The Puffer Forum

My F8 seems very healthy and active, but everyday before I feed him is belly looks really sunken in. Seems like it's only full for an hour or two after I feed him. I'm worried he might have internal parasites. What do you think?

Before eating (24hrs since I fed him last)



After eating (~1/4 cube of frozen bloodworms)

Looks likely. Chekc out the stickies for info on treatment.

Phaedrus wrote:Looks likely. Chekc out the stickies for info on treatment.

Yeah I looked at the "Treating Parasites" topic, but it really isn't very helpful.
I was thinking of buying Parasite Clear Tank Buddies.
Active ingredients: praziquantel; N-[[(N-Chlorophenyl)amino]carbon 1]-2,6-difluorobenzamide; metronidazole; acriflavine.

Has anyone tried these? Says it clears both external and internal parasites.

It's worth a shot. It cured my DP's IPs. Make sure you soak their food in it, rather than just dissolving the tablets in the tank. Your F8 needs to injest the meds.

Sorry if it's a silly question but is this F8 being kept in a brackish tank?

puffermama wrote:Sorry if it's a silly question but is this F8 being kept in a brackish tank?

Yes. SG 1.005

Dinsdale wrote:It's worth a shot. It cured my DP's IPs. Make sure you soak their food in it, rather than just dissolving the tablets in the tank. Your F8 needs to injest the meds.

Thanks for the tip. I had already dropped one of the tabs in last night though. I don't think it should hurt to have the meds in both the water and his food.. I'll probably do a partial water change before I feed him today just to be safe (don't want to overdose)

I broke off a small piece of a tab and let it dissolve in some water with a cube of frozen bloodworms, I'll just leave it in the refrigerator and feed it to him over the next few days. How long did you feed the medicated food to cure your DP's?

I fed them medicated food for about 8 days. Initially, I was conservative with the amount of tablet I dissolved...when I didn't see much improvement after a few days I broke off pretty big chunks of tablets (1/4 pieces) and dissolved one in just a few gallons for the rest of the time.There was only one (out of six) that appeared to have IPs initially and he is doing fine now (couple months later).

Make sure you take the carbon out of your filter, otherwise dropping a tablet in the water would be completely useless.

I didn't drop any tablets in because I worried that maybe the IPs would get exposed to a small amount of it somehow and become tolerant.

I agree with Dinsdale. The parasite should be treated as directly as possible (through ingestion) in a high enough dosage to kill the parasite completly.

You have it pretty easy since the F8 is still actively eating .

Dinsdale wrote:I fed them medicated food for about 8 days. Initially, I was conservative with the amount of tablet I dissolved...when I didn't see much improvement after a few days I broke off pretty big chunks of tablets (1/4 pieces) and dissolved one in just a few gallons for the rest of the time.There was only one (out of six) that appeared to have IPs initially and he is doing fine now (couple months later).

Make sure you take the carbon out of your filter, otherwise dropping a tablet in the water would be completely useless.

I didn't drop any tablets in because I worried that maybe the IPs would get exposed to a small amount of it somehow and become tolerant.

This is the third day I have fed with medicated blood worms. I basically broke off a small piece of one of the disks (~1/8th). let it soak in a half cup of water with one cube of bloodworms in the fridge, so it should be pretty heavily medicated. The puffer seems to have a hard time eating the blood worms. I'm not sure if it's because of the medication (tastes bad??), or problems with the parasites. basically he'll suck up a blood worm and then chew on it for a few seconds and spit it out then suck it up again... sometimes it takes him 3 or 4 tries to eat it. I'm trying to be patient with feeding him, but I'm sure he's not getting as much as he was before (I've been feeding him for about 15 minutes, and his belly still isn't rounded like it was before...)

Looks like I have enough left to feed him tomorrow (feed 1/4 cube/day). Should I keep up with the meds after that, or do you think it's enough?

i'd keep up with the meds for a little bit longer. You really want to make sure they are dead and gone and not jsut weakened slightly, and now resistant to the meds.

You could try using guarlic guard to offset any bad taste from the meds.

Hi I have been reading this and have a couple of questions. How do you tell if they have them is it just the sunken belly or does it have to do with the color of the belly too?

1. Does it hurt the medicine to set in the refrigerator with the blood worms/food?

2. How long does the food need to soak in the medicine, could you soak for an hour or two on the counter and then feed the f8's

Sorry I'm treating my f8 for ich that they had when they came home and am just trying to learn all I can so I can recognize things and know what to do if I need to.

Thank You for your time and any information you have to share.

I've also been using this medication on one of my fish. I just dissolve 1/4 tablet in a cup of tank water and then soak the food in it for around an hour and feed.

Hi do you mean the Parasite Clear Tank Buddies