The Puffer Forum

i have no clue about the pooh, but john, i didnt mean to insult you. I have forgotten to do it once or twice, "out of site out of mind " know what i mean?

Awhile back I had a F8 with poo like that and eventually a big Haemorrhoid hanging out. The outcome was not good, but you are far more knowledgeable than I and are also responding much earlier than I was able to. I'm no expert but looks like IPs to me.

Good luck man.

That feces looks more like partially/undigested food to me.

Rusty wrote:i have no clue about the pooh, but john, i didnt mean to insult you. I have forgotten to do it once or twice, "out of site out of mind " know what i mean?

oh, I wasnt insulted, I was just giving you a hard time! really, no worries!

okay just checking , i dont want to insult anyone. thanks

hmmm, Flutter continues to breath hard...

I'm not sure if he is worsening or if its from the heat.... I almost hesitate to bring it up to 90degrees....its hovering round 87-88degrees.....

That seems awfully hot. When we had a power failure last summer and my tank temps went that high, I had healthy fish in respiratory distress, even with good aeration.

Just a thought but was your puff breathing hard before you started medicating? I've seen breathing distress on rare occasion when I medicated with certain things, particularly Melafix/Pimafix.

he was breathing hard before that yes, but he stopped, and now that the heat is up he is doing that again.

yeah, I know that is awfully hot, and I am only raising it that high because I was told to.

I got a message back from the fish doctor, and he thinks that it is either a bacterial infection, or an infection from spore forming protozoa. he says treat with an anti-biotic...

the only QT tank I have is cycled at a SG of 1.008, and currently housing a GSP.

I would have to drip aclimate the GSP over to my SW tank, hope he doesnt kill the firefish, clean out the QT really well, and cram as much filter media as I culd into the filter and pray it is enough to handle Flutter....

any advice?

I got a message back from the fish doctor

Was that from the Shedd?

I'd go w/one treatment at a time & do the full course, before moving on to something else. I also wouldn't push the juvie GSP into SW too soon--defiantly not w/a firefish!

unless the doctor said otherwise, I would also say finish this treatment, as you dont want to end up with super IPS down the line. another thing is that , a qt can be many things and many times doesnt have filtration, especially in your case in which you are going to be treating with antibiotic which will kill off the bacterial colonies. in such a situation daily water changes are best.

no, it wasnt from shedd. im not sure who exactly it was, but it was the guy who rusty gave me the adress for.

yeah, your right, I should finish this treatment first.

heh, your right, i'm not sure what I was thinking, but if I am treating with antibiotics I wouldnt need a cycled tank. just BIG daily WCs.

I sure hope the treament i'm using works....

like i said "out of sight out of mind" lol

the person you spoke with is Dr peter Burgess.

I'll read what it says about him in the back of a book of his.


Dr Peter Burgess BSc, MSc, Mphil,PhD
is a qualified fish health scientist with 25 years experience as an aquarist. He is a visiting lecturer in aquarium sciences at Plymouth University and Brooksby College in england.Peter is an international consultant to the aquarium fish industry, specialising in fish health and aquarium managment, and he runs fish husbandry courses for aquarists, scientists,and veterinarians, both in the U.K and abroad. He has written over 80 articles and scientific papers on fish and is editor of the international journal, "Aquarium Sciences and Conservation.

thats form a book he wrote in 1998, so his experience has grown from then.

its not looking good.....

he is still breathing a little hard, and there is still one little "pimple" like thing. it actually looks like it might be sharp at the end, really pointy.

anyway, I finally got the vita-chem, but now he wont eat he swims up to it all excited about the food, takes a big mouthfull of it, but then spits it back out...

I am really at a loss here....

I am seriously considering drip accliamting my GSP over to my SW tank so I can use my QT tank to medicate Flutter with antibiotics.

any and all advice apreciated...

Hi John
The poo that you see is more than likely a tapeworm The parasite med you used has prazi in it For now I would start to lower the temp and treat with a mild antibiotic The tapeworm when attached inside the fish does have small claws and after it is passed yous fishes stomach will be a little upset The reason for a mild antibiotic is so your fish wont develop a secondary internal infection