The Puffer Forum

We have a F8 that has internal parasite(s), and has since we got him. we put him in his own tank out of caution, but we would prefer to have him in our main 55g with 2 other f8s... is this a bad move? can the parasite spread to our other fish?

Yes, its a bad move. If you put him with the others, all will need to be treated as they can all be infected with IPs from the one that has them. That's exactly how they spread.

ok, thats what we've always figured. we've had this fish for about 1.5yrs, and he was treated at one point for the parasite (while it was still near the surface of his skin). but once it burrowed into him, we stopped the treatments, cause we didnt want to hurt him. we will stay in the 29g alone then, we were just hoping it work.

thx

What makes you so sure he has them? I would think a fish could live a few weeks, even months w/IPs but a fish that small would be dead by 1 1/2 years with them.

he had a large lump.. that over time took on a coiled apperance, then started to move (very slowly, but visably) under the skin, from the right side to the left. then it get smaller, and his belly became lumpy, and still is to this day. he gets strange sores randomly, and his mouth looks oddly white at times. we figured it was all related to what ever this parasite is. he gets thin pretty quick, but we still skip one day a week feeding him... but we do give him more food than the rest, and he's not really grown in a year, and his belly never stay large for more than a few hours.

Not actually an "internal" parasite, per se. More of a sub-dermal (under skin) parasite, called a nematode. Yes, it is recommended to keep fish infected, alone.

ok, thx for your help ladies. he's seemed a bit loney since we've removed him for the other fish, but he does get more specialized treatment because of it. im guessing you dont recommend having any tank mates with him then? we had a knight goby with him for some company, they would hunt ghost shrimp together. though i dont want to endanger any other fish.

If you dont want to endanger any other fish, then he is best kept alone.

There is no effective treatment for somatic nematodes. If you do manage to kill the nematodes, the dead worms can poison the fish - and generally do.

It would have the rotting, dead carcass of the worm, under it's skin. Much better survival rate, to just leave the worm in there.

...thats, unpleasant. thanks for the info tho. is there a point where we will need to, you know, help him go? like are there some signs we should look for?

there was a couple of times he looked so bad that we wanted to.. but he pulled through, and has always kept eating.