My experience with treating for IP- need advice

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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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Cognity7
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My experience with treating for IP- need advice

Post by Cognity7 »

So i picked up the Jungle medicated fish pellets at my LFS to treat my cutcutia for internal parasites. The darker one is putting on weight and looks really healthy so i'm not too worried about her, but the lighter colored one is awefully skinny so i'm thinking there might be some parasites in her. Here is a journal over my dosing and what i've done so far. Any tips anyone might have would be very appreciative! I have searched the forum but most of the threads say they found worms in the fish poop.. i have not found such a thing. So i am wondering if i am dosing enough..

I opened up a cube of blood worms- added it to tank water with 4-5 pellets in the water. I let this sit for about 2 hours (sometimes longer.. i try to get the pellets disolved for the most part). I then feed my two puffers these bloodworms (usually have a few worms left which i throw in the tank later that night. I repeated this process for 4 days. (the bottle says treat for 4 days straight, wait 3 days and repeat. Repeat process for 4 different 4 day dosings)I then have waited 3 days and i started dosing again yesterday. My puffers eat the bloodworms up just fine but do not touch the disolving pellets. Like i said, the female appears to be coloring up nicely and is plump-might even be filling up with eggs by the looks of her- but what i think is the male is still pretty skinny before eating. How long until you guys saw worms in the stool? Do you think i am dosing enough? Should i add more than 5 pellets? Did i even buy the right stuff?

1) Water parameters: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, 20ish nitrate, pH 7.8-8.0
2) Tank Size: 10g for now because i'm treating both tetraodon cutcutia for IP. They are divided by a tank divider. They are about 1.5 inches long. I have a 38g cycling for them atm
3) I have discussed the feeding (i try to give them homegrown snails 2-3 times a week too)- i change about 25%-30% water every Saturday. I use Prime when i do water changes That's the only chemical i've ever used.
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so: No changes in the last week. I got the fish about a month ago
5) How long the aquarium has been set up?- its been set up Since April. I cycled it using danios before i knew about the fishless cycle (which i did with my 37g)
Last edited by Cognity7 on Sun Oct 23, 2011 8:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: My experience with treating for IP- need advice

Post by sevenyearnight »

I'm not familiar with anything called pellets. It's Jungle Fizz tabs Parasite Clear, looks like pinkish Alka Seltzer. Break off a piece, marinate food with some crushed garlic in a small amount of tank water.
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Re: My experience with treating for IP- need advice

Post by Pufferpunk »

Sounds like medicated fish food? It might work, as some of the meds may get re-absorbed into the worms. Better to use the meds directly to the worms though.
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!"
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Re: My experience with treating for IP- need advice

Post by Cognity7 »

Pufferpunk wrote:Sounds like medicated fish food? It might work, as some of the meds may get re-absorbed into the worms. Better to use the meds directly to the worms though.
So can I assume that when my fish stops looking skinny and puts on some weight it will be fine to stop?

aka- that's the ultimate goal and there really aren't any other sure signs that the fish is IP free... right?
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Re: My experience with treating for IP- need advice

Post by Pufferpunk »

Correct--assuming this is the correct med to combat this IP.
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!"
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Re: My experience with treating for IP- need advice

Post by branw »

I accidentally bought the medicated fish food first. My puffers would not eat it at all.Picked up the fizz tabs and dissolved the fizz tabs in a bit of tank water and soaked pieces of frozen shrimp, a bit of crushed garlic. I soaked over night and they gobbled it up!
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Re: My experience with treating for IP- need advice

Post by Pufferpunk »

There you go. :)
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!"
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Re: My experience with treating for IP- need advice

Post by Cognity7 »

Well i ground up the medicated food and i'm soaking the bloodworms in it for a few hours before feeding. They eat the bloodworms just fine! I'm going to try this for another week and see if Fluky starts putting on some weight. If still skinny by next week i will buy the fizz tabs.

thanks guys!

P.S. I can't find the fizz tabs anywhere local and shipping online is more expensive than the actual tabs! Hince why i'm going to try waiting it out first..
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