The Puffer Forum

Hello everyone!

One of my Fig8s has a case of IPs. What is the current method of treating them?

I know in the past soaking their food in a medication was considered best practice, but it's been a long time, and I don't know what meds to use/are available.

Can someone please give me some pointers?

Most of us are using Jungle Parasite Clear fizzy tabs for the soak, with a bit of added garlic juice for taste.

Thanks PP! About how much food can one tablet treat?

I imagine frozen bloodworms are still the food of choice for this?

I'd break up the tab into 1/4 & soak a cube of bloodworms in it. Feed 1/2 morning & 1/2 of it at night.

Thanks again.

One last question: If I can't get the puffer to eat the treated food (I've never had much luck with garlic juice in the past), would force feeding be an option?

I would think using a small syringe w/ a blunt tip would do the job. Of course I've never tried that before.

I wouldn't try that unless you were absolutely desperate. If the fish won't eat then let it get hungry. It'll be fine for a few days without food. You can also try treating the water as well. It's thought that by 'tainting' the taste of the water the medicated food will taste less funny to the fish.

Ok. I'll give the garlic a try first before anything else. While I don't have the aquarium-use "garlic juice" anymore since my bottle expired years ago, I plan to mix in a teeny amount of minced garlic in with the cube as it thaws (along with the meds). This fish will willingly eat flake food, so hopefully he'll take to the medicated food without too much complaining.

Since I only have 2 F8 in a 20-long tank, I can get multiple feedings out of a single cube of worms. I plan to thaw a fresh cube of worms w/ 1/2 tab of med + garlic in a shot glass, feed about 1/4 of the worms to the fish, and then refreeze/rethaw each day until gone. I haven't read anything about the active ingredients breaking down from freezing, so I imagine this should be ok.

Crushed/ minced garlic is fine, should get the taste buds going. Brine shrimp are good appetite stimulators but are not nutritional. Good way to get meds into them

much better than dried, minced garlic is minced fresh.