The Puffer Forum

Protozoan IPs, unlike tapeworms, don't eject in strings, the poo quality just gradually improves as the IPs die. Is he eating? You can try soaking freeze dried foods in geltek overnight in the fridge to saturate them, getting a higher dose into your puffer. I recommend at least 3 treatments of the jungle tabs in a row, for a total of 6 days of treatment, it takes a while for it to penetrate their entire systems through the gills.

cphipps70 wrote:I have a GSP that looks the EXACT same way and I have been trying to figure out what is wrong with him. The sunk in tummy and he is just annorexic looking! Let me know what you find about helping them! Ill go to the store tomorrow to get some stuff if it will help! Thanks!

Me too, I have given my gsp a couple doses of gel tek soaked in her food... and she has stayed this way still. Shes always ravenously hungry, but she doesnt show any signs of sickness... has a white belly most of the time and all. I havent seen her pass any worms either.... the intersting thing is when researching IP's in fish I read somewhere that IP's cause swollen belly! Completly opposite to what I thought..... the scary thing is I also read that a fish that looks emaciated might have TB! Yea you read that right... It said an emaciated fish could have TB and that it could pass to humans..... crazy....

And I've always heard the opposite, with worms a puffer's belly would be emiciated or sunken in. Annabelle's tummy was swollen and lumpy, opposite of everything I've read. I found an article with the pictures of the protozoan IPs that Nick mentioned. I'll have to try and find it again. It looked like a bunch of short red strings coming out of the anus. About half the size of this( I ). Very short and bunched togeter. It said don't try to remove them because they bed into the intestines which causes the worm to be red because it feeds on the fishes blood. I'll try to find it again.

Nick is this what you are talking about or am I on the wrong road?

Found it finally, http://www.fishforum.com/tropical-fish- ... 179/page4/

The worms are longer than I first thought. Scroll all the way down to the bottom and you can see what I was talking about. I don't know if this is what your fish has, it just stuck in my head.

EEP! All those sound so scary. I really don't think he has any of those, (I hope). TBH I've never seen him poo or seen his feces. He's still quite lively and hungry. His tank is on my bar and he follows me when I walk from the kitchen to the dining room, and he eats all his normal food. You wouldn't think he's sick if it wasn't for him looking emaciated. I'll make sure to check his vent when I get off work, oh and I went hom at luch and got a krill soaking in gel tek for his dinner.

I didn't like what I read either. I thought it was a good sight with pictures for different things. I remembered this time to save it.

I didn't see any signs of anything by his vent, he seems to be getting thinner, like someone pinched him on his tail. I swear I can see his bones under his tummy =( The second jungle tabs treatment is under way. Now the gel tek says to feed it to them for 3 days, can I do more or does he need a break from it?

Feed only geltek soaked food for he duration of treatment, ten days might be better. Freeze dried foods, normally one of my least favorites for puffers, are amazing geltek sponges if you just soak them in it for a couple hours, and are my favorite way to deliver it.

Well I think I saw a tape worm being excreted today, it was white and kinda stringy then kinda bumpy, it came out right before he started pooing, or at least thats what i think the second part was. He gets another fizzy tab today. I hope he gets better soon.

Make sure you're doing good water changes/gravel vaccuums now.. just in case he's purging any not--dead-yet (yes you are! I feel haaa-pppyyy.. sorry Monty Python in my head now) parasites, you don't want them to reinfect him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p53kJX64 ... re=related

I just had to....

I would do as nick suggested and get freeze-dried food. It really does soak up the gel-tek. This may help him pass more worm. Also do as Myaj said and clean the substrate really well. You don't want to go through this twice.

Ok last night was day 6 of this new round of treatment- so it was the 3 jungle tab and his 6th gel tek soaked freeze dried krill in a row (he's gonna get spoiled eating everyday). He was his feisty self, didn't notice anythng out of the ordinary.

Today at lunch I noticed his tummy turning dark =(

I did a 25% water change before starting his fizzy tabs and then again before the other 2 (per directions on the box)

As soon as I give him one krill, I start the next one soaking.

Would raising the temp or salinity do anything here?

Nah, temp or salinity won't affect much. I would be feeding him every day, or even twice a day, until he becomes really pudgy (and after the worms have passed, of course).

Myaj wrote:Make sure you're doing good water changes/gravel vaccuums now.. just in case he's purging any not--dead-yet (yes you are! I feel haaa-pppyyy.. sorry Monty Python in my head now) parasites, you don't want them to reinfect him.

I think I'll go for a walk now!