The Puffer Forum

does my mbu have ips

heres a video of him with white pearly poo hanging out of him and it has a slight tinge of pink to it.please click on the picture to view the video


ive treated him for ips already.he seems fine eats well and is putting on weight. this has happened twice this week.all his other poos are normal.i find this happens when i feed him prawns.ive been feeding him pre cooked prawns but today i brought some raw prawns.could this be the problem
today he done another poo just like this but it was pink and 2 others that were black like mini human poos.whats going on???

Pufferlover87; Hi; I don't have expereince with mbu's but do have with puffs, and i have seen this depending on foods fed-but i would wait for the older members that know about mbu's. I don't think it would hurt to worm h/s again just to make sure you got them all. Are you using meds soaked in his food?? If not please use prazi pro and wait for other members to chime in. Good luck with your baby; beautiful speciman-river

Yup dead ringer for ip's . I would start treatment right away.

so it has nothing to do with his food at all??
when it fell on the sand it was a light pink and not white so it must be the cooked prawn thats doing it.i have given him raw prawn tonight so i will watch his poo over the next few days and stop the cooked prawn before i jump in and start treating him again.

Colour is often due to the food that's eaten, yes.

However stick with raw food, your fish isn't designed to eat cooked food

his poop is not stringy but it is like chain pooping and only when he has the prawns.

pufferluver87 wrote:...only when he has the prawns.

Would that not tell you something?

What are ips?

Ips = intestinal parasites... which are common among puffers (most puffers are wild caught)

GSP Freakis correct, but understates the situation - ALL puffers for sale commercially are wild caught other than some DPs (dwarf puffers). A few others have been captive bred, but not routinely enough to have any impact on the commercial market. If it is for sale in an LFS and not $$$, the odds are higher than a thousand to one the fish is wild caught. Plus the bad news is that the commercially bred DPs tended to still have IPs. I have not bought any lately, so don't know if that is still the case.