When I woke up this morning the puffer was laying at the bottom of the tank. I nudged him and he swam away but i noticed mucus on his side near his gills. He wasn't really swimming. Then my heart dropped as I saw the black molly covered in dust. I quickly got out a sterile 1 gallon bucket and some RRR. I got temp and salinity the same and added one teaspoon of RRR and an air stone. I placed both fish in there while I tore down the tank and set up a new sterile 10 gal QT. Unfortunately, sadly my puffer died in the RRR bath. He seemed fine for the first half hour. Right around the one hour mark he stopped moving and I was not able to revive him. The molly is fine, swimming in the bath like nothing has happened.
I've put 7 fish through my CP QT with no issues. The one difference this time is the first 7 I ran a seeded sponge filter with the CP the whole 10 days only topping off evap water. With the puffer I ran no filter. Just an empty hob and air stone. I used Prime for ammonia control and changed 25% of the water pre treated with CP every other day. I did it this way because I have read that the bio filter can degrade the CP and I would need a larger sponge (more bio film) for the puffer due to his eating habits. I should have stuck with what has been working for me. Its been over a month since he was out of the CP QT. Seems like a long time for velvet to show up. And it hit him two days before the molly. I'm at a total loss right now. I'm dreading my wife getting home as the puffer was really her fish.
