Strange parasite- please help

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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astrid37
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 117
Joined: Sun May 14, 2017 2:37 pm
My Puffers: Seven T. schoutedeni
Location (country): US

Strange parasite- please help

Post by astrid37 »

Hello,
I am having what looks to be an external parasite issue in my Tetraodon schoutedeni's tank. I have dosed the tank twice over a 45 day long period with Prazipro for 6-7 days each and also soaked her food in Prazipro and was able to get her to eat the soaked food once. The parasite is still in her tank, as I noticed it briefly on her belly the other day. It starts out as a tiny red dot on the outside of her belly and grows, hanging down from her belly. It is able to detach and reattach itself to her belly seemingly at will. I do not know what it is up to or where it is when it is not attached to her. It is like an alien in appearance and behavior and the strangest thing I have ever seen (please see photo below). It does not seem to be bothering her. Her appetite is fine, and she has not lost any weight. I am nonetheless concerned. Any suggestions on how to treat? Many thanks.

1) Your water parameters -
pH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrates 10-20

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants.
55g with one adult T. schoutedeni, 12 peppered corys, 7 serpae tetra, and two green dragon plecos. Tank is over-filtered with a canister filter rated for a 150g tank and also a large sponge filter.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank
Feed my puffer a varied diet including live blackworms, frozen thawed clams soaked in Vitachem, freeze dried krill reconstituted in water and Vitachem, and ramshorn snails that I grow myself. (She does not like shrimp or scallops, even with garlic added.) The corys get Hikari sinking wafers and tetras get Hikari micropellets. The plecos have plenty of algae and other leftover food but also get Hikari algae wafers occasionally. The puffer gets fed daily to every-other-day depending on her appetite. Tankmates get fed daily.
The only products I use on the tank are both Stress Guard and Safe when I do water changes (which are 50% weekly, every week, zero exceptions. I am strongly vigilant about this). We are on controlled well water, so there is no chlorine etc... in the water. That is also why the pH is on the high side.

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes it's the little things that make all the difference.
No changes

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it?
It was cycled with 10 serpae tetras, 12 peppered corys, and Seachem Stability, and has been set up for 10 months.
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