The Puffer Forum

I'll answer the questions at the top first even if they don't matter for this xD:
1) Ph: around 7.8.
Ammonia: 0 - 0.25 I'm doing water changes everyday at the moment but my treatment to remove chlorine always makes it read 0.25 ammonia, not sure why.
Nitrite: 0.
Nitrate: Not sure sorry.. no test for that I need to get one.
Salinity: 1.005
2) 10 gallons, getting a larger one soon but he's alone in there.
3) Fed twice a day on shelled prawns (frozen then defrosted) & snails are left in tank for if he wants them sometime, 50% water change daily + marine salt + dechlorinating stuff (sorry don't know name)
4) None
5) About a year now, not sure how it was cycled my mum had it first with goldfish, then they where rehomed, cleaned out, salt added slowly to try not kill bacteria and I got the puffer.


Ok so hey , I bought my figure 8 puffer about a week or 2 ago now and I'm starting to wonder if he has some kind of IPs
I'm not really sure what the symptoms are except weird poop so maybe I'm wrong but I'll say what seems weird about him..
He eats about 4 or 5 bites of shelled defrosted prawn a day and sometimes a small ramshorn snail (doesn't seem to like them much) but his belly never really gets very round.
It doesn't go bumpy though and he isn't skinny but I'm not sure how fat their belly is suppose to be, it doesn't seem like he's eating a lot.
His poop comes out yellow and then clear a bit... then yellow... then clear a bit etc.
And something else strange is he will be swimming along slowly and then suddenly dash fast and flip about... then again swim fine slowly, then dash fast, honeslty it looks like he's excited. Something my rabbits and guinea pigs do when they get a new toy or get out to run on the grass is run fast and jump and spin about but my dad said sometimes that's not a good sign with fish which is what I was guessing.

Should I treat him for anything and if so what do I use ? I heard something about jungle tabs but they don't have any on the UK ebay so is there something different in the UK?
and if I find something do I just add it to his tank? I don't have another one

Thanks

Hi Tiger,

It's really difficult to say just what might be wrong with your puffer, if there is anything wrong at all. Just reading over the information you provided, I would just like to suggest that you feed your puffer only once a day, that's all he needs really. A puffer's belly should be slightly rounded, but if your little guy isn't looking skinny, then there might not be any issue.

The worming treatment you are looking for is called 'Jungle fizz tabs' and you can get it off eBay, but it's not from the UK, it comes from the US, still it's not expensive. I think it runs just over £5 for 8-tabs. It's 1 tab per 10 US gallons of tank water. Most people soak the puffer's food in the fizz tab and then feed to the puffer, but it's not always easy to do that, I've got some that will eat it and some that won't. It certainly won't hurt your puffer if you choose to worm him, but I'm not saying that's what's wrong with him. Right now, I'm not certain there is anything wrong with him. Definitely keep an eye on the poop, one of the signs of internal parasites is poop that resembles a white string of pearls -- you will know it when you see it.

But I would say keep up with what you're doing, and can you try to let us know what the dechlorinator is that you're using, some are better than others. Sorry I can't give you anything more precise, but I'm just not certain there's anything wrong with your puff.

I am also thinking about treating for IP's and I searched on ebay and there are a lot of different 'Jungle Fizz Tabs' Can you tell me more specifically what I'm looking for? maybe Jungle pond fizz parasite treatment?

jungle products are garbage save your money. You'll have to wait for a higher up to recommend whats best for puffers IP's but when you got the tank from your mom did yall keep the water in the back of the filter. Bc if your biofilter is exposed long enough then it can cause all that good 1 1/2 years of bacteria to die and the tank thinks its from starting from scratch. How long was the tank up before adding the marine salt?

Hi Tigerlily

many peeps have had success in using fizz tabs becos they can soak their food in it but like ppg said some will eat it some wont..however u could try soaking it in garlic juice as well to over power the medicine taste..its not pond tabs its the normal jungle fizz tabs for internal parasites.

SammyDee the tank always had water in apart from when i cleaned it out but then i lay the filter in some tank water in a bucket so I think it was ok, I hope so anyway.
And then I added the salt over a few days to 1.004.. the guy at my LFS said it was ok, but I think that killed some bacteria so I've been water changing everyday till recently where the levels are getting better.

And thanks doraemon I actually don't think he has IPs now.. his poop is the colour of what he eats I noticed. So if it's snails it's black, if it's prawn it's pale etc...
I think he's fine ^^