The Puffer Forum

Just curious if anyone might know what I found in the aquarium for the 2nd day in a row.

It was a white stringy thingy, sort of reminded me of a string of pearls. The only occupants of that tank are my Baileyi puffer, 3 purple apple snails, and some of my friend's "endlers" which are keeping my Baileyi company at the moment (and no, he doesn't seem the least bit interested in eating them).

I first seen the stringy thingy yesterday, hanging from some floating plants at the top, and then I found them again today, up at the top, hanging in the plants. I've never seen anything like it before.

Could it be coming from my puffer, or the other fish? Or even the snail? I just hope it's nothing serious, I've had more than my share of problems this month and quite frankly, I'm glad this month is over, maybe June will be better for me and my fish.

Are they Styrofoam looking white stringy things? I had something similar in my snail tank but this was more of a clump of something....I was wondering it they were apple snail eggs....

No, it's not snail eggs, I know what they look like and they are laid above the water line (got loads of them). And the fish that are in there are livebearers, so I can't imagine what it could possibly be.

Can you get a photo by chance?

Sorry, I netted it out and threw it away

Its ok.

There's a good chance its feces from a fish with internal parasites.. try to keep an eye on the fish and see if you can catch them in the actual process so you know if its coming from them or not

I second myaj's theory. That's EXACTLY how my mbu's poo looked at first. A string of pearls.

and if it's coming from my puffer, what do I do about it? Will it ultimately kill my puffer? I don't want to lose any more fish!

Aye, sounds like it's probably internal parasites or worm in your puffer. Might have been contracted from the Endlers if your puffer never had this before.

Here's a long story of Annabelle's IPs from edmlfc1 and how she dealt with it. There are some photos (near the bottom of the first page) of the "string of pearls" poo, indicating these symptoms.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15849

Just read through that post, and it should answer most of your questions. Annabelle also had Camallanus worms, so hopefully your treatment wouldn't require nearly as much effort as Annabelle's.

I'm also going to move this to the Hospital forum.

I'm just curious, how well do puffers generally get through having worms, and parasites? And how would I know if my puffer has worms, or internal parasites? I would use 2 different medications right?

I bought something for internal bacteria, and I am due to get something for worms that I can use on puffers. Thing is, only my Baileyi is showing the white stringy poo, so I am guessing that he has the worms. But then there's the issue with my suvattii.

Should I use the worm medication on both tanks? I'm very confused because I think there's two different things going on here.

If you've shared equipment between the two tanks, I would treat both. No point in treating and then turning around and having to do it again later.

There are a few kinds of meds you can use for internal parasites. Jungle Labs Parasite Clear is great when the puffer is not eating (as it can work by adding it to the water itself), and then once the puffer begins eating, you just treat the food. If your puffer is already eating, I would use either the Jungle Labs stuff or GelTek's product. GelTek's doesn't seem to have any flavour, so puffers won't notice that it has meds (whereas they do with stuff like PraziPro).

You're in the UK, though, so I'm not sure what's available to you.

I was told to get this stuff that they use for Discus, due to it being strong enough to work, but gentle on the puffer. I know nothing about all of this, but I suppose it's a part of fish-keeping. I prefer the easy part of fish-keeping personally, but I know the bad always comes with the good. My Baileyi is eating, but the suvattii are not, so I think using the stuff that I put in the water is a better choice because even though Baileyi is eating, he's very particular and picky.

I will keep you all posted. I'm hoping to have my meds tomorrow. I got some other stuff from another LFS, but my friend that knows much more about puffers than I do has said that although it is for worms, he doesn't like it and would not suggest using it on the puffers. So I'm not going to use it, I will hold out for the good stuff.