Hello,
I have a juvenile stars and stripes puffer, I got him back in December when he was less than an inch, he's now just under 3 inches. I kept him quarantined (not medicated) until the past month. During this time, he showed no symptoms of any disease, he ate great and was very active. I am in the process of setting up a 220g for him (already have the tank, stand, pumps, sump, etc, just haven't filled it yet - covid slowed me down) and recently moved him to a 40g system so he had more space in the mean time, here's my mistake.. I bought some live rock from my LFS and put it into the 40g system, did a quick 4 day cycle with ammonia chloride, a bottle of biospira and dosed with Pristine and Stability, I also put all of the cycled media from his qt in there with him (I wasn't medicating, so I kept some rocks with him).. It was fully cycled, nitrate present, 0 ammonia/nitrite.
The LR i purchased must have had ich on it, because after about 2-3 weeks I noticed spots on his fins.. He started flashing and scratching on rocks as of last Friday. I do not want to treat with copper, bc he's a puffer and TTM seems like soo much work and I don't have an extra tank on hand for this. To help him, I decided to go hypo in his current system (which yes, does have rocks and sand). I know the possible impacts that some ich may go dormant in the sand live on once I raise the salinity, but I want to get him healthy again..
Over the past 24 hours, I have lowered the salinity to 1.015 from 1.025 by doing 2-5g water changes (I know i need to get it to 1.008 - 1.010). I wait at least 4 hours between changes to do it slowly.. Well, he's becoming very lethargic, wedging himself into rocks and not swimming about. He also has a few scratches on him from flashing..
Attached are a couple recent pics.. I got him to come out by enticing him with some food (i always soak food in Vitachem, Selcon and brightwell amino acids..this time I also added some kent marine garlic extract), then he went back to the rocks after eating a piece. Can someone please confirm that this is ich and not something else?
On hand, I have a 20g long tank that is cycled and could move him to.. I also have cupramine, Safety Stop rapid quarantine (formalin and methylene blue) and various other meds - prazipro, maracyn, metroplex, kanaplex, focus and general cure.. Am I doing the right thing by going hypo and treating for ich or is this something else? Am I better off moving him back to QT and medicating with something? I do not have easy access to CP, but a different LFS does have it and may sell me some if it's what I need to do.
Any help would be greatly appreciated..
I have a juvenile stars and stripes puffer, I got him back in December when he was less than an inch, he's now just under 3 inches. I kept him quarantined (not medicated) until the past month. During this time, he showed no symptoms of any disease, he ate great and was very active. I am in the process of setting up a 220g for him (already have the tank, stand, pumps, sump, etc, just haven't filled it yet - covid slowed me down) and recently moved him to a 40g system so he had more space in the mean time, here's my mistake.. I bought some live rock from my LFS and put it into the 40g system, did a quick 4 day cycle with ammonia chloride, a bottle of biospira and dosed with Pristine and Stability, I also put all of the cycled media from his qt in there with him (I wasn't medicating, so I kept some rocks with him).. It was fully cycled, nitrate present, 0 ammonia/nitrite.
The LR i purchased must have had ich on it, because after about 2-3 weeks I noticed spots on his fins.. He started flashing and scratching on rocks as of last Friday. I do not want to treat with copper, bc he's a puffer and TTM seems like soo much work and I don't have an extra tank on hand for this. To help him, I decided to go hypo in his current system (which yes, does have rocks and sand). I know the possible impacts that some ich may go dormant in the sand live on once I raise the salinity, but I want to get him healthy again..
Over the past 24 hours, I have lowered the salinity to 1.015 from 1.025 by doing 2-5g water changes (I know i need to get it to 1.008 - 1.010). I wait at least 4 hours between changes to do it slowly.. Well, he's becoming very lethargic, wedging himself into rocks and not swimming about. He also has a few scratches on him from flashing..
Attached are a couple recent pics.. I got him to come out by enticing him with some food (i always soak food in Vitachem, Selcon and brightwell amino acids..this time I also added some kent marine garlic extract), then he went back to the rocks after eating a piece. Can someone please confirm that this is ich and not something else?
On hand, I have a 20g long tank that is cycled and could move him to.. I also have cupramine, Safety Stop rapid quarantine (formalin and methylene blue) and various other meds - prazipro, maracyn, metroplex, kanaplex, focus and general cure.. Am I doing the right thing by going hypo and treating for ich or is this something else? Am I better off moving him back to QT and medicating with something? I do not have easy access to CP, but a different LFS does have it and may sell me some if it's what I need to do.
Any help would be greatly appreciated..
