.Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer
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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StormySkiez
- Fahaka Puffer
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer
How does his tummy look? I'm glad to hear he is eating better .
.
55g-2 green spotted puffers 1 year old Nov 08!
20g-5 leopard danio,4 whiteskirt tetras, amanos, nerita snails, 2 neon tetras
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Myaj
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer
Great news!
I bet it was the parasites... usually when they get really bad the fish stops eating all together, your guys was still TRYING to eat but just couldn't do it. Walking that tightrope. I bet he improves very quickly now, although you might have to still redose a few times along the way.
I bet it was the parasites... usually when they get really bad the fish stops eating all together, your guys was still TRYING to eat but just couldn't do it. Walking that tightrope. I bet he improves very quickly now, although you might have to still redose a few times along the way.
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FishFan
- Figure 8 Puffer
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- Location: USA
Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer
StormySkiez, Mayj,
He still can't eat pieces that are not cut long and thin, but he is eating them. Here is our original picture and one taken today. I think you can see that the notch in his belly in the first photo has begun to fill in. Today he was biting at the filter tube where it exits the water. I moved the tube and found he was hunting the last of the 15 or so Ghost Shrimp we put in his tank the first day.
Edit: Note the second photo shows his right side rather than left - it was mirror imaged to facilitate comparison.
He still can't eat pieces that are not cut long and thin, but he is eating them. Here is our original picture and one taken today. I think you can see that the notch in his belly in the first photo has begun to fill in. Today he was biting at the filter tube where it exits the water. I moved the tube and found he was hunting the last of the 15 or so Ghost Shrimp we put in his tank the first day.
Edit: Note the second photo shows his right side rather than left - it was mirror imaged to facilitate comparison.
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Last edited by FishFan on Sun Apr 20, 2008 9:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
A = Anne, R =Robert
There has to be a point.
There has to be a point.
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edmlfc1
- Mbu Puffer
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125G:Fahaka (Annabelle) - Location (country): U.S.A.
- Location: Texas
Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer
Wow what a difference in just a few days. Glad to see he's eating. Lot's of luck to you wit you new baby. Can't wait to see how he looks after a few weeks.
Need to know what kind of puffer you have? Click on Puffer ID.....Puffer ID: ug.php/v/PufferPedia/
What to feed your puffer? Click on Feeding......
Feeding: library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/
Have a GSP, need more information......Click on GSP Article.....
GSP Article: library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
What to feed your puffer? Click on Feeding......
Feeding: library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/
Have a GSP, need more information......Click on GSP Article.....
GSP Article: library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
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Jase
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer
wow, he's skinny! can't wait to see some pics with a little more weight on him. 
-Jase
edmlfc1 wrote:A house without a puffer is not a home.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer
Glad to see PQ is helping with this.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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FishFan
- Figure 8 Puffer
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer
Yeah, we're extremely grateful that with all the poor lady is going through, she is still helping others.Pufferpunk wrote:Glad to see PQ is helping with this.
A = Anne, R =Robert
There has to be a point.
There has to be a point.
-
StormySkiez
- Fahaka Puffer
- Posts: 679
- Joined: Sun Nov 11, 2007 9:00 am
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- Location: USA~TN
Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer
I do see improvement. Keep up the good work! Good work FishFan .
.55g-2 green spotted puffers 1 year old Nov 08!
20g-5 leopard danio,4 whiteskirt tetras, amanos, nerita snails, 2 neon tetras
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manutius
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer
What a success story this has turned out to be, though not out of the woods yet the Puffer looks great and the desire to hunt and feed is really really promising 
WELL DONE!!!!!
WELL DONE!!!!!-
By_a_coo
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- Location: São Paulo, Brazil
Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer
Fishfan
I read the whole story and it touched me! What great job you're doing! I'm keeping my fingers crossed to see pictures of your puffer when he gets super shape!
I really wish you both GOOD LUCK!
I read the whole story and it touched me! What great job you're doing! I'm keeping my fingers crossed to see pictures of your puffer when he gets super shape!
I really wish you both GOOD LUCK!
Fernando
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Happy_Puffer
- Green Spotted Puffer
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The new owner of a Canthigaster jactator
Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer
How is the puffer doing? I saw the pictures and he looks much better then he did. I hope all is still going well!
*Katie*
The new owner of a salt water tank
The new owner of a salt water tank
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FishFan
- Figure 8 Puffer
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- Location (country): Maine USA
- Location: USA
Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer
He continues to be alert and swims constantly; never sitting on the bottom or hiding like he's feeling really sick. He still can't swallow food pieces with a diameter slightly larger than a cooked spaghetti noodle, but that's much better than he was originally when the pieces had to be smaller than the size of the uncooked noodles. We think he is eating slightly above subsistence levels. He eats only 2-3 pieces of food at a time. We've been offering food in small amounts every 3-4 hours or so. We're also offering him a good supply of gut loaded Ghost Shrimp twice now. The first time he chewed them up but most or all were spit out.
Yesterday we put 20 gut loaded Ghost Shrimp in his tank. We think he's eating some of them and just chewing others. Regardless, it takes days to catch them all and provides entertainment and activity that we feel will help him adjust to his new environment. His favorite food continues to be small strips of the firm meat cut from live clams' feet.
After our first dose of PraziPro (praziquantel) we found what looked like parasites stuck to the filter. The photos were a bit fuzzy but Puffer Queen thought they might look like nematodes. It took us a while to find some metronidozole that wasn't years expired or mixed with other medications and labeled for use only in fresh water. Yesterday we gave him a medication that is a powered form of praziquantel and metronidozole. We also soaked his food in a concentrated mixture of the same. We'll see if that helps in the next couple days. We're feeling pretty optimistic based on the progress we're seeing. We've ordered some additional medications and vitamins for tube feeding that were recommended by Puffer Queen should tube feeding be needed. If things continue to improve, we won't need to tube feed. Puffer Queen's level of knowledge is really impressive.
Yesterday we put 20 gut loaded Ghost Shrimp in his tank. We think he's eating some of them and just chewing others. Regardless, it takes days to catch them all and provides entertainment and activity that we feel will help him adjust to his new environment. His favorite food continues to be small strips of the firm meat cut from live clams' feet.
After our first dose of PraziPro (praziquantel) we found what looked like parasites stuck to the filter. The photos were a bit fuzzy but Puffer Queen thought they might look like nematodes. It took us a while to find some metronidozole that wasn't years expired or mixed with other medications and labeled for use only in fresh water. Yesterday we gave him a medication that is a powered form of praziquantel and metronidozole. We also soaked his food in a concentrated mixture of the same. We'll see if that helps in the next couple days. We're feeling pretty optimistic based on the progress we're seeing. We've ordered some additional medications and vitamins for tube feeding that were recommended by Puffer Queen should tube feeding be needed. If things continue to improve, we won't need to tube feed. Puffer Queen's level of knowledge is really impressive.
A = Anne, R =Robert
There has to be a point.
There has to be a point.
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32976
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
- Contact:
Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer
Be sure to soak the fod in a good vitamin, like Selcon, along with the meds.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
-
Happy_Puffer
- Green Spotted Puffer
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The new owner of a Canthigaster jactator
Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer
Well I am happy that he is doing better. I was worried that since you hadn't posted in awhile that something bad had happened. I guess I'm just a negative Nancy . I really hope he gets better soon and you both seem like good puffer parents! Feeding every 3 to 4 hours is very caring!
. I really hope he gets better soon and you both seem like good puffer parents! Feeding every 3 to 4 hours is very caring!*Katie*
The new owner of a salt water tank
The new owner of a salt water tank
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FishFan
- Figure 8 Puffer
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- Location: USA
Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer
Here's an updated photo of this cute little guy, along with the old ones for comparison. Based on the photo and his eating behaviors we see steady progress. This evening we're feeling confident enough about his progress that we're trying to decide on a name.
April 16th (Day of purchase)
April 20th
April 25th edit: fixed broken pic link
April 16th (Day of purchase)
April 20th
April 25th edit: fixed broken pic link
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Last edited by FishFan on Mon Apr 28, 2008 11:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.
A = Anne, R =Robert
There has to be a point.
There has to be a point.