Help with Ich treatment!!

[BaileyB]

I need some help! I just got a porcupine puffer 3 days ago and I got him in QT just observing. Salinity at 1.020, temp at 78° F. I’m super paranoid of ich after my yellow tang got it months ago, now I see a white dot on his tail, and am worried he will soon break out. What’s the best treatment for a porcupine puffer? I heard they can be sensitive to copper but the LFS I got it from had it in copper. At .20 I believe they said. I know low salinity and high temps sill kill ich if you got an infection, but can you do both? Would this be a preferred method over using copper? He’s a tiny guy, only about 2”-2.5”.. thanks for all the help I just want to know what the best approach is in case it does happen, I’m prepared!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Porcupines do fine in copper if dosed properly. Coppersafe or Copper Power are fine, just dose according to the label instructions to the net volume of your tank and test with a good copper test kit or the Hanna checker.

Don't raise the temperature, that is an old idea for treating freshwater ich, marine ich actually does better at higher temperatures. Low salinity to treat ich needs to be very low - a specific gravity of 1.009 Don't combine that with copper, and be sure your hydrometer or salinity meter is very accurate, because if you accidently go a bit lower, the fish can die. Personally, I'd just run copper.

Jay

 

[BaileyB]

Porcupines do fine in copper if dosed properly. Coppersafe or Copper Power are fine, just dose according to the label instructions to the net volume of your tank and test with a good copper test kit or the Hanna checker.

Don't raise the temperature, that is an old idea for treating freshwater ich, marine ich actually does better at higher temperatures. Low salinity to treat ich needs to be very low - a specific gravity of 1.009 Don't combine that with copper, and be sure your hydrometer or salinity meter is very accurate, because if you accidently go a bit lower, the fish can die. Personally, I'd just run copper.

Jay

Thanks for the reply, what levels are the right levels to kill the ich? And when I treated my yellow tang with coppersafe he got WAYYY worse, and I did some research and found out coppersafe dosing instructions is for a display tank? Not for theurputic levels? Unltimelty I want to know what copper levels would be safe for the puffer and to kill the ich?

 

[EakTheFreak]

Thanks for the reply, what levels are the right levels to kill the ich? And when I treated my yellow tang with coppersafe he got WAYYY worse, and I did some research and found out coppersafe dosing instructions is for a display tank? Not for theurputic levels? Unltimelty I want to know what copper levels would be safe for the puffer and to kill the ich?

I run COPPERSAFE at 2.00 ppm in my QT tank. Therapeutic levels for COPPERSAFE are 1.50ppm & 2.00ppm.

My flame angel had an ICH outbreak on 2nd week of QT & then I brought the levels up to 2.00ppm immediately. The ICH cleared up in about 3 days and I’ve been running it for 23 days and going 7 more at therapeutic levels and then will remove copper and observe for additional 14 days then get these suckers into my DT.

 

[fullnewview]

Hi, how is your puffer doing and what treatment did you use ? I just got a porcupine puffer and I'm trying to figure out the best treatment to use for Ich.