The Puffer Forum

Young less than 1 inch Figure 8 Puffer
Ph- 7.7
Nitrite-0
Nirates- less than 20
SG- 1.006
Ammonia - O

Have a 20 Gal tank with only the 1 F8 in it
He's just been brought home Monday from the store. And in hind sight.. the store I got him from was NOT good. Someone told me the guy was good with fish and I've come to learn quickly he isn't AT ALL. So illness wouldn't be a suprise. Adn the temperature was a LITTLE low this morning when I woke up.. at about 77.8.

I woke up this morning to find he had a red ball like protrusion from his anus. (Yea, at first I freaked out and thought he'd cut himself). But then I realized there was no blood or anything. Some of it has fallen off, but there is still some remaining. I've heard that red excretions can be from worms? (I have been feeding bloodworms on and off too, along with brine shrimp and krill) His appetite is just fine, he was continuing to eat even when I pulled the food out. He doesn't seem to be acting sluggish or frantic, just his usual behavior so far. So I don't know if it's just a normal excretion and I'm just having new-petowner jitters.

It seems from what I've looked at the only thing I can get here (in Canada) is something like the tank bath. He is the only one in the tank, so I'm not concerned with other fish or anything. But I have heard that the tank baths aren't the best? I have no problems with ordering stuff on the internet though. If anyone has some suggestions I would appreciate it.

This is the best pic I could get:

Looks like normal poo to me.

He looks like he has a well-fed tummy.
When puffers are fed too much too frequently they can sometimes pass undigested food to make room for the new food.
It could just be some undigested bloodworm.

He had -just- been fed before the picture was taken. Should have mentioned that. The last time he had bloodworms was on Tuesday (was fed the amount I could pick up with a small pair of tweezers), yesterday and today he was fed krill head (at least wha the ate until his tummy got full looking). It could be regular poo, just was concerned by the red color.

crazedpuffer wrote:Looks like normal poo to me.

Lol! It looks normal to me too. It is very unusal how slow they go poo!

Added: So you feel more comfortable you should look up internal parasites online and do some reading about prevention. There is a good article here in the library concerning IP's. Some... as a preventive deworm all there puffers. Most puffers have IP. It is when their immune system goes down hill due to some other underlying thing like for instance bad water parameters that the IP's will take over and make them ill and eventually kill the puffer.

Thanks for the advice. I had already read the article (maybe why I flipped out so much about the red ). And I started him on a preventative thing JUST IN CASE. I figure if it can't hurt when done properly, and I'm a little paranoid about it.. might as well