The Puffer Forum

So sorry Suzanne, and I sure hope BeeBoo will make a full recovery. As you know I have a mbu as well, and I would be devastated if Kaleeko had IP of some sort. Best of luck! Fingers crossed!

I wish I could help in some way...

Jingles for BeeBoo.

Thank you all for the kind words and well-wishing, it's very much appreciated.

Well the meds I am waiting on still have not come today .....so let's hope it's tomorrow! On the good side, BeeBoo isn't looking emaciated yet, he's still got a decent belly on him, but on the bad side, he just totally ignores the food when I put it in the tank. The only thing he seems remotely interested in are snails. I cleaned my snail tank today and I usually hand out snails when I do that, so I went around giving each of my puffers a few snails, and when it came to BeeBoo's turn, he was keen enough to eat the snails. In fact, he really seemed to like them .... but that is THE only food he will take right now. So I'm not sure how I will get the meds into him when they finally do arrive. I don't really want to dose the entire tank because for one thing, it's a big tank and would need a huge dose, and another thing is that I have a few really nice nerite snails in there, as well as an aquatic crab in that tank, and I don't want to kill those -- so I think my best bet is to remove BeeBoo and put him in a temporary holding area while I dose that water with meds if I can't get him to eat food that is treated.
I just hope the meds come tomorrow so I can get this treatment started.

And now I have another puffer to worry about. My new Congo, Orangey, isn't eating. In fact, in the 12 days that I've had him, he's only eaten 2 Endler guppies, which isn't much for a fish his size. I've been putting a piece of mussel in the tank, as well as a piece of raw shrimp to try and entice him. And if he's not eaten either the food that I put in there tonight, or one of the guppies, by tomorrow, then I am going to see if I can find a bait shop and get some earthworms and see if that works. I don't want to lose him, and it's just not looking very good at this point. His tummy is definitely sucked in and isn't at all healthy looking. I don't believe he's got internal parasites (I suppose anything is possible), but I will keep observing him and what's going on in that tank.

If BeeBoo won't eat, you could sedate and force-feed... the epic Hospital thread following Annabelle's IPs talks about it.

Well I'd like to try using the meds before I go for sedation. I have sedated my smaller puffers, but I would not even hazard a guess on the dosage to sedate a puffer as big as BeeBoo. He is eating snails .... so at least that's some nutrition going in his belly. So I won't give up hope yet.

I know this is a little off topic, but do you have any pics of BeeBoo? Current or past?
I just would like to see how large s/he is!


Good sign s/he is at least eating snails.
Kaleeko really enjoys tiger shrimp, I don't know if you've ever tried that with BeeBoo?

I'm very sorry to hear about your puffers. I hope the meds arrive soon and you can start getting BeeBoo better.

That's funny that you asked about photos Lisa, I've been uploading some, and I had no idea you had left that message asking about photos .... very weird.
But yes, I wanted everyone to see what BeeBoo is looking like now. Some of these photos were taken day before yesterday, and in some of them you can see the white poo .... and then some were taken just a little while ago, and I'm happy to report that his poo is now back to brown!!! It's not been brown for a couple weeks, so maybe feeding him all those snails last night and tonight have helped him. At least I hope so. Maybe his intestines and/or bowel was irritated. I don't know.

Anyway, here's some photos of the BeeB

In this one you can see just a little of the stringy white poo, it had been thicker, but was just a little string when I took this



And here's another with white poo



If you look closely in this one, you can see my salivator puffer peering out of the plants on the right



BeeBoo is smiling in this one!



These are from tonight









and I know, I still haven't cleaned the glass yet ... all those horrible water marks!!!

Have you tried the methods listed in the feeding articles in our Library for your Congo?

How old is BeeBoo?? He certainly is a lot lighter than Kaleeko, glad to hear he is pooing properly now! lol

He doesn't look ill per-say, seems like his tummy is a little small compared to Kaleeko though, mind you Kaleeko eats a little snack almost everyday though!

I think if he is alert, and coming to see you at the glass that you may have cured him!
The only time I worry about Kaleeko is if he is sulking at the bottom and just resting and won't move (happens sometimes after clean-up) He will get pretty stressed out everytime we clean, he's not a big fan!

I also found that once we added another filter it created some current, and he seems to be much, much happier, maybe that will help??

Hope this somewhat helps you

Hi Pufferpuggirl,

If you don't mind me asking could you let me know what brand of meds containing metronidiazol you went for, please? I'd like to get some to have in the medicine chest...

Would anyone 'worm' puffers as a matter of course in quarantine?


Hope BeeBoo is hanging in there.

Thanks for your comments Lisa. If it weren't for his colouring, I would say that BeeBoo isn't really looking too sick, but his colouring is definitely off and he's still not eating anything but snails, so that has me concerned. I am hoping the meds arrive today though.

Mr Soggy -- the medication I have ordered is called "Zoolek Aquasan-S" there's supposed to be 12-tablets in the packet, but it was much cheaper than the praziquantel that I've ordered from America, which hasn't arrived yet either. I always look to eBay for everything before I buy it elsewhere because you can find things so much cheaper on eBay, and that's where I've ordered the meds from. He posted them yesterday and they are only coming from Leeds, so I should, by all rights, get them today. Then I have to figure out how to get the meds into BeeBoo's body!!!
And to answer your question, some people do worm puffers regularly. I know a guy at a fish store that always worms every fish he gets in, no matter whether it's showing signs or not. I feel that it's not a good thing to put a puffer through harsh chemicals if they don't need it, but that's just my way of thinking.

As for the Congo .... I need to see if I can find a bait shop and get some earthworms and see if that gets him to eat. The shop was feeding him whitefish pieces .... so I don't understand why he's not taking any of the food that I've put in the tank. I've tried mussels and raw shrimp, and even cooked shrimp, plus I've got about 5 Endler's in there. I have a bad feeling about this Congo though, as some of them can be very difficult to get eating. I have never had any other puffers that were as difficult as the Congo puffer.

Hi pufferpug girl,

Many thanks for the info - the substance is hard to locate in UK products but I haven't had a good look yet Point taken about not treating until you have to - it's pretty easy to spot the white stringy poo after all. I'm not sure I'd like to be given meds that would probably give me severe stomach cramps just after being moved, either!

I think with seahorses I might have to given my record so far with IP. I've found that if they start to go off food or go out of condition it's very hard to bring them back.

That Mbu looks like he might flutter over and perch on your wrist given feet and a chance! A diver friend of mine ended up with a scorpion fish sitting on his head once, so

I might get to the beach between Christmas and New Year, if I do I'll send you some inverts to feed them. If you are really stuck for earthworms, I could raid the pond filter - there's loads in between the foam pads and they should contain no weedkiller etc.

Just looking at structures of the med molecules and it seems my Flubenol might be a synomn for Flubendazole. Praziquantel seems to be an active ingredient in deworming humans, too. Ah, my poor wife - I've already asked her to buy me turkey basters (for seahorse feeding) while I was at work and she got some very funny looks from other customers at the checkout with just the large turkey basters, nothing else. Now it's either tablets for worms or worse, pig wormer

No, I won't do that to her! wouldn't add non-aquatic sanctioned chemicals either unless I knew exactly what was in it.

The flubendazole you mentioned is the active ingredient in the Kusuri Wormer Plus, which is one that I bought a while back. The only problem is that it kills snails and crabs, and I have both in the tank BeeBoo is in. I don't have a "hospital" tank unfortunately.
Well, the metronidazole didn't arrive today ... bummer! However, the praziquantel did. I've been told I should use both on BeeBoo, so I might work on getting the praziquantel into him tonight, just have to see how I might accomplish that. I may have to impregnate some snails with meds!

Funny that you mentioned about BeeBoo fluttering and perching ... we've always thought he looks like a bird without wings.

Yeah I've not got around to looking for bait shops yet, but I know that Orangey, the Congo, still hasn't eaten anything. All the food I put in yesterday was still there (now removed) and all the Endler's are still counted for. I just wish he'd eat one of the fish, that would make me feel better. I had a Congo that stopped eating before and it didn't turn out very well .... and that's how this is feeling.

On a happier note, tomorrow I am getting another Palembang puffer (humpback puffer), so I'm very excited about that. And get this, I paid £32 for the one I have now, and this one I'm getting tomorrow is only going to cost me £5.50!! I nearly fell off my chair when my friend told me that's how much he will be charging me. Because he originally told me £15, which is still better than £32, so to get it for much less than that is just fantastic. So at least I have one thing to be happy about.

Really good luck with feeding BeeBoo the medicated snails

I know exactly how to get the Congo feeding. Find the rarest, most expensive small fish you can find - it'll be gone in a flash!

Sounds like seahorses again, once they stop feeding it's difficult to get them going again even if parameters are perfect