks like ich to me. i would change the water to get the coppersafe out (as much as you can) and just use salt and temp.
Do you know what your KH is? How often do you do water changes? Your fahaka looks like it is suffering from an advanced stage of some protozoan parasite, as it is sloughing off slime in an effort to shed the parasites, but that appearance can also indicate pH burn. Your pH may be 7.0, but a high KH will keep it there. Too low of KH often leads to bouncing pH.
Either way, increasing your dissolved oxygen is crucial. At higher temps most protozoan parasites have an abbreviated/sped-up life cycle, spending less time feeding on the fish and having less survival time as free-swimmers. High heat = 86 degrees F or better. At that temp, dissolved oxygen (DO) is MUCH lower than normal. Especially with a large fish it is paramount to keep the oxygen level up. If you treat with high heat please us airstones and venturi attachments to keep the DO as high as possible. Low oxygen content will not kill the theronts (free swimming parasites) ... but it can kill your puffer. Be aware that as bad as the outside of your fahaka looks his gills are infected even worse, costing him valuable tissue and oxygen.
If your KH is nice and high, in all likelihood you are dealing with protozoans. Several non-copper meds are effective (Quick Cure, Rid-Ich, etc.) but use with care on severely stressed fish like yours. Half-doses may be safest at this point. As mentioned earlier, daily (or more often!) vaccumming of the substrate will help reduce theront #s without medicating.
IMO, Coppersafe sucks. The copper used in this medicine does not hold up in solution AT ALL, and without regular testing to see what level of copper you have redosing can be Russian roulette for your fish. Low pH + copper = extreme toxicity as well. Good luck, healthy puffers rarely succumb to parasite issues. But it sure will look ugly for a while!
Either way, increasing your dissolved oxygen is crucial. At higher temps most protozoan parasites have an abbreviated/sped-up life cycle, spending less time feeding on the fish and having less survival time as free-swimmers. High heat = 86 degrees F or better. At that temp, dissolved oxygen (DO) is MUCH lower than normal. Especially with a large fish it is paramount to keep the oxygen level up. If you treat with high heat please us airstones and venturi attachments to keep the DO as high as possible. Low oxygen content will not kill the theronts (free swimming parasites) ... but it can kill your puffer. Be aware that as bad as the outside of your fahaka looks his gills are infected even worse, costing him valuable tissue and oxygen.
If your KH is nice and high, in all likelihood you are dealing with protozoans. Several non-copper meds are effective (Quick Cure, Rid-Ich, etc.) but use with care on severely stressed fish like yours. Half-doses may be safest at this point. As mentioned earlier, daily (or more often!) vaccumming of the substrate will help reduce theront #s without medicating.
IMO, Coppersafe sucks. The copper used in this medicine does not hold up in solution AT ALL, and without regular testing to see what level of copper you have redosing can be Russian roulette for your fish. Low pH + copper = extreme toxicity as well. Good luck, healthy puffers rarely succumb to parasite issues. But it sure will look ugly for a while!
I do not have a KH test kit. I tested the pH and it is right about 7.0. The tank gets weekly 40% water changes. I just added another power head to the tank. I have two heaters on the tank. Right now with both of them cranked up the tank is only approaching 80. Normally the tank is kept about 73 without fluctations. Do not know if the heaters are having a hard time due to a cold room or not. Not sure if this was a hit at me or not, luck, healthy puffers rarely succumb to parasite issues" but this fish is very well cared for and I am very surprised by all if this. IF it is not a hit at me I apoligize for taking it that way, I tend to be a little bit of a hot head.
Out of curiosity at what pH do they get burns?
Out of curiosity at what pH do they get burns?
sorry but i find it pretty hard to go along with your fahaka being well taken care of when the temp is only 73 normally and your heaters can barelly get up to 80- which should be average. youve put a cooper med in the tank, and the tank obviously has high nitrates, hence your extreme case of algea. how can you say hes well taken care of when you cant even do a complete water test?
go ahead and get mad at me, im not trying to take cheap shots at ya but maybe you can read what i typed and see where theres room for improvement, which might keep your fahaka healthy.
go ahead and get mad at me, im not trying to take cheap shots at ya but maybe you can read what i typed and see where theres room for improvement, which might keep your fahaka healthy.
fishaddiction;1486412; said:
Sorry, I wasn't taking a shot at you. Just mentioning that large healthy puffers can easily rebound from parasite infections. IMO, using KH ranges is often a better way of determining if water changes are being done in the proper amounts than nitrate readings. If your KH is too low, pH can (and will) "swing" from low to high and back - any variation in pH of more than a few decimals is extremely stressful to fish. Most fish can easily acclimate to graduated change, so there is not a particular pH that burns them. Rather it is the rapid jumping from one reading to another that can burn them. Particularly with large carnivorous fish KH can be depleted rapidly (due to large amounts of proteinaceous wastes), thus my inquiry.
80 degrees is not high enough to interrupt the life cycle of most protozoan parasites. You may be better off moving the puffer to a dedicated, cycled quarantine tank. If that is not an option (admittedly tough with a 14" fahaka!), look into getting higher wattage heaters in combination with insulating the sides/bottom of the tank.
Good luck, and remember to keep up daily water changes until this is cleared.
Any visible improvement yet?And the lack of test kits is hardly a reflection of one's skills. I myself don't keep a full assortment. High nitrates do not always = lots of algae. High phosphates DO. I fail to see how dmopar's post will help resolve fishaddiction's fahaka's problem. Do let's keep on topic.
