The Puffer Forum

Our smallest dwarf puffer (Beaker) doesn't appear to be doing too well. He is nearly always on the bottom, hardly moves, and nearly always hides in the back of the tank. Earlier today he was sitting on the bottom of the tank and was almost entirely brown - you almost couldn't see the spots because he was almost as dark as his spots!

I've also noticed he seems very thin. I'm not sure I can explain this exactly, and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't show up in a picture... His front back to the back of the gills is fairly good sized. It looks like he might have been a fairly large fish as far as DP's go. Then his body suddenly drops off to about half the size instead of tapering off like the rest of the puffers I have.

So... does this sound like internal parasites? I have a 2.5 gallon tank I was going to use for snails. Should I put him in there with a filter, heater, food and meds or what?

-Kenny

Could you provide a little more information to help determine the correct diagnosis/treatment?

•Can you post a picture of Beaker?
•How long have you had Beaker?
•When was the aquarium set up and how was it cycled?
•Have there been any changes made in the tank recently?
•What are the numerical readings of the PH, Ammonia, NitrIte, & NitrAtes?
•How often and what do you feed?
•How often do you do water changes and clean the gravel?

Please post the requested info and a moderator/member will be able to more accurately help you.

I'm going to a wedding soon, and don't have time for the pics. Also, I haven't picked up a water testing kit yet, so I have no clue about the water parameters, but I can't answer the rest of the questions.

•How long have you had Beaker?

A little over a week.

•When was the aquarium set up and how was it cycled?

Almost a month ago. I cycled with Bio-spira. That was a couple weeks before I purchased Beaker.

•Have there been any changes made in the tank recently?

Only a 50% water change and getting an airstone in one of the aquarium ornaments.

•How often and what do you feed?

I do daily feedings of frozen bloodworms when I get home from work, and I've been doing nearly weekly feedings of those pesky little aquarium snails. I also had 6 ghost shrimp in the tank last week, and my wife has fed them the frozen brine shrimp a time or two.

•How often do you do water changes and clean the gravel?

I vacuum the gravel when I do water changes. I was a bad procrastinator and didn't do the first water change until 2 - 3 weeks after I got the tank set up.

-Kenny

I had a couple minutes to try to snap some photos of Beaker. These little guys are hard to get a good picture of! The other 5 move fast, and Beaker sees the camera coming and he hides. I did get three all right pictures. I'm just going to link to them instead of posting huge pics here.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a110/ ... eaker1.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a110/ ... eaker2.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a110/ ... eaker3.jpg

-Kenny

Last night, Beaker looked like he was really not feeling good. He was sitting on top of the fake plant and hyperventilating or something. The worst - I'm using the snail tank as the hospital/quarantine tank and he was not at all interested in the snails! Bad news for a puffer. So this morning, he was just sitting totally motionless. I never put any meds in the hospital tank since I didn't know what was wrong with Beaker. Down to five totally healthy puffers now.

-Kenny

Sorry to hear that…

Have you purchased some test kits yet?

Internal parasites is a very common problem with DPs, and one personally, I have not been able to fix or cure. I have tried numerous meds, and none have gotten rid of the buggers, if the DPs even bother to eat it. Other people have had better luck than I, but for now, all new DPs get quarantined for a month to two months.

Can a DP get IPs pretty much out of the blue? Where do they come from?

I had two together for almost a year. The male suddenly got emaciated, but the female still looks fine. Both are active and eat well, but the male thins out shortly after a feeding.

I feed them bloodworms daily or every other day, plus the odd snail that ends up in the tank. The tank is cycled with nitrates under 20 ppm (usually under 10 ppm), and weekly water changes usually run between 40-50%. These guys were in a tank rack, and the bioload has been reduced significantly recently; I sold a lot of my fish, so lots of the tanks are empty.

(Sorry to hijack the thread...)

Good to see ya SG!

I haven't managed to get a water test kit. Mostly I have no idea where to start. What do I need to get to test a freshwater tank and any recommendations on what brand to get?

-Kenny

You can buy a Master Test Kit at http://www.bigalsonline.com. If you haven't quarantined the snails, the IPs could have come from them. Or you could have other issues...

Many of us use Aquarium Pharmaceuticals and/or Tetra. I don't think the brand name is as important as the type of test. Do not use dip strips. They are inaccurate. Use kits with liquid, powder, or tablet regents. The main tests are for PH, Ammonia, NitrIte, and NitrAte. Carbonate Hardness and General Hardness are also good to have around.

Spontaneous generatation is out. There is only one source for intestinal parasites and that is earlier generations of the intestinal parasites. But subclinical infestations do happen, just as they do with Ich.

It is not uncommon for a fish to have had IPs at time of purchase, only to finally subcumb to them after 6 months or so.

I just lost all of my dwarf puffers except for one after a month long quarantine failed to show internal parasites, and several months later they all got infected (infested?)
The one I didnt lose was an extremely (over 1") large male.

I tried prazipro, Gelteks Ultra Cure PX, and even a panacur worm medicine that our vet prescribed for when one of our dogs had worms. All were applied to bloodworms and fed to the puffers over the course of about 2 months. There were numerous water changes and other things I did too.

I can't honestly say what it was that did it, or if the male will still make it. He -seems- to be putting weight back on though.

Oddly none of the other algae or clean up crews were affected at all.