puffer with ich

nkarisny · Aug 27, 2020

Have puffer with ich . should i move to qt even thou isn't only been going two weeks 32.5 gallon. have in new 215 going about month . perimeters good in both. qt has never had anything in it. and what can i treat with giving mediated food but he isn't moving good might not eat tomorrow if i dont do something . other fish clowns and fox face look good. i wanted to add to qt and raise temp 86 and treat w something
? any thoughts any success?

Jay Hemdal · Aug 27, 2020

nkarisny said:
Have puffer with ich . should i move to qt even thou isn't only been going two weeks 32.5 gallon. have in new 215 going about month . perimeters good in both. qt has never had anything in it. and what can i treat with giving mediated food but he isn't moving good might not eat tomorrow if i dont do something . other fish clowns and fox face look good. i wanted to add to qt and raise temp 86 and treat w something
? any thoughts any success?

Can you post a pic? We want to ensure that the diagnosis is as accurate as possible in order to begin the correct treatment. Medicated food is difficult to use in treating ich successfully. If it is ich, and the puffer is already acting "off", you may have an issue with the other fish soon developing symptoms, since they have been exposed.

Raising the water temperature will speed up the life cycle of ich, but if you aren't also treating for the issue, it actually will just make the fish sicker sooner. The high temp idea stems from the idea for getting the ich parasite to enter into the tomite stage, where the medication is more effective - without medication, it just goes back and infects the fish faster.

The typical treatment for ich is a copper treatment of all fish, in a QT. This usually takes 30 to 45 days. That said, new QT systems can have issues maintaining proper water quality, so you need to manage that at the same time.

Jay