The Puffer Forum

Hey all!
I've been treating my Figure 8 for IPs for four days now by soaking bloodworms in Tetra parasite guard tablets & freshly mashed garlic. She just doesn't seem to be doing any better--still a slightly sunken belly, and I havent seen her pooping anything interesting out (I haven't seen her poop, ever.)
She behaves normally and eats well, plays and follows me when I am near her aquarium. I've had her for about a five weeks now, and I was looking at a picture of her the day after I got her, and she was much rounder then. I'm wondering if I'm missing something, or if it just takes longer to treat IPs and I am stressing out too much?
Thanks!

ps, sorry if this seems short, I will post the water parameters & such tomorrow--I have a test in the AM so I'm heading to bed. thanks again!

Kind of a silly question, but is she getting enough to eat? 4 days isn't a super long time to expect her weight to be much different

after feeding to a nice rounded belly, how soon does it turn to sunken?

Petey took 2 weeks to show major improvements!

Is she eating the medicated worms?

SYN, i think I am... I feed her to where she has a decently rounded belly in the evening, six days a week. in the mornings if her belly looks terribly sunken in i will feed her a little something, like a snail or a little bit of thawed food, less than i would in the evening. I have to admit after reading stuff about puffers eating themselves to death I am scared of feeding her too much, I wonder if that's backfiring on me...

JP, this morning i fed her at about 9:50 before I left for school. I am home getting ready for work now, 2:10 my time, and her belly is not sunken, but its not really round either. Flat I guess, sliiiightest bulge.

Chuck, did you treat his food every day for those two weeks?

PP, she is definitely eating the worms, I watch her to make sure of it. She won't eat anything else that I medicate, though. Only bloodworms.

No he was only given treatments a few times. But I was feeding him pretty good for those 2 weeks.I've cut the feedings back now but when I get home later ill show you the picture.

So should I stop medicating her food and just feed her normally? That's what I did last night.. does it sound like I'm feeding her correctly? I know as they get older they should be fed less, but she's only about an inch & a half. Should I still make her fast one day if she's so skinny? So many questions! Aha. Thanks guys.

Feed her 6x a week, make sure you give her a balanced varied diet. Don't worry about over feeding her at this point, she needs to gain weight. Of course don't overfeed her, but make sure she is getting enough food. It's obvious when a puffer is over eating.

When I first got Bloat he had IP's and it was a good month before he would keep any weight on. I would feed him till he had a really round belly, almost overfeeding. I also had an advantage of working in a hospital so I could get a needle and syringe and inject the meds right into the food so it didnt have to soak it up.

How long did you treat Bloat's food?
Bloat was so pathetically skinny when you got him

I treated it everyday, every meal.

Ya he was with in days of death im pretty sure. The guy I got him from told me fahakas were supposed to be skinny

xrayjeeper83 wrote:I treated it everyday, every meal.

Ya he was with in days of death im pretty sure. The guy I got him from told me fahakas were supposed to be skinny

He sounds like an idiot lol. I wonder how many fish have died because of his crap info?

ya scary thought

xrayjeeper83 wrote:The guy I got him from told me fahakas were supposed to be skinny

how rediculous. and frightening.

I try to feed her a balanced diet, she just won't take anything medicated except bloodworms i made her a mix from a scallop & a shrimp that i got at the grocery story, stuck it in my food processor. she LOVES it, but won't eat it medicated. so ive been feeding her a little bit of that (enough to get her belly from sunken to flatish), and then give her treated bloodworms so she has a nice round bulge. and i give her a snail every day, but i don't medicate those because i hear they disintegrate..