The Puffer Forum

Help I have recently purchased two irrubesco puffers! Everything has been going swimmingly! Izzie has alway been shy, Nona loves to come and play! Both were very slim when they arrived. Both were eating well. Nona would eat (if I let her)till she exploded! She is lovely and round extremley active and friendly begging with her little red eyes! Izzie belly now is sunken in and she is not interested in food. Nona is definatley the dominant one but any skirmishes are short lived and they never come into contact. I have offered Bloodworm, squid, muscles. What I dont get is izzie was eating all these and now has stopped! Nona is the picture of health, izzie is active but looks like a puffer shaped skeleton!
I have a 60 ltr aquarium
2x Irrubesco Puffers
Two 60 ltr Filters
Sand Substrate
Plastic Plants
Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrates 5
Weekly 50-60% Water Changes
No changes apart from the water changes since Ive had them.
Please help!

Have you treated them of internal parasites? If not it would be a good thing to do so. The sunken belly that you're seeing is an indication that she has parasites. They both probably do but some fish are affected more than others.

Since you're in the UK I'm not sure what dewormers are available to do. Can you get Jungle fizz anti-parasite tablets? What IP medications are available to you? Once we know what you can get we'll let you know how to treat the fish. What you'll end up doing is soaking the food in the medication for a few hours before feeding.

Remember garlic soaked food is irresistible, good to help keep strength up till ip meds are to hand. Get her in a breeding net for feeding so you can monitor what she eats, and to ensure she gets some if weak

Hello
Thank you for all your replys! Ive been feeding Izzie very closely since my last post and have been treating the aquarium with an anti internal parasite solution. Today is the first day I have seen a real improvement! She has nice round belly now! Not as plump as Nona but im sure she will improve further with time! Thanks again for all your help! Il keep you posted!

Internal parasites need to be treated by soaking the food in suitable meds it's the only effective way. Glad she is looking a little better but you may need to treat the food