The Puffer Forum

If a puffer had parasites in the gills could this make the fish stop using one gill and then alternating form one to the other and also cause elevated pumping of the gills to take in oxygen.

It sounds familiar... have you done a search on gill flukes yet?

Firefox is messed up on my computer and I can't find my good link to external parasite info...

Just finished skimming through some posts, some say flicking against objects when puffers have gill flukes, others say using one gill.

I only ask because since I have treated him for parasites last saturday, his breathing rate from his gills seems to have slowed down a lot and he seems to be using both all the time when I have observed him. Temperature has not changed from before treatment (80-82 depending on time of day) and he's still as active as ever.

Last week his gills were pumping at least 2-3 times the speed they are this week.

What did you use to treat him?

If treatment led to improvement, it would lead me to believe that he did have gill flukes or something else bothering his gills.

I used Flubeno 15l, as regards him getting thin quite quick, I can see a small improvement, he hasn't been fed for 2 days and he doesnt look as thin as he used to before treatment.

Although this could be me seeing what I want to see with his belly.

I will reserve judgement for now and see how he progresses.

I'm not sure, but I'm starting to get the suspicion that medication may have a tendency to make them a little constipated as well. So I agree that reserving judgment for a while is a good idea.

The way it was explained to me, fish with gill issues "assume" that it is the water that has the problem and not themselves, and will generally try to situate themselves near a water output or near the surface (anywhere they think there may be more oxygen).
Any of this type of behavior?

CoreyK wrote:The way it was explained to me, fish with gill issues "assume" that it is the water that has the problem and not themselves, and will generally try to situate themselves near a water output or near the surface (anywhere they think there may be more oxygen).
Any of this type of behavior?

Nope swimming around as he always has, never constantly near the filter or airstream and using all levels of the tank. Also I have mentioned before on another thread that when the gill stopped working it was usually in conjunction with the corresponding fin. This behaviour also seems to have stopped since treatment as well.

Obviously it's early days but I am taking these signs as slightly encouraging.

Hilly wrote:Obviously it's early days but I am taking these signs as slightly encouraging.

If you added it last saturday, I would assume the parasites are dead from what you are saying, the thing is, without checking what sort of parasites they are with a scope, its difficult to knw if they are egg layers or not, if they are you will need to treat it for approx 4 weeks so as any eggs that have been laid can hatch and them be killed