The Puffer Forum

Lately we have noticed that one of our figure eights has been sitting on the bottom of the tank or in plants to an excessive amount. This puffer has stopped eating in the past few days. We have tried everything to tempt it (which the other puffer loves... he's quite fat). The sick puffer is around 3 inches and the other is around 2 inches.

The puffers are housed in a 25g at a density of 1.004 (salinity we bought them in). We have had this specific puffer for nearly two months. It was never an extremely aggressive eater but it did eat plenty. There do not appear to be any external problems. No ich, no fungus, nothing to give any hints of what might be wrong. The puffers get along just fine. No fighting, not even during feeding time.

Nitrites are zero, nitrates are around 10 (time for weekly change sarurday), Medium hardness, pH around 7.2...

Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong with this figure eight? Why has it suddenly stopped eating?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Has he lost weight? I mean prior to his loss of appetite? Any change in his colouration....belly darker, topside paler?
I'm thinking internal parasites, as F8s seem to get them a lot...was his belly ever sunken?
Have a read of the sticky on Levamisole and internal parasites and see what you think. Only trouble is, though, that if he's totally off his food, it's gonna be hard getting any meds in him, but let some more experienced people get back to you, and we'll see what we can do.
Pami.

A bit of bad news... I awoke this morning to find my puffer lying still on the bottom of the tank. I think it was a tad too late for her. It's belly was not sunken when we bought it, but over the past few days it has gotten that way. She did have a darker belly than the other puffer, and thats how we bought her so I never thought anything of it.

How contagious are internal parasites? Should I treat my small puffer as a precaution? He's the fattest little thing I've ever seen! I have some Gel-Tek Ultra Cure PX for internal parasites... I could mix that in with his food, but I'm not too keen on doing it if I don't have too. And how are my puffers getting these parasites? Are they in the frozen food or in the live snails?

Most puffers (apart from dwarf puffers) are wild caught, and like most wild animals, they have worms/IPs.

Personally, I tend to not treat unless there are signs or symptoms. I asked a similar question about preventative worming (commonly done by loach keepers - many loaches are wild caught and come with IPs, too) on the board this past week, but no one answered that part of my question so I'm guessing it's not commonly done.

Eric

Oh no!!

I hope that doesn't happen to ours! We just gor two baby F8s: K9 and Rover. K9 seems quieter and her colouring is less intense than Rovers'. I'll have to make sure they both get a fair share of their food, because I have heard that that can lead to problems.

Will you get another F8?



Susanna

I'm not sure if we will get another figure eight. This tank is my boyfriends responsibility, and he is the one who is really attached to the fish.
He may not have the heart to replace her for a few months. Although I shuold be worried because there is a 5 inch figure eight at the fish store that he was eye-balling. I think next time he goes shopping for one I will insist that he buys the fatest, not the prettiest, puffer.

Another update...

The remaining figure eight was just observed sporatically swimming around the tank kind of jerky like. I think there is something really wrong here. It's not nitrite/ammonia poisoning or anything of the sort... I'm really confused and don't want to lose BOTH of my figure eights...

If anyone has any advice please let me know.

ok first get the ph up please. 7.2 is a bit low. alsowhat you describe is what in THEORY not tested nor guarenteed fact is a virus or other disease similar to whirling disease.

please do NOT add any puffers until this one either gets better or dies.
a broad spectrum antibiotic might help, but it is worth a shot.

when it is resolved or the ppuffer has passed. please drain the tank and start over entirely. bleach everything and then treat everything with chlorine removers and let it recycle for a few weeks. then you can add puffers.

alternate way that is less work but not a guarenteed way to kill whatever is going on in your tank is to simply let it sit fishless for a month or 6 weeks, this should kill the offending problem as it cannot usually last without a host that long. be parasite or bacteria.

also kick the heater up to 88 degrees IF THERE IS NO FISH in there to help speed up parasite death by quickening their lifecycle and dyoff.

am very sorry this has happened, but sometimes like other animals, puffers can get sick and pass it to others.

I've been reading some old posts and I think that this might be a case of gill flukes combined with internal parasites. I'm going to try a gill scrape (seeing as I work in a microbiology lab). Right now I would like to TRY to help the little guy, but if that leads to nothing than I will consider letting little Milton perish and start the tank over. I have some tea tree oil that I could try putting in his tank for the moment. That's not harmful for figure eights is it? I've used it on dwarfs before with no problem.

How would these puffers have caught a virus or whirling disease? They have been in the tank for over a month. Most viruses work WAY faster than a month. Considering all symptoms occured within three days I'm very confused.