The Puffer Forum

pH - 7.8
Ammonia - 0 PPM
Nitrites - 0 PPM
Nitrates > .25 PPM or 0 somestimes it's the yellow or between the 0 and .25.

4 - 6 Ghost shrimp (they hide so well I don't know how many I have in there anymore)
1 Gold mystery snail (I had 4 but 3 have died in the last few days due to the meds i've tried)
Feeding schedule - Once a day he gets a mix of freeze dried krill (he loves them) soaked in vitachem, frozen blood worms also soaked, or mysis shrimp also soaked in vitachem; I haven't gone to the super market lately will probably today.

The tank is a 20G long form SG: 1.005 and was emergency cycled with the help of the great people here on the forum and I have posted pics of it.

At first I thought he had ick as I saw some white spots on him, but realized later they were the result of stress when I changed the look of his tank (he was very upset with me for a few days for that) so I dosed the tank with Super ick cure from API and followed the instructions.

He got better but then I noticed his sides were pinched looking and now he's looking like a head on a stick. Of course first thing I did was hit the forum and it looks like he has IPs or wasting away disease.

When he eats his belly looks lumpy and he is once again skinny after about an hour, haven't noticed his poop however. I went out and got PazilPro and began soaking his foods in it; he's very reluctant to eat them and spits them out as soon as he gets them in his mouth. I will get garlic extract to soak his foods with as well today.

I believe that the Ich cure + Paz has killed 3 of the mystery snails I had in there with him however and have since done a very large water change after the ich treatment. I will do another 50% tonight as well as dose his food with Garlic and Pazilpro.

As I trust everyone on this forum I would like to know what else (if anything) should I be treating my Juggerpuff with?

You are doing everything well but I would eliminate the Ich cure and go with raising the temp and bring your SG up for a little while, say to 1.007 - 1.008. This will cause a higher osmotic draw and kill the Ich, it doesn't do too well above 1.006. If you cannot get him to eat you may need to treat the tank but as long as he's still trying to eat continue to offer the medicated food to him.

You might could try jungle fizz tabs to soak the food in for parasites. All my puffs have eaten their food when soaked in this. But, other people have different results. Jungle fizz is really cheap so it may be worth a shot.

You mean nitrate <25?

Dadof4 wrote:You are doing everything well but I would eliminate the Ich cure and go with raising the temp and bring your SG up for a little while, say to 1.007 - 1.008. This will cause a higher osmotic draw and kill the Ich, it doesn't do too well above 1.006. If you cannot get him to eat you may need to treat the tank but as long as he's still trying to eat continue to offer the medicated food to him.

Don't forget the large water changes, to remove the free-swimming parasites & the eggs in the substrate.

Pufferpunk wrote:

Dadof4 wrote:You are doing everything well but I would eliminate the Ich cure and go with raising the temp and bring your SG up for a little while, say to 1.007 - 1.008. This will cause a higher osmotic draw and kill the Ich, it doesn't do too well above 1.006. If you cannot get him to eat you may need to treat the tank but as long as he's still trying to eat continue to offer the medicated food to him.

Don't forget the large water changes, to remove the free-swimming parasites & the eggs in the substrate.

Been doing the large water changes, he still is looking skinny :-\ Though I got him to eat SOME of his food when I dosed it with garlic. My baby GSP had IPs too apparently since I was dosing him for good measure and now seems much healthier and stays fatter longer after feeding, though he is still voracious. I'm doing everything I can for the F8 and will be highly upset if he passes. He's still swimming around, but seems to be a bit lethargic, tonight I have 2 5 gallon's of 1.008 Brackish water setup for him for his 20 gallon and I'm going to do a 50% WC with a thorough vacuuming of his substrate with nothing in the tank. His possible ich is gone, what I thought were spots with his spine pores, I did a 50% WC then and put carbon back into the tank to get any of the meds out of there. I've been doing WC's 2 times a week, lets hope he survives.

Right now I'm also dealing with a percula clown I got that's swimming funny; but I read that it's just part of their habits. He was trying to host the magnet on the tank the other night it was funny.

@ purplecandle - "You might could try jungle fizz tabs to soak the food in for parasites. All my puffs have eaten their food when soaked in this. But, other people have different results. Jungle fizz is really cheap so it may be worth a shot."

At what concentration would you recommend? Basically what is your method for soaking the food? I'm always concerned when soaking food that I will overdose my puffer.

achase wrote:@ purplecandle - "You might could try jungle fizz tabs to soak the food in for parasites. All my puffs have eaten their food when soaked in this. But, other people have different results. Jungle fizz is really cheap so it may be worth a shot."

At what concentration would you recommend? Basically what is your method for soaking the food? I'm always concerned when soaking food that I will overdose my puffer.

My Figure 8 seems to have made a recovery, I was treating him with Prazilpro for a bit but it didn't seem to work then I soaked his food with half a packet of API General Cure, and Garlic extract and Vitamins. A few treatments of this and he has seemed fine and dandy and his stomach now looks normal when he eats and he looks like a cute little round blimp. I have done massive 50% water changes every other day on his 20g long tank for a week when I was treating him. As an aside the ghost shrimp that were living in the tank all reacted well to the medication and were easily medicated, though 3 of the 4 snails did not make it though I think that was because he ate them. So 1 gold mystery snail is thriving, and 2 of the female ghost shrimp have gotten huge fully grown 2 inch femals and are both carrying eggs, so they may spawn soon in the tank. We will see.