Marine ich or velvet?

[KyleC]

How big is the puffer?

Head to tail I'd say 4.5 - 5 inches

 

[KyleC]

No, that is later stage ich. With velvet, your first symptom will be rapid breathing and not eating, followed by death about 72 hours. With ich, the fish don't stop eating or start breathing hard until the end of the infection, perhaps a week to 10 days in. It will likely spread to the chromis eventually. Your best bet would be copper or hyposalinity in a treatment tank, but be careful - setting up a treatment tank "on the fly" can be difficult, you need to avoid ammonia problems.

Jay

Makes sense Jay, thanks! If it were velvet I doubt he would be in fishy heaven by now! Either way copper should do the trick I'll have fresh sw on hand for regular water changes... would 10% per week (unless there's a spike) still work for a period of 76 days while the main tank starves (if it's still needed for ich)?

 

[KyleC]

Agree this is ich and accelerated stage ick. Puffers are one of the challenging with treatment as they are scaleless. The choices you have will be Copper Power at 2.0 therapuetic level at 80 degrees for a FULL 30 days monitored by a reliable copper test kit such as Hanna Brand (no api brand) If no Hanna, you can use Sera brand kit. Assure the medication you use states treats Oodinum. , but safer would be Chloroquine phosphate and safest Hyposalinity bringing it down to 1.009 with heavy aeration. I see you are in Ireland and Copper power should be available. If not avloclor will be safer and effective if you are unsure of use of copper Power.

Quite a bit of kit I need to get my hands on, will do some looking tonight and hopefully get it all over the weekend. Probably go with avloclor if it's safer, as I'm still finding my feet with everything. Thanks for the advice

 

[KyleC]

2.5 enough to kill this fish and 76 days no longer an industry recommendation. As low as 45 up to 60 days and Not velvet

Thanks! I'll be double checking quarantine times for ich before I start just to make sure.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Makes sense Jay, thanks! If it were velvet I doubt he would be in fishy heaven by now! Either way copper should do the trick I'll have fresh sw on hand for regular water changes... would 10% per week (unless there's a spike) still work for a period of 76 days while the main tank starves (if it's still needed for ich)?

Or, 20% every two weeks, just to save a bit of work?

jay

 

[KyleC]

Or, 20% every two weeks, just to save a bit of work?

jay

20% every 2 weeks sounds better. I can do my 65g then too. Thinking maybe I should invest in RO equipment as £5/25ltrs will soon mount up along with other expenses. Can't wait until I can actually go and buy a fish for my aquarium! Patience.... just need to be patient.

 

[KyleC]

Would this be a suitable copper treatment? Copper power very expensive going by results on ebay/amazon. Based in Northern Ireland.

Cupramine

 

[Bucs20fan]

Cupramine would work as well.

 

[KyleC]

Thanks! So many brands out there just wanted to make sure. I'll go with fritz coppersafe

 

[vetteguy53081]

Would this be a suitable copper treatment? Copper power very expensive going by results on ebay/amazon. Based in Northern Ireland.

Cupramine

Copper Power worth the extra but coppersafe has same strength and lower cost which should not matter based on its benefits. Many fish do not fare well with cupramine versus chelated form

 

[KyleC]

Yea, a few have said cupramine can be hard on puffers so I'll stick with the safer option, thanks. Now I just need to find a copper test. I know hanna are recommended but out of my price range atm as I've had to buy QT and everything else. Has anyone any opinions on the below copper test?

Seachem Copper Test

Edit: looks like this wouldn't be fit for testing the higher copper levels...

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks! So many brands out there just wanted to make sure. I'll go with fritz coppersafe

This is best. Assure you have a reliable copper test kit to monitor the level of copper- Hanna brand is reliable and user friendly

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Yea, a few have said cupramine can be hard on puffers so I'll stick with the safer option, thanks. Now I just need to find a copper test. I know hanna are recommended but out of my price range atm as I've had to buy QT and everything else. Has anyone any opinions on the below copper test?

Seachem Copper Test

Edit: looks like this wouldn't be fit for testing the higher copper levels...

Correct - that won't work for high range copper, but will work for Cupramine. The Hanna checker is best of course, but if you dose coppersafe carefully, to the net volume of your tank and if you have a good eye, you can use the API copper test kit to check the dose.

Jay

 

[KyleC]

Thanks Jay. Think I'll try the API kit until I can get my hands on a hanna checker next month hopefully.