Deworming.

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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littlepuffers
Dwarf Puffer
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Deworming.

Post by littlepuffers »

Before we knew anything about deworming, we had purchased Jungle Parasite Clear tank buddies. You drop a tab in the wtaer and it fizzes. We read that you can soak food in this, and of course that would be much less stressful than dropping one in the water. The ingredients are praziquantel, diflubenzuron, metronidazole, and acriflavine.

How would we use these to deworm our puffers? How much, and how long, etc.

Are there any other medications that are better to deworm with?
Nick
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Re: Deworming.

Post by Nick »

I recently treated a couple puffers with them, in the water. It's perfectly safe as long as you do the large volume water changes afterwords. I recommend treating the water even if you treat the food as well, so expelled parasites are also killed and not picked up again.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
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littlepuffers
Dwarf Puffer
Posts: 61
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 2:31 pm
My Puffers: One Green Spotted Puffer in a 55G tank. (RIP little puffer #2!)
Location (country): USA
Location: Alaska

Re: Deworming.

Post by littlepuffers »

Thanks for that info. We were wondering about the expelled parasites in the water. We have a 55 gallon tank, so that will take several tabs! We just picked up some Gel-Tek Ultra Cure PX and soaked some krill in it. They don't eve notice the meds! I think we'll do that for 5 instead of 3 days, just to be sure, AND do the tabs.

-Did you dissolve yours before putting them in the water?
-And how many times did you treat it?
-Should we use the tabs at the same time as the Gel-Tek?

Thanks for the info!
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: Deworming.

Post by Nick »

Yes, at the same time. You want to kill anything in the tank before any reinfection can occur. I just plunked mine in the filters and let them fizz in there. I'd do the ultra cure for ten days, treating with the parasite tabs on the first day, then 48 hours after that, then again a week after the first treatment, then again with a large water change and a second dose 48 hours after that.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
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bazil323
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Re: Deworming.

Post by bazil323 »

What Nick said. :) lol. I did dissolve mine first, but only because the box said something about doing that. I don't remember why (size of tank or brackish?).

I used both meds you mentioned, at the same time, and they worked very well.
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littlepuffers
Dwarf Puffer
Posts: 61
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 2:31 pm
My Puffers: One Green Spotted Puffer in a 55G tank. (RIP little puffer #2!)
Location (country): USA
Location: Alaska

Re: Deworming.

Post by littlepuffers »

Thanks for the info, that's exactly what we'll do. We are gonig to treat for ich first, then deworm.
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: Deworming.

Post by Nick »

If you have internal parasites, do NOT wait the month for ich treatment. Separate Ich treatment is unnecessary for GSP anyway, as when you raise the SG by .002 a week, the ich will quickly die from the increasingly brackish conditions.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
User avatar
littlepuffers
Dwarf Puffer
Posts: 61
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 2:31 pm
My Puffers: One Green Spotted Puffer in a 55G tank. (RIP little puffer #2!)
Location (country): USA
Location: Alaska

Re: Deworming.

Post by littlepuffers »

Thanks for the info. We stopped the ich meds, as it looks to be simply a secondary infection or the little casings have not dropped off yet. The SG is at 1.009 and temp at about 80, so anythign there would die anyway! We are going to treat them for IP in a few days, once the water has stabilized a bit more and they have calmed down a bit.
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