The Puffer Forum

Hi, i recently bought 2 figure 8's after a great deal of searching. well i have a problem, they are pretty sickly, i decided to buy them anyway in a chance i could bring them back and i didnt know if i would be able to find fig. 8s again. I am guessing they have internal parasites. they both have very concave bellies and one of them has a bent curvy spine that im guessing was caused by starvation due to the IP. I asked the lady at the lfs if they had anything for IP and she gave me this stuff called clout. I dont know if that is the proper medication so i dont know if it worked. They seam to be eating fine and swimming fine. also the other one has red marks on his rear fin, i dont know what it is it seams to be stemming from where the other one had nipped him in the small lfs's tank, (maybe finrot?) they are not nipping at eachother anymore, i have them in a 55g brackish tank low SG with just one other fish that i used to cycle it with, a platy. Any help on how to treat them will be much appreciated.

I have used Clout before and it really didn't work. I have also used general cure and prazipro and I would recomend the prazipro if you can find it. I had to have my lfs order it and it can get pricy if you buy big bottles. If you can't find it around when I think you can order it on Dr. Foster and Smith.

well, i couldn't find and prazipro but i got this stuff called Parasite Clear made by Jungle, it says it has Praziquantel in it, wondering if that would work just as well.

That's exactly what you're looking for. Soak their food in it for an hour or two before feeding. You might need to add some garlic extract to mask the flavor of the meds.

I would probably treat 3 times, a week apart.

do i have to feed them the meds or can i just put it into the water like the directions say? i already did my fist treatment just by dissolving the tabs and dumping it into the tank, unfortunatley i dont know if one of my figure 8's will survive the night, it looks like hes about to die. very weak looking and his coloration has changed a bit, he looks darker.

I add the medication to the water as well. Parasites linger in the tank water and will reinfect if only soaked food is used. Just do a very large water change after a few days of it being in the water.

I just did both to be on the safe side. I soaked the food and then dumped the whole cup into the water. I always worry about ips so I always treat the tank and the food. Also when my f8 was sick I added some prime (maybe amquel) to help them with a slime coat and if there are any levels that aren't zero it also helps that.

well unfortunately one of the puffers died, he seamed to be dead at the bottom of the tank so i netted him and shook him a bit in the net and he suddenly woke up to have rapid gill movement and a severe spasm so i left him in the tank a bit longer to see if he would recover but he did end up dieing. weird thing when i nette dhim the first time and he woke up his skin went from really pale to very dark in a matter of seconds. the other puffer is still alive but im having trouble feeding him. he sucks in the bloodworms just to spit them out again and again.

I'd try a flubendazole treatment for the spitting problem, it is often a protozoan wasting disease infecting the upper digestive track, and flubendazole is a antiprotozoan as well as a good med for killing worms.

well, unfortunately they both died, i think they were just too far gone to help. the medicine just seemed to make them worse, next time ill try to find them in a better condition then they were in at that lfs.

Treating IPs on a fish that it extremely infested can be difficult. Having such a large amount of parasites die inside your body can be very stressful and cause death on it's own. Either way I think you did the right thing. The fish were obviously very drained and nearing death anyways.

I would probably treat 3 times, a week apart.

In the directions on Discomed (when I could get it), it said to feed medicated food 2x/day for a week & it may have to be treated for another week if not improved enough.