Before eating (24hrs since I fed him last)
After eating (~1/4 cube of frozen bloodworms)
F8 with sunken belly (pics)
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.
F8 with sunken belly (pics)
My F8 seems very healthy and active, but everyday before I feed him is belly looks really sunken in. Seems like it's only full for an hour or two after I feed him. I'm worried he might have internal parasites. What do you think?
Before eating (24hrs since I fed him last)
After eating (~1/4 cube of frozen bloodworms)
Before eating (24hrs since I fed him last)
After eating (~1/4 cube of frozen bloodworms)
Last edited by jake_vdb on Sun Oct 01, 2006 10:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Yeah I looked at the "Treating Parasites" topic, but it really isn't very helpful.Phaedrus wrote:Looks likely. Chekc out the stickies for info on treatment.
I was thinking of buying Parasite Clear Tank Buddies.
Active ingredients: praziquantel; N-[[(N-Chlorophenyl)amino]carbon 1]-2,6-difluorobenzamide; metronidazole; acriflavine.
Has anyone tried these? Says it clears both external and internal parasites.
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puffermama
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 126
- Joined: Mon Oct 24, 2005 12:18 pm
Thanks for the tip. I had already dropped one of the tabs in last night though. I don't think it should hurt to have the meds in both the water and his food.. I'll probably do a partial water change before I feed him today just to be safe (don't want to overdose)Dinsdale wrote:It's worth a shot. It cured my DP's IPs. Make sure you soak their food in it, rather than just dissolving the tablets in the tank. Your F8 needs to injest the meds.
I broke off a small piece of a tab and let it dissolve in some water with a cube of frozen bloodworms, I'll just leave it in the refrigerator and feed it to him over the next few days. How long did you feed the medicated food to cure your DP's?
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Dinsdale
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 190
- Joined: Wed Jul 05, 2006 1:10 am
- My Puffers: Bak Mei, ~4" Auriglobus Modestus. In a 55g tank (since '06) w/ some guppies he pays no attention to.
- Location (country): USA
- Location: N. Illinois
I fed them medicated food for about 8 days. Initially, I was conservative with the amount of tablet I dissolved...when I didn't see much improvement after a few days I broke off pretty big chunks of tablets (1/4 pieces) and dissolved one in just a few gallons for the rest of the time.There was only one (out of six) that appeared to have IPs initially and he is doing fine now (couple months later).
Make sure you take the carbon out of your filter, otherwise dropping a tablet in the water would be completely useless.
I didn't drop any tablets in because I worried that maybe the IPs would get exposed to a small amount of it somehow and become tolerant.
Make sure you take the carbon out of your filter, otherwise dropping a tablet in the water would be completely useless.
I didn't drop any tablets in because I worried that maybe the IPs would get exposed to a small amount of it somehow and become tolerant.
This is the third day I have fed with medicated blood worms. I basically broke off a small piece of one of the disks (~1/8th). let it soak in a half cup of water with one cube of bloodworms in the fridge, so it should be pretty heavily medicated. The puffer seems to have a hard time eating the blood worms. I'm not sure if it's because of the medication (tastes bad??), or problems with the parasites. basically he'll suck up a blood worm and then chew on it for a few seconds and spit it out then suck it up again... sometimes it takes him 3 or 4 tries to eat it. I'm trying to be patient with feeding him, but I'm sure he's not getting as much as he was before (I've been feeding him for about 15 minutes, and his belly still isn't rounded like it was before...)Dinsdale wrote:I fed them medicated food for about 8 days. Initially, I was conservative with the amount of tablet I dissolved...when I didn't see much improvement after a few days I broke off pretty big chunks of tablets (1/4 pieces) and dissolved one in just a few gallons for the rest of the time.There was only one (out of six) that appeared to have IPs initially and he is doing fine now (couple months later).
Make sure you take the carbon out of your filter, otherwise dropping a tablet in the water would be completely useless.
I didn't drop any tablets in because I worried that maybe the IPs would get exposed to a small amount of it somehow and become tolerant.
Looks like I have enough left to feed him tomorrow (feed 1/4 cube/day). Should I keep up with the meds after that, or do you think it's enough?
Hi I have been reading this and have a couple of questions. How do you tell if they have them is it just the sunken belly or does it have to do with the color of the belly too?
1. Does it hurt the medicine to set in the refrigerator with the blood worms/food?
2. How long does the food need to soak in the medicine, could you soak for an hour or two on the counter and then feed the f8's
Sorry I'm treating my f8 for ich that they had when they came home and am just trying to learn all I can so I can recognize things and know what to do if I need to.
Thank You for your time and any information you have to share.
1. Does it hurt the medicine to set in the refrigerator with the blood worms/food?
2. How long does the food need to soak in the medicine, could you soak for an hour or two on the counter and then feed the f8's
Sorry I'm treating my f8 for ich that they had when they came home and am just trying to learn all I can so I can recognize things and know what to do if I need to.
Thank You for your time and any information you have to share.