The Puffer Forum

Instead of upgrading your filter I would just add another. Try crushing a snail for him so he knows it's food

After a couple hours I noticed that he was excreting very stringy and light colored feces (parts were reddish brown but parts were also almost white). Anyone know if this is normal? seems it may be related to the presence of internal parasites but I have no idea what F8 feces normally looks like. Other aspects of his behavior and appearance seem to be OK.

skoram wrote:After a couple hours I noticed that he was excreting very stringy and light colored feces (parts were reddish brown but parts were also almost white). Anyone know if this is normal? seems it may be related to the presence of internal parasites but I have no idea what F8 feces normally looks like. Other aspects of his behavior and appearance seem to be OK.

Healthy poop should look almost like mice turds, but sometimes not so solid but usually dark. But who knows what yours has been through or been fed and actually eating since captivity.

This was an F8 I got 2 years ago:



The poop looked white but the camera made it kinda green.










I'm still not sure if 100% IPs but the fish never ate and died about 10 days later. I hope yours is just stressed and has actually been eating non puffer food giving the weird poop.

Do you have access to Prazipro...From my own experience this has worked best for me...At least the puffs that I've treated with it have fully matured.


Good luck.



*edit*

I also remember some members saying that white stringy poop could also be mucus and nothing to worry about.

wow, that puffer looks quite healthy, aside from the feces. my puffer's feces does not look like that - it is very consistent and literally resembles a long and very thin sausage. I wish I could have taken a picture of it. Also, earlier this morning I noticed something very strange. My puffer seemingly had a "spasm" where it suddenly, and for no apparent reason, went crazy and started darting all over the tank, swimming sideways, upside down, etc. after about 2 seconds of this - it went back to "normal." There is definitely something off about this fish. Unfortunately Jungle Tabs are not sold in Korea but I purchased some Praziquantel in the form of JBL's Gyrodol (seems to be primarily Praziquantel pre-dissolved in an alcohol solution) and have placed the puffer in a QT with a few drops.

skoram wrote:my puffer's feces does not look like that - it is very consistent and literally resembles a long and very thin sausage

To me, that sounds like a good thing. Like I said, who knows what he has actually been eating since captivity.

And the "spasm"...Was he by chance sleeping and startled awake? They sleep and especially in a new surround may not have a normal sleeping place and may drift around the tank kinda groggy. They also need a few minutes and longer to wake up and get their senses. Also when they sleep they will sometimes curl up and turn dark or pale in color. I bet your little guy is healthy and he just needs ti get used to things for a few days or even weeks before he starts eating, sleeping, and acting normal. Also expect some glass surfing and/or hiding in the process. Keep in mind that these fish are snatched out of their natural environment and go through total hell before they find a good home in our aquariums.

Good luck.

No, he was not sleeping when it happened. He was swimming along normally then suddenly went crazy. His behavior conjured in my mind an image a person who suddenly feels something crawling around underneath their clothes. It was a very wild and uncontrolled series of movements. The fish isn't in terrible shape, but there is definitely something wrong with it. Externally he appears OK, there are no lesions or apparent skin problems though his coloring is somewhat faded. I also noticed that most of the time he does not use one of his pectoral fins. he keeps it tucked against his side while only using the other fin - at first I thought the unused fin was torn off or eaten. I have seen him using it occasionally and it seems functional so I have no idea if there is any related problem. My understanding is that this type of "one-sided" fin usage is abnormal.

It may have been a wound he got during shipping or during his capture, that didn't heal correctly. There may not be a lot to fix that, if it is red or seems to have an open wound you can dose with melfix and table salt 1 table salt/ 5gallon? not sure on that part. He may be just still adjusting to his tank, sometimes they need more time then other fish. Also wait for a second opinion from someone else.

I would give him a little longer, my fahaka went crazy when I moved him, it might be just him having a little panic.

That seems to be a very quick cycle, check your water parameters for elevated levels of ammonia and nitrite

I've been checking NH4, NO2 and NO3 levels everyday for roughly the past 2 weeks.

NH4 has steadily remained at 0
NO2 has also been at 0 for most days, though it did rise somewhere between 0 and 0.3 (using Tetra's test kit) on a few days

Regardless of these levels, I have been performing ~30% water changes every other day. I administered small amounts of Gyrodol (Praziquantel) and Metronidazole through bloodworms last week and the F8 seems to be doing much better. He seems more active and did finally eat a couple snails but still doesn't seem as interested in them as I would expect from a puffer. He is still not using both pectoral fins most of the time when he swims. His feces has also dramatically changed. I'm not 100% sure he had IPs - the problems I noticed may have been the result of the diet they were feeding him at the pet store.

If they were feeding lots of white colour foods the poop can come out in that colour, keep us posted on how this goes.