The Puffer Forum

Hi friends!

I'm so excited to find this forum with many useful information.

However, after reading some articles, I still cannot define why my GSP is so slim. It's about 1.5'' long, acting healthy, staying at my side all day long, sometimes rubbing the glass of my side.

I got it from LFS which kept fish in slightly brackish water. Also its tankmates.

I'll put photos...

1. Does it have internal parasite?
It looks slim when hungry, especially when bending his tail (starved for only 1 day), but not quite slim after eating.

I'm using API general cure for IP treatment, poured in water as in direction but I learnt FW fish don't drink... So I soaked some bloodworm in a small cup for 15mins and gave them the 1st medicine meal.

2. His belly turns slightly black sometimes, but sometimes his belly stays white after I turned on the light to check (maybe due to lighting), how fast can they turn their belly color? Is it unhappy or hunting or something?

3. I noticed that it has only 1 white spot on his lower back fin, is it possible ick? The spot stayed there for about 1 week, no spreading sign.

4. Experienced friends, does it look healthy or not?

Feeding schedule: once a day with mainly frozen blood worm, 1-2 days with frozen Mysis shrimp, snail tank still breeding, going to feed snail in a regular basis after a month. Fed till belly slightly round.

Tank: I have a fully cycled, 20g tank for one and a half month. Started with dead shrimps, flakes and live bacteria. I bought my GSP for a month. -Put him in when the tank is half cycled, but all indicators were fine. No ammonia presented.

Tankmate: 5 "feeding" guppies, my puffer chased them for one night and gave up. They're living peacefully now, no chasing or bullying.

Decor: Rocks, 1 grape wood (used to have some white fuzzy fungi on it, but gone, some may left in filter tube)
No plants because changing to brackish/SW will kill my plants.

Water change: Once a week about 15-20% (3-5gal)
My tap water contains chloramine, which is a combination of chlorine and ammonia. I don't want to change too much water if my NO3 keeps low. If i do 50%, I think I may risk both damaging my nitrifying system & adding more ammonia in my tank.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: between 0-20
pH: Between 7.4-7.6 (API low range pH kit shows 7.6 but high range pH kit shows 7.4)
Salinity: 1.005, raising 0.002 every week.

Thanks for your time! Please tell me if you need more information.

Before feeding: (those white dots are dirty things on my glass, also some API general treatment powder floating in water) After feeding: (White spot visible from the right) Tank:

Yup, it does look like IP, especially since you feed him so well. What does his poop look like?
I would soak ALL his food in Jungle fizzy parasite tabs. You can break them into 1/4, since it won't be a lot of food involved for 1 fish.
Nice decor! Not sure how that wood will hold up with salt though.
library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
library/hospital/internal-parasites-pre ... treatment/
library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

Hi Pufferpunk,

Thanks for the detailed answer!

I have read the articles you posted.

I never saw him poop, but there are round big little dots which I think are his poops....and he poop out quite fast after eating.

I saw all the people recommending jungle fizz parasite tabs, but I checked their website and found nothing about parasite treatment.
http://www.junglelabs.com/Products.aspx

Some 3rd party website mentioned these product "discontinued".

Where can people still get it? Or is it any other famous effective products?

I live in San Francisco, I got access to Petco, Petsmart and some LFS. Most of them only have API general cure for IP. But I can also buy online, just don't know which one is effective for puffers.

Thank you!

I'm just a bit worried getting those chemical product directly. I have no experience buying chemical products here, so medicine designed for fish maybe better for me....

I read what the General Cure was for & it only lists external parasites. I wasn't aware the Jungle product was discontinued. Try buying Prazipro for IPs. I buy almost everything online.

Thank you! I'll try using Prazipro and treat it as soon as i can.

http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/trop ... ge-446954/
I also saw an interesting post about different medicine on different types of worm. I'm wondering if I should also get Fenbendazole. It's interesting that all these medicine actually only paralyzed the worms...

I'll keep posted and see how my treatment go, thanks!

Yes, Prazi may not eradicate every species of worm but it's a great med to try 1st.
That Jungle product has Prazi & Metro, which pretty much covers all bases.

Update - 3 days after treatment.

Puffer still looks "slim". His rear belly always stays black (unhappy for IP?), but when I turns the lights on/feeding them, his belly turns white for a while.

3 Days treatment:
Day 1: prazipro mixed mysis shrimps. Puffer seems didn't like it well. Spit most of it after swallowing....

Day 2-3:
Seachem Aquarium Water Treatment Set - MetroPlex & Focus mixed in mysis shrimps. Garlic Guard also mixed for enhanced taste...
Prazipro dripped in tank.

On day 2, he lied on the sand for whole night after eating his medicated food, breathing heavily.

Day 3: just fed him, snapped some photo and see how it goes.

I also noticed his weird reaction: after waking up, he quickly sucked in some water (slightly puffed up) and spit out the water quickly. Is it because of IP and uncomfortable gill?

How long does it take for a puffer to get rid of IP with meds (they poop them out???)

Thanks!

Update -20 days after treatment.

Treatments so far:

Keep feeding medicated food with Metroplex + Focus mix,

He hates Prazipro in food, so I dose it in regularly.

Nothing improved.

Removed the guppies. He seems less stressful on his belly. I used to see "white stringy poop" on day3, but not sure if they're the bloodworm shell I fed or the worms....

-----------------------
Levamisole treatment:

His poop now looks big, red and fat, but still goes slim soon after feeding.

Since there's no improvement, I thought there could be Camallanus, and aimed for Levamisole. Bought Prohibit online.

Dosed in, lights off 24hours, going to do big water change.

His black spots looks fainter, didn't greet me when I came and looks weak. I think maybe Levamisole treatment made it so.

Haven't seen any worms on the substrates so far...

Will treat using Levamisole again (for possible egg) in 3 days and see.

Update- 28 days after treatment.

Completed Levamisole HCl treatments 2 days ago.

I did not lower the PH, because I read somewhere that lowering PH is not necessary.
The tank lights was out, but with normal indoor lights during the day. I read an article about stressing the fish while the author covered the tank, so I did not do it.

1st Dose: 10 scoops with the scoop from Metroplex for 20gals
(as mentioned in library/hospital/internal-parasites-pre ... treatment/)
lights off 24h
40-50% water change

-3 days later

2nd Dose: 10 scoops,
lights off 24h
40% water change after 48h

Result:
He looks weak after each treatment, but recovered 1day later and started eating.

No worms spotted on gravel.

Still pooping fast (i guess) and looks slim, but poop looks fat and round.

Thoughts:
1: Levamisole HCl is specially for Camallanus worms, but seems it has effect on several other worms.

2: Levamisole + Prazipro + Metroplex are the most suggested medicine around the forums. They probably covered all the normal types of worms. But worms.....who knows what else could get it infected?


I have no idea what to do next.

Maybe repeat treatment in 7days (kill possible newly-hatched worms), and once more in 3 weeks.

I will keep feeding him regularly for few weeks and see if his belly gets better, if he just (probably) passed the worms out, he needs time to recover.


------
Photo attached:
Him and his poop - He ate brine shrimp & blood worms

Poor fella--still looks very skinny. You only treated 1x with each med?

Pufferpunk wrote: ↑Tue Dec 12, 2017 3:42 pm Poor fella--still looks very skinny. You only treated 1x with each med?

I treated as instructed (bath) and medicated food for about 2weeks.

For Prazipro, he refuses any food mixing with it (spitting a lot causing total mess)
-only bathed as instructed: recommended dose for my tank, repeated 3 times after 3 days each.

Metroplex: puffer is fine with it. Bonded with Focus, fed him for about 2 weeks. He ate only a bit but he ate...
-also bathed in the tank as recommended dose in the meantime with Prazipro.

Levamisole: fed him at 1st time treatment. He was too weak to eat, so I only bathed the tank after 3 days.

Beth for FW fish is a total waste of meds ($$$), as FW fish do not drink water. I'm not 100% sure about BW fish though... Sometimes though, they are just to far gone. Were they thin when purchased?

Pufferpunk wrote: ↑Tue Dec 12, 2017 5:31 pm Beth for FW fish is a total waste of meds ($$$), as FW fish do not drink water. I'm not 100% sure about BW fish though... Sometimes though, they are just to far gone. Were they thin when purchased?

Too far gone may be a problem.
I checked the videos I took months ago. He was quite "flat" when purchased. I was lack of experience, and was tricked by his "round" belly after feeding by LFS.

It's interesting that FW fish do not drink, but most medicines recommended bathing. Prazipro is designed for direct dosing into pond. I know that FW fish absorb water by Osmosis and urinate. But not sure if the medicine is also being absorbed and go through the digestion system, reaching those worms (or the overall effectiveness).

not sure if the medicine is also being absorbed and go through the digestion system, reaching those worms (or the overall effectiveness)

^^^^^
That