oh no!!!!
Forum rules
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.
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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Nick
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 3231
- Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:47 pm
- My Puffers: Mine:
GSPs - Shakespeare and Jillybean
F8 - Velvet
My fiance:
DP - Emma Goldman
Narrow Lined Puffer - Ulrike - Location (country): Northeastern USA
- Location: Middletown, CT
- Contact:
Re: oh no!!!!
Can you get API general cure? It's an antiparasitic for external parasites, but it contains metrodizole and praziquantel. Normally, it does nothing for IPs added to the water, so I recently tried an experiment with a very sick GSP at my job, and he has been gaining weight. This was only tried once, but it did seem to work. Mix up a half gallon of fresh water, and add enough of the general cure for 20 gallons, which is two packets of the new powdered stuff or two pills old school. Your fish must be in brackish for this to work, so if he's not, acclimate him over several hours to about SG 1.005-1.008, in a quarantine of course, so as not to affect the biofilter in your main tank. Then, add your fish to the half gallon of fresh water with the 20 gallons of treatment, no acclimation. This isn't pleasant for him, but as a result, his gills will absorb FW and he will even drink some in an attempt to acclimate himself quickly to this new conditions. With such a massive overdose of the meds in the water, this seems to get enough medicine into the puffer to kill the parasites. You should only leave him in for about 20-25 minutes, then return him to his tank. Do this once a day for 5 days. This is a HARSH treatment, but, the one time I have tried it, seems to have worked, in the store, no other meds were available, and the alternative was certain death. Try this at your own risk, I only mention this because you seem to be getting into desperate straits. I place some live food in the medicine vat(live blackworms) as if the puffer DOES it, which my store puffer did, even more medicine will be taken in.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
Re: oh no!!!!
Day #3
I soaked his food for an hour like I was told to do and he doesn't want to eat. That's his fourth day with out food. I tried.
Thanks for your help
pufferpunk I know that but hes NOT EATING OK
I soaked his food for an hour like I was told to do and he doesn't want to eat. That's his fourth day with out food. I tried.
Thanks for your help
pufferpunk I know that but hes NOT EATING OK
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mikeosoft
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:35 pm
- Location: Farmington Hills, MI
Re: oh no!!!!
Try soaking the food in garlic extract to mask the taste of the meds.
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Agnate
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 1203
- Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2007 7:44 pm
- My Puffers: -
1 Abei Puffer [Monotrete Abei]
(Captain Abe) - Location: Ontario, Canada
- Contact:
Re: oh no!!!!
Maybe he'll just get hungry enough and eat it. Maybe you can try a splice: soak some of the worms in the meds, and leave some unmedicated. Toss him a couple un-medicated ones, then mix them together and feed him. Maybe you'll trick him into eating a couple (which, at this point, having any of the meds ingested would be beneficial). *Shrug*
If the meds aren't cutting it, try the pumpkin seed recipe that's posted in our Internal Parasites article. It doesn't have the same taste as the meds, so the puffers aren't hesitant to eat it!
Just remember to use a timer when you're reducing the pumpkin seed recipe over low heat. I forgot about it for a few hours and came back to it being burnt to the bottom... 
If the meds aren't cutting it, try the pumpkin seed recipe that's posted in our Internal Parasites article. It doesn't have the same taste as the meds, so the puffers aren't hesitant to eat it!
Just remember to use a timer when you're reducing the pumpkin seed recipe over low heat. I forgot about it for a few hours and came back to it being burnt to the bottom... Did our staff successfully help you? The Puffer Forum is an incredible resource and is run completely on the donations of its viewers. Proceeds from the Puffer Forum store go towards future contests and keeping the site running. Donations may also be made via PayPal.
- Paul
40 gallon - Future home of Abei Puffer
28 gallon - 1 Abei Puffer (Captain Abe)
5 gallon - 1 Betta (Frederico)
- Paul
40 gallon - Future home of Abei Puffer
28 gallon - 1 Abei Puffer (Captain Abe)
5 gallon - 1 Betta (Frederico)