Green Spotted puffer - "Fresh water dip?"

HEY EVERYONE! Long time no see/chat..
I hope all are well, HAPPY FRIDAY!

I have had a Green Spotted puffer for about 6 months now and hes been doing great! A few weeks ago my loving wife purchased a tang that was a little rough on some of the fish - but mostly the puffer. We have since removed the tang from the tank in the best interest of the other tank mates. The day we removed the tang we noticed a spot of ick on the puffer and I am thinking the extra stress has weakened my buddy a bit. I have read in the past with other fish that you can do a "fresh water dip" to help the fish fight some invasions. Seeing as how puffers go from salt to brackish (spelling?) to fresh and back (this is what I have read, correct me if I am wrong) - I was thinking that a longer fresh water transition (an hour maybe? ) might be good?


I was thinking doing the following:
1. Putting the puffer in a bucket
2. Dripping RO/DI water into the bucket until I have a 50/50 fresh salt and letting him stay there for a bit. (over the course of say 1 hour)
3. After say - 30 min, continuing the fresh water drip so its a 3/4 fresh water mixture
4. Let the puffer relax and adjust for about an hour - keeping the water warm and such...
5. than after the hour do the reverse back to salt...


I dont know if this seems crazy or not but its just something I have put together from info I have gotten from people, if this is a bad idea please dont flame me as this is why Im asking lol

"DONT DO IT STUPID!!! ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!" lol

Thanks in advance everyone!!!!

 

I wouldn't do a dip. Specially not just yet, all it will do is create more stress for the fish and make matters worse. Feed it a little extra, making sure the food is rich in vitamins, HUFA's, and soaked with garlic, keep on top of your parameter's, and raise the temp a little (around 81-82). If all is well the fish should be able to battle it off on it's own.

 

Shrug
This is not a good course of action.

First, any changes cannot be done that quickly.
Second, GSP is Brackish, dont try salt or fresh, they just wont be happy.

What tank do you have, Salt, Fresh or Brackish ?
They are all diffeent and you cant try an co mingle them

You need to choose or have multiple tanks.

 

puffers just dont do anytype of ick treatment well

Best thing to do is to encourage him to eat. Try soaking his food in garlic to entice him to eat. Garlic does not cure ick...just like when we have the flu we dont feel like eating..same with fish. The garlic will encourage him. Also add HUFA to the food

If he is eating he should beat this. I have a UV sterilizer in my Golden Puffer tank...just to be safe!

 

GSP's are all freshwater, brackish, and saltwater, depending on their age. They are born into fresh, then slowly move back to the ocean as they mature, and keeping them in captivity you should mimic that. An adult GSP should be in saltwater.

 

I have dealt with ich on our green spotted puffer before and this is what I have done. The Ich has a life cycle that attatches to the fish, then drops off, reproduces and goes back to the fish. I had several of those cheapo hermit crab tanks [plastic with a plastic lid, you could use buckets with airstones]. Had water mixed up in all of them, put the puffer in one tank, every 12 hours I switched the puffer to the next tank. Dumped the water in the tank it was in, then made new salt water and put it back in that tank. 12 hours later put it in the next one. Do not net them, I used a very small plastic cup to scoop him out of his little tank and as little water as possible to put him in the next. I did it for 4-5 days. At the time we didn't have any garlic supplement to feed him so this was all that I did and he lost the ich and is still alive and kickin a year later . The higher the temperature of the water, the faster the life cycle is for the ich, I want to say 82-83 degrees for that. If you can switch him out more often that would be better.

Another method would be, if you know it has saltwater ich, put it in a quarentine tank, and drop the salinity so the saltwater ich cant survive. If its freshwater ich, raise the salinity so the freshwater ich cant survive.

Hope this helps and hope your GSP pulls through!

 

My understanding is they are strictly brackish and that drip sounds like it'd do more harm then anything. Soak its food in garlic as the other suggested and go slow, if you try hard for a quick fix you might just end up making him more ill. Good luck

 

Maybe so, but over a lifetime, certainly not in such a short time period as suggested. That was more my point. You cant aclimate a life time of changes in a weeks time.

 

Use Marine-Max. This will boost all your fishes immune systems and they will be able to fight off ich at any time. Google it, it is a great product and all natural. It can be used once a month as preventative.