The Puffer Forum

I have a medicine chest set up for some of my cold-water fish but I know puffer are more susceptible to other disease. I've done some searching of the forum and I know this question has been addressed before but there seems to be no clear consensus over what medicines are best to keep on hand. Before I purchase my fish I would like to get the right medicines in my house for them. In the QT tank I plan to treat them for IP. It seems this can be done with Prazi or Gel-Tek. I already have Prazi at my house but isn't that best for flukes and not so mush for IP? Also, for the treatment of bacterial infections I already have Melafix on hand but I don't find that to be very effective so I also have erythomycin. That should be okay I think but it only treats gram+. So is kanaplex okay with puffer or are they to sensitive? For fungal infections I have Primafix but I don't love it that much, any other suggestions.

So, here's what I would put in my med chest and please tell me if it sounds okay or how you would change it?
IP killer: Prazi or Gel-Tek for treating tank? Levamisol to soak food if they still eat.
Bacterial: Melafix and erythromycin. Kanaplex if okay.
Fungal: Primafix and whatever you suggest.

Thanks,
Beki

Generally I don't keep much on hand other than Melafix.

This is because I live close enough to a big city that I can get anything in an emergency right away, and because most medications have an expiration date, and i never end up using them before they expire. I do have Levimasole and Metronidazole on hand, for feeding deworming food ocassionally, I'm one of those people who liked to deworm every 5 or 6 months, just to be safe.

Lots of big water changes and not introducing new fish without a very good quarentine period is the key, IMO.

The only "med" I stock is table salt for Ich. Anything else I need I would prefer to have fresh, for the reasons Myaj has already given.

I do not consider puffers more susceptible to disease at all. Once they are past aclimitization (2-6 weeks approx, sometimes longer), they rarely have any problems for years and years.

RTR: I wasn't trying to say that puffer are disease prone, rather that they are susceptible to different disease than my cold-water fish and therefore in need of different meds. Perhaps, I mis-spoke.
Myaj: I agree about not introducing fish that have not been QT to the tank as the key factor. A dose of prevention......

I also live close enough to the city that I can get many meds but not all. I can always order online, if need be. Salt sounds fine, as does the dewormer for food. Thanks guys.

I think some must have gear would be....

Prime, carbon, melafix, pimafix, salt, air stone, python, buckets, dewormer, QT tank, backup filter and heater. And most important, good practices.

Basic emergency tool kit stuff, not necessarily medicine chest.

Very true, I also always have unopened bags of carbon, epsom salts and aquarium salt.

The only reason I have any of that stuff on hand though is because of my goldfish. I swear, fancy goldfish are bred to have so many internal problems.. Never had to use any of it on my puffers!

I read through some of the gel-tek meds. I think I still have one I wasted money on...yep here it is.

Active ingredients:
praziquantal - 0.0057%
Flubenol 0.03%
Metronidazole - 0.30%

I found it to be completely useless, and worse, the low dosage might allow the parasites to get a tolerance against the meds. (Thats just a guess though) Most of their other meds have similarly tiny % of active ingredients.
So basically, I don't use or recommend Gel-Tek. If anyone has had good luck with them, let me know.

Myaj: I have goldies too and I couldn't agree more. They just always seem to have problems! No matter how much love I give them or how well I take care of them they can get sick. And I take GOOD care of them. There are some tanks I can ignore, but NEVER the goldies. Their internal anatomy just won't allow it. I'm glad to hear I won't have those problems with my DP. Have you visited the GAB.com. It's THE goldfish forum. Anyway, I didn't mean to hijack my own thread.

Tell me about it, I started out with 3 ryunkins in a 60 gallon tank and a couple years later, I only have 2 left. These two seem pretty healthy, but the one I lost always had tumors, swim bladder issues, spinal issues (couldn't use her tail), all kinds of nasty stuff, one thing would heal, another would go wrong. The two I have are growing and doing well, but yeah, any late water change and they start to get red spots, or their fins don't look so good... Right now the male is in breeding condition and shredding the girl's fins, poor thing, but they are gorgeous...

Anyhoo, I used to go to Koko's all the time but now that they are well established and healthy I don't really frequent the goldie boards much anymore.

But back on puffer-topic, generally if you keep their water clean, give them the appropriate water (fresh vs brackish vs marine) and stock appropriately, they are pretty healthy fish for the most part. They just can't handle dirty water or being in the wrong type of water or put in a situation where they will fight.