The Puffer Forum

I did the water treatment, waited 48 hours and did the second (which was Tuesday). He looks really skinny today-it's freaking me out. I'm wondering if it's because the worms died off? I mean REALLY skinny.

Did this happen to anyone else?

Today he looked thin again. Usually I feed him at night until his belly buldges and the next day he'll be thin again. I got Levamisole from my Aquatic Vet, I put him in a separate tank to treat him, used 1/4 of a ML (1 ML per 20 gallons) in five gallons. I kept him in there for two hours. I didn't see any worms so at this point I can assume either he has internal damage from parasites OR he has a high metabolism. I do hope he points on some weight.

IMO, you must treat food to get rid of IPs.

Levamisole is only effective against actual worms, much like praziquantel. In cases of protozoan wasting diseases, only metrodiazole or flubendazole will be effective.

He needs some metro in his food to get rid of the IPs.....no problem. I'm going to pick up some metro powder today and make a cocktail. I did one round of the tabs I'll do a WC today and start another round. Monk says Thanks

No problem.

I just fed him a cocktail of Metro + 3 drops of Levamisole.

I'm removing Monk from his tank and putting him in QT until he's fully healed. I bought the Metronidazole Powder and am going to treat the water with that. The directions say to treat 1/4 teaspoon per 20 gallon and 25% water change every 24 hours followed by another treatment for 10 days. I soaked some food in this so hopefully this works. I might have to force feed him but I hope it doesn't come to that.

If you have only one fish in the tank, why QT him? You will want to eliminate the parasites in the main tank itself as well.

During the Metro treatment each day I need to do a large water change for 10 days so I figured it'll be easier to keep up with if I have him in a smaller tank as opposed to his regular tank. After I move him back to his regular tank I'm going to continue his food/water treatment so it won't reinfect him.

Make sure you move his filter to the QT with him.

I had him in QT last night and moved him back today b/c he is grey and I hate to him sad. I gave him some medicated food he ate a little and then spit the rest out. I tried force feeding him with a syringe last night but it didn't end up in his mouth b/c he was squirming.

Metrodiazole, flubendazole, and praziquentel, while most effective in food, will work well enough added to the water. Rather than mess around with lots of different things, I just use jungle labs parasite cure fizz tabs these days, they have metrodiazole and praziquentel. I treat the tank, do a 50% or so change two days after then treat again, and repeat in a week. Seems to work fine.

I'm still using the tabs to treat the water I just figured food will help kill this stubborn parasite!I did one round of the tabs today is the second round....hopefully this clears it up. I saw him poo, it's white and string-like.

Even if he eats one mouthful, that's good enough to get some of the meds in there. White/stringy, isn't good healthy poo.