Puffer w/ick?

[moopiespoo]

I am pretty sure my porcupine puffer has ick. About 1 hour ago I moved him to the qt tank to begin hypo. He has a small white blotch on his back and is breathing heavy. I have the lights off for now. My ? is should I add any meds in addition to the hypo and should I try to feed him at all? He hasn't ate since yesterday morning.

 

[irenicus]

What's the blotch like?

 

[beth]

A "blotch" is not ich. Ich looks like salt sprinkled on the fish. How long have you had him? Added any new fish lately? Any ideas about why he is sick now?

 

[moopiespoo]

The blotch was about this big ( ) It seems to be fading and he is getting his color back. I have had him 2 months and foolishly I didn't do a QT. Up until yesterday evening he was acting normal. I haven't added any fish since him. My parameters in the main tank are: AMM 0, No2 0, No3 10, pH 8.2, Sal 1.022, temp 78. The tank mates are 3 large scarlet hermits, volitan lion and Huma trigger. They show no signs of illness. Is it posible he was stung by the lion? TY for taking the time to help.

 

[moopiespoo]

Well he is going downhill again and I really don't think he will make it through the night. I am continuing the hypo I don't know what else to do. He looks as if he is wasting away. I did a search and can't find any disease like this. Anybody have answers?

 

[moopiespoo]

The water parms were identical(to the main tank). I had the sal down to 0.015 and the pH was 8.1. Sadly, I found him dead this morning, and since on closer inspection this doesn't look like ick, could it have been a lionfish sting? This is the only ideas that I have.

 

[karajay]

I used to have a porc. puffer with similiar symptoms. Started out with one white patch over his right fin, then it spread and he had several of these all over. Couldn't find anything that looked like it while researching diseases. He still ate and behaved normally. Per my LFS, I tried dip-away with no success. Followed by some type of anti-biotic treatment (I don't recall what exactly) which killed him in about 1 hr. I wonder if this was the same thing and if so, what is this and how do you treat it?

 

[moopiespoo]

I don't think mine had the same thing as yours. He did have the small patch of white on his back( which I thought was ick) after I stared hypo it went away. I didn't add any meds because I am a little wary of them. Did yours look like it was wasting away especially in the tailfin area?

 

[moopiespoo]

I wanted to bump this because I am very curious what happened to my puffer. If anyone has had a lion sting one of their fish please share. I suspect this is what happened.

 

[moopiespoo]

Thanks for the reply Terry, is there a bad batch of puffers being bred or collected lately? And also what causes this disease? I would like to stock my fish medicine cabnet so could some one type a list of meds to keep on hand. Thanks.

 

[irenicus]

I'd have
Nitrofurazone (Furacyn)
Maracyn II Saltwater (has shelf life)
Keep Beta Glucen for food.
Anything else?

 

[moopiespoo]

Well my lion died last night, from the same disease as the puffer I guess. I have moved my remaining fish (trigger) to QT and the hermits to my 30 gal. What do I need to do to my tank to eradicate the disease. Do I need to get new lr/ls? Clean it? Leave it unocupied for how long?