The Puffer Forum

Hi there!

I have seen Anabelle's case and I noticed days ago that my F8 has been with that round belly for many days. He is eating well. Today I took a picture for you see that his poo is a little bit stringy.



Even if he's not showing sunken belly, that kind of poo means IPs?
Do you confirm?

1) PH: 7.9
NH4: zero
NO2: zero (when I feed them, the next day it shows 0.2 mg/l, is there anything wrong?)
NO3: 5 ppm
SG: 1,003 - 1,005

2) 22G: 2X F8 and 2X Nerite Snails

3) I feed one day and skip the next, then I feed again. I offer shrimp, mussels and clams. WC: 50% Once a week ( I just use tap water without chlorine and I add marine salt the night before WC)

4) Just changed the decor two weeks ago.

5) The tank is 3 months old and it was fishless cycled

Thank you in advance for help!

You must use a dechlorinator if you use tap water.
As long as the fish is eating and has a round belly, he does not have IPs.

Yes, that looks like IP poo to me. Best to treat while it is still eating.

I agree with Jase, white string pooh is the first signs of IP's. Treat while he's still eating. If you can get gel-tek ultra cure px the fish will eat it, It's best if you soak it in freeze dried krill. The freeze dried krill acts as a sponge and soaks up the meds.

Or you can do what I did, I went to the pharmacy and asked to purchase one of the smallest syringes they had, it was about .30 cents if I remember correctly. Then you can take some shrimp and soak it in the meds, then take the syring and shoot up the shrimp. Another method if he eats earthworms or crickets is to inject them then feed. Use a method that you feel comfortable with.

If you can't get the gel-tek get prazipro. He may not eat food soaked in prazipro, so the injection method may be a way to trick him into eating it.

Christemo - To dechlorinate the tap water I use hyposulphite sodium (a DIY declorinator).

I can't get gel-tek or prazipro, but I can get (pure) praziquantel, then.. how long should I administer the med?

Will praziquantel deworm him or I shall use praziquantel + levamisole?

Also, can I soak frozen shrimp in the med instead of krill?

I've never used praziquantel but I'm going to assume it's the same as prazipro. I would treat him for at least 5 days. The gel-tek says 3 days but I just don't agree that's long enough. Unless someone else chimes in and tell us otherwise I would do 5 days just to make sure.

I agree its IP-looking poo. Properly digested food would be brown and solid, not white/clear and stringy.

Be careful with the DIY decholorinator, it might work for chlorine but not necessarily for chloramines, which most water supplies are switching to (because its harder to remove).

I haven't treated with those meds, my assumption would be they probably taste bad so soaking the food and getting the fish to eat it will be a little harder (this is why so many of us are liking the Geltek Ultra PX, the fish like the taste).

The only way to buy Geltek would be through amazon.com... but I made my math and I would pay almost 20 times what you'd pay in a bottle!

I have some dog dewormer called Drontal (Bayer), each tablet contains Praziquantel (50mg), Pyrantel pamoate (144mg) and Febantel (150mg). It treats cestoids, nematoids and protozoaries. It says the remedy tasts meat. I offered it to the puffers and they ate well... they act fine so far. So I'll treat them for 5 days and repeat the treatment for 2 more times.

Myaj - Don't worry... just to be sure I tested ammonia before and after using the DIY dechlorinator and the levels were zero.

By_a_coo wrote:The only way to buy Geltek would be through amazon.com... but I made my math and I would pay almost 20 times what you'd pay in a bottle!

I have some dog dewormer called Drontal (Bayer), each tablet contains Praziquantel (50mg), Pyrantel pamoate (144mg) and Febantel (150mg). It treats cestoids, nematoids and protozoaries. It says the remedy tasts meat. I offered it to the puffers and they ate well... they act fine so far. So I'll treat them for 5 days and repeat the treatment for 2 more times.

Myaj - Don't worry... just to be sure I tested ammonia before and after using the DIY dechlorinator and the levels were zero.

I've seen mention of this de-wormer in articles on the loach forums and it had had good results. There is a dosing formula out there that I can't find for some reason right now. I think I have a copy of the article saved on a flash drive, I'll look for it after I get a little sleep.

I am doing a treatment of five days, but he's spitting all over the medicated shrimp. Now I don't know if he is ingesting the drug or treatment is being done in vain. I haven't seen any change... I wish I could get some Geltek for making our lives easier.

I was thinking of doing a praziquantel bath (38mg/gallon) for 24h after the first treatment is completed.
What do you think?

Most of what I find is just soaking the food in a medium concentration solution. I can't find the article I had stored, I'll continue to look. I think bath is a good idea if he's not eating.

As a matter of fact he's eating! But not the medicated food... And it doesn't tast so bad!!

By_a_coo wrote:... And it doesn't tast so bad!!

I will have to trust your opinion on that one!

By_a_coo wrote:As a matter of fact he's eating! But not the medicated food... And it doesn't tast so bad!!

I like to try things to see what it's like too... pet food, medication, shock collars, you know...

Jase wrote:

By_a_coo wrote:As a matter of fact he's eating! But not the medicated food... And it doesn't tast so bad!!

I like to try things to see what it's like too... pet food, medication, shock collars, you know...

Did the shock collar thing too. If I was going to use them on my hunting hounds to round them up, I wanted to know what they were feeling. Pet food..I hiked the Grand Canyon from the north to the south rim and took dog biscuits along for emergency food. Very nutritious and,honestly, don't taste too bad.