The Puffer Forum

so i have a new problem with Ra my F8. his belly is sunken in each morning before i feed him and sometimes i notice at night. he's acting perfectly normal other than the fact he's not eating as much (i think becuase i soaked his food in some water that had jungle parasite clear in it, so i think he just doesn't like the taste) but still goes after food in earnest. my first thought was IPs again, but i noticed him poo and it looked normal. i'm not sure what is going on. the water parims are
pH: 7.6
ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10ish
SG: 1.006
any help would be great. i finally thought i had cured him but it seems like something is wrong. thanks for any help.

If you're soaking his food, you should continue it for 3 days.

Sometimes they just need to be fattened up, especially when you first get them or you just treated for IPs. When I got my Ceylon, I strongly suspected IPs because of the way he looked, but decided to see if simply giving him a week or two of good meals corrected his somewhat emaciated appearance. Well, it did indeed make a difference - he fattened up beautifully on his own, which was nice because I would rather not medicate if I don't have to.

ok, so i'd figure i'd give an up date on Ra. the reading are the same as before (just tested it about 10 minutes ago) and i finally saw him poo for the first time in a few days today (haven't had much time home lately so i haven't been able to really watch to see what its like until now) and its nice and thick and dark brown. today is his 3rd day of treatment, so he's gotten two doses of the parasite clear tablets (with a 45% water change between) and he's still looking really thin. he's still acting normal and eating great, but but between the time i feed him (about 6:30 in the morning) until around now (3:30 in the afternoon) his belly looks sunken in. i know they digest their food so the stomach will shrink, but that fast and that much?

anyway in additon to that i figure i'll give you all an update on the dwarf puffers aswell. they're doing great. tanks reading are 0 for ammonia and nitrites and 25ppm for nitrates and pH is fianlly up to 7.2. one of them is just about an inch long now and the other two are about .8 inches or so. so they've grown since i got them. they're very active and friendly. the only problem is i seem to have lost one of my three ottos. it just disappeared one day and i have not found it since then. i still can find the other two (and i'm use its not just different ones at each time becuase they all had at least once very distinct mark on them) and have not found the missing one in about a week. no body, no nothing.

Keep going at it, and I usually feed a bit extra as a puffer is recovering from parasites, to help work it through his system and to get more meds into him.

No body... weird... could he have gone carpet-surfing? Maybe he did, and your dog/cat/whatever picked up the body.

It took Annabelle a little more than a month before I noticed that she started gaining weight after the ip treatment. She's starting to really fill out now.

LilGreenPuffer wrote:No body... weird... could he have gone carpet-surfing? Maybe he did, and your dog/cat/whatever picked up the body.

that's what i thought at first, but there's one problem to that solution, i don't have a dog or a cat. all i have are fish. i looked on the carpet around the tank, there's nothing, and i even checked the filter to see if it managed to somehow get itself in there. no body there either. i have no idea what happened to it.

and thanks for the support everyone, Ra is acting normal still and eating alot, i'm hoping he's cured and just needs time to start gaining weight again. i've got one more dose worth of tablets left though. should i go and get more or just stop treatment as soon as i run out seeing as he appears to be acting and pooing normally?

ok i just ahd a few thoughts about what could be causing this. i'm starting lean away from IPs becuase he's pooing normally and no worms are being purged as far as i can tell. i'm thinking maybe he's having a growth spurt and is just digesting way faster than normal, or could there be something i'm not aware of stressing him out and causing him to look like that (can stress even do that to a fish and make it look skinny?). i have a couple of pictures of him right after feeding (took place at 10:30 this morning) and am waiting to see how long it takes for him to get skinny again. its 2:56 here now and his stomach is nor flush with the rest fo his body, i'm going to wait a little longer and then take some pictures so you all can see the comparison. do any of those two new ideas i have make any sense to any of you?

here's a picture of him right after feeding at about 10:30 this morning.


and here's one about 5 hours later at 3:30 in the afternoon.


its mostly the ditch at the front of his stomach that has me worried. does this all look normal to you all or do i have a reason to be concerned?

I think you are worring too much. Like I stated earlier in the post : it took Annabelle almost a month before she started gaining weight. Her tummy will shrink within 4 hours if I feed her a small meal, it may take up to 12 hours if I feed her a large meal. I'm guessing on the time. Elvis is so fat I can't tell any difference in his tummy at all after he eats. It always looks the same. He actually stops eating when he's full or had enough. Don't stress yourself over this. If you want it to gain some weight feed it two small meals a day for about a month. Then after it gains a few ounces you can cut back the feeding.

ok thanks. and yeah, sorry if i sound like an overly paranoid parent, but i've gotten really attached to ra and this is the first time i've had luck with figure 8's which are my favorite puffers. thanks for the help.

We have all been there. I have ich phobia. And worm phobia. Don't sweat it.

I have nitrate phobia. And nitrogen phobia. And mini-cycle phobia. And worm phobia (but nothing edmlfc1's, I'm sure!). And overfeeding phobia. And chemicals-getting-into-water phobia. And moving phobia. And...

I promise, you're not alone.