The Puffer Forum

I have two GSP, one of which is hardly eating. It shows interest in the food and will pick at it and eat some of it. But, he won't eat much. His other tank mate, has kept his appetite, and eats until he's nicely rounded. I'm somewhat concerned about the skinny one. He hasn't been eating much for the past couple weeks. When I got them earlier they both had very healthy appetites.

-My water parameters are pH: 8.2, ammonia: 0, nitrites: 0, nitrates: 10. The SG is about 1.002.

-They live in a 55gal, just the two of them. They have no other tankmates. I have two AquaClear 110's for filtration.

-I feed once a day and fast once or twice a week depending on their belly size. They eat live feeder shrimp, small feeder crayfish, and snails. Frozen food are clams and bits of scallops which I soak in Selcon before feeding. I do water changes every two weeks. I use NovAqua+ as a water conditioner and Instant Ocean salt.

-In the last week I haven't done any water changes, and I just checked my water quality.

-My aquarium has been running for about four or five months. I cycled my tank by transferring my old filter onto the new tank and running it for about a week. Before adding my puffers.

I have tried switching up my puffers food and handfeeding, but he still doesn't have much of an appetite. His beak looks fine to me. I was looking through the library and I was wondering if he might have internal parasites? The only dewormer listed I could find was Praziquantel, PraziPro by Aquarium Solutions. The directions say it is to be used as a bath. Is it possible to use it orally and soak the frozen food in it? Could it be something else that is affecting it? I don't want to stress or possibly kill it by treating it for things it doesn't have.

It sounds like he has internal parasites. PraziPro should work and you should just soak the food in that. I'm not exactly sure on how much to use, hopefully someone who has some experience with the meds will come along soon.

as far as getting a gsp to eat mine has never refused an earthworm from the backyard (his absolute favorite!), but i only give them to him because i never use any fertilizers or pesticides! you could try that just to get some nutrition into him.

Is hisbelly indented?
Try soaking the food in garlic and see if that gets him to eat, if it doesn't treat with Praziquantel. I'm almost positive you can just treat the tank with prazi to kill off all the IP.

seacowz wrote:as far as getting a gsp to eat mine has never refused an earthworm from the backyard (his absolute favorite!), but i only give them to him because i never use any fertilizers or pesticides! you could try that just to get some nutrition into him.

I'm afraid to feed earthworms, my family doesn't use any fertilizers or pesticides, but my neighbors use alot.

crazedpuffer wrote:Is hisbelly indented?
Try soaking the food in garlic and see if that gets him to eat, if it doesn't treat with Praziquantel. I'm almost positive you can just treat the tank with prazi to kill off all the IP.

His belly isn't indented. He's usually just got a smooth almost flat belly. When I feed them, his belly will get just a little definition. While his greedy tankmate will get nicely rounded. I've even tried separating them during feeding, hoping that it would encourage him to eat more. and stop the other one from pigging out on his uneaten portion. But, it doesn't really help. He just picks at his food.

I'm in Hawaii, and the selection of fish meds are very slim, no one here carries garlic remedies. Alot of the places I went to don't even know about it. I could order it online, but it would take about a week or so. Would it be better to order the garlic? Or should I just use the prazi? Also, if I use the prazi, do I just soak his food in it...straight from the bottle? Or is there a dosage?

If you can't get garlic for fish, get garlic for people. it will have the same effect and prolly cheaper. I would not treat if it doesn't appear to be IPs, cause puffers are very sensitive to medication. have you read the pumpkin seed article in the library?

If there is an Academy near you they sell live bloodworms & live giant mealworms. This is where I get mine.

My GSP is doing the same thing. I have had him for about 2 weeks. I did 2 w/c's last week because my nitrite levels were high now all my levels are 0 and my ph is about 7.2. He was eating just fine then after I started doing the w/c's then he started getting weird. I used prime and salt. He just got over ich and I have fed him alomost everything I can think of. I have fed him freeze dried krill, plankton and bloodworms. Then I have tried ghost shrimp, snails and frozen bloodworms. I have also fed him a few other things that I can't think of right now but he is very unhappy he swims up and down when he isn't laying the the plants losing his color. I have so many hiding places and he doesn't care about any of them. Hes in a 14 gallon right now because my other tank sprang leak and I don't have the money to get it fixed. I dont know what to do. He hasn't eating in like 3 days (at least not that I know of) and I don't know what to do anymore!

PhoenixAngel wrote:
I have tried switching up my puffers food and handfeeding, but he still doesn't have much of an appetite. His beak looks fine to me. I was looking through the library and I was wondering if he might have internal parasites? The only dewormer listed I could find was Praziquantel, PraziPro by Aquarium Solutions. The directions say it is to be used as a bath. Is it possible to use it orally and soak the frozen food in it? Could it be something else that is affecting it? I don't want to stress or possibly kill it by treating it for things it doesn't have.

I agree with Crazedpuffer. If you can't get him to eat using garlic then I would treat for IP. Some treat for IP's as a preventitive before any signs of IP. Since not eating is a sign of IP you may want to start treatment now. The IP article here states you can soak the food in Praziquantel but if he is not eating that would be useless.

Quote:

Praziquantel. Praziquantel, which, in the US, goes by the brand name Droncit, is another alternative.

As with the other medications, the medication is best provided orally — but prolonged immersion, and more concentrated baths, are viable - albeit less efective and more stressful — alternatives.

TPF Mentor Kelly, AKA Puffer Queen, has been using Praziquantel to treat puffers for years….and uses the dosages recommended by Noga in Fish Disease Diagnosis and Treatment. This is the book most public aquariua use as a reference. Noga’s recommendations are as follows:

Orally: 23mg/pound of body weight x one treatment. This of course would require the fish to be eating or would have to be tube fed.

If the fish is not eating: Baths — 38 mg/gallon for 3 hours. Prolonged Immersion — 7.6 to 38 mg/gallon for 24 hours

Happy_Puffer wrote:My GSP is doing the same thing. I have had him for about 2 weeks. I did 2 w/c's last week because my nitrite levels were high now all my levels are 0 and my ph is about 7.2. He was eating just fine then after I started doing the w/c's then he started getting weird....

Nitrites as you know will harm the puffer and cause stress. Stress can lead to IP's taking over the puffer. Since his belly has never fattened up that might have been the first sign of IP. You might want to treat for IP's if you can't get your puffer to eat asap. Read this article for treatment of IP's: http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... treatment/

I hope both of your puffers get better soon!

If he's not eating *any* food and you have the PraziPro, there is a way that you might be able to treat him. Set up the bath as they suggest on the PraziPro directions, but make sure to use freshwater (no salt). Then, once the bath is set up (at the same temperature, I believe), move him immediately from his brackish tank into the bath (don't acclimate him to fresh). The sudden change in salinity will force him to take in water in order to equalize the level of salt in his body to the freshwater. The act of taking in water (thus ingesting it) will cause him to ingest a significant amount of the PraziPro contained in the bath. I'm not sure how long you should leave him in here (I assume the PraziPro suggests a reasonable time, likely something like 5-10 minutes), after which you can return him to his residence (probably by acclimating him using a drip method and some new, freshwater).

I forget who suggested this, but I believe it was either Corvus or Woland (sorry if I mix up who suggested it). Do a search through the Hospital forum (using the option at the top) and see if you can find their exact instructions.

Hopefully this helps with the presumed IPs! Do you happen to have a picture of what he looks like with a sunken belly and whatnot? Might help us to give the definite verdict, but it seems likely that he has IPs, especially since he won't eat the food and the water parameters seem to be good.

Excellent suggestion! When using human garlic, just dice finely & squish the juice out of it, to soak the food.

I cycled my tank by transferring my old filter onto the new tank and running it for about a week. Before adding my puffers.

Although your tank does seem to be cycled now, any live bacteria in that filter died off within 24-48 hours. If you are cycling in that way, you must feed the bacteria with some kind of ammonia source.

Sorry about the pictures I know they aren't very good. I just tried feeding him frozen bloodworms and he was right next to him and he acted blind like he couldn't see the food right next to him. If you want to see a picture of him before I have one in my gallery his name is Loki. I just want to help him. My figure 8 is starting to act the same way. I don't know if its their teeth, because I haven't been able to give them snails since I can't find them and my mom won't let me have a snail tank. I don't want my puffers to die. Loki was so full of life when I got him now he looks like hes not going to make it.

All of my lfs only carry this stuff called General Cure
* Anti-parasitic fish medication rapidly treats a wide variety of parasitic diseases
* Effective fish medication for use in fresh and saltwater aquariums
* Treats diseases such as gill & skin flukes, hole-in-the-head disease, anchor worm, velvet, and fish lice.

Its a powder and I wanted to know if this is ok to give to my puffers. I don't think they can wait for me to order something, he has been sick for like 3 days now and is just wasteing away! Please help!

What's in it?

Easy-to-use fish medication contains metronidazole and praziquantel in quick-dissolve powder form. Treats a wide variety of parasitic diseases - including velvet, anchor worm, fish lice, hole-in-the-head disease, and gill and skin flukes. Will not color water. For use in both freshwater and saltwater aquariums. Each packet doses 10 gallons. NEW economical 850 gram bulk jar doses up to 3,270 gallons and includes a 1 tsp scoop.
That is from Dr. Foster and Smith website. I don't know if I can use this on puffers but I can't find any of the other meds at my lfs and I want to help him now hes getting worse. After I took those pictures he hasn't moved and every time I look over at the tank I think hes dead and have to go over and check.
Sorry I forgot to add that its by API