ick on black dogface puffer

Question
I was wondering what kind of medication would be sufficent for riding my morph colored black blacks spotted pufferfish of ick since he is a scaleless fish. i have a broad spectrum medication that handles different diseases such as fungal,parasitic,bacterial,ick,etc ,by the name of Instant Ocean's Lifeguard how safe or is this product safe to use on my pufferfish or what can i use safely without hurting him pls help

Answer
Hi Alaica. This medication should be safe for treating your puffer however it most likely will not be very effective. The only true treatment for ich is using a copper based medication. Plus treating your scaleless fish with a host of treatments for things he doesn't even have can be more detrimental to his health. Antibiotic medication should only be used if there is a bacterial infection. The overuse of antibiotics may lower a fishes immune system and make any bacteria that may be present immune to the effects of the medication. Copper is not good to use on scaless fish so you may want to try a fresh water dip. This can be done in a five gallon bucket. Fill the bucket with about three gallons of high quality fresh water. Do not use distilled for this procedure. If you are going to use your tap water(which is fine) make sure it is dechlorinated first. Next adjust the pH of the water to be no more than .5 points off of your tanks water. You can use baking soda for this being sure not to add more than 1 tsp per gallon at first and testing frequently to see when the right pH is achieved. Remove the fish from the tank and give it a one to two minute dip in the bath. The fish can easily withstand the abrupt change in external pressure but the parasites have no protection and quickly swell and burst. You will still see a white spot where the ich had been but this is the spot where the parasite was attached and it is the broken skin that you are seeing.  Doing this will get rid of the parasites on the fish however it will not treat the tank. You may have to employ the use of a quarantine tank after the freshwater bath in order to treat the tank. You can keep any of your scaled fish in the main tank while treating just the puffer(and any inverts?) would have to be quarantined during the treatment of your main tank with a copper based medication.