The Puffer Forum

I would have put this in the hospital section, had it not been too late.

I've kept 3 female Carinotetraodon species together without any problems whatsoever since I've had them, around 7 or 8 months I'd guess. They squabble at feeding time, but that has been it.

However, i recently lost my female salivator and am fighting a losing battle to save my female borneensis.

The problem is thus. They are all fed the same amounts. The diets are varied. Cockle, mussel, bloodworm. All the puffers ate very similar amounts, however, the irrubesco is the only one to stay a reasonable size. The other 2, even feeding them 3 times a day, have continued to lose weight.

I initially came to the conclusion it must be IP's, but that's impossible. No new fish have been added to the tank in months, and it has a UV filter on it was well, eradicating the bad bugs.

But the Salivator and Borneensis refuse to put on weight, even after feeding them 3+ times a day.



has anyone had a similar experience? like i say, my Irrubesco is fine, as is the Male salivator on the other side of a divider.

Disheartened!

Ip's can take months or even close to a year to multiply enough to start starving a fish. They could have come with a very light infection, then it slowly, steadily built up. The UV sterilizer will prevent them from spreading to other fish for the most part, and slow down exceedingly the rate at which they spread inside the infected fish, but is not a failsafe against them muliplying internally. I would treat the tank with Flubenol-15, which is puffer safe and is the only med that I know of which works even when added to the water.

In the meantime, try multiple meals daily and fatty foods like Mysis shrimp to keep their strength up. I found that freeze-dried plankton (the mini shrimps) were perfect for soaking up meds and feeding to my irrubesco when I was treating her IPs. Good luck with your girls!

I've actually found overfeeding speeds the course of the parasites, it will keep the puffers fat but the parasites will multiply so much that they will kill the puffer outright, a GSP I had, Kiwi, died of this, he was such a glutton I never even suspected parasites until he died surrounded by a mass of stringy poo. I would feed about what is normal for the fish, but in small portions more frequently, as the more food is in the gut at once, the higher the proportion the parasites are getting vs the fish; puffer bellies can hold several times more food than a puffer can digest.

Ah! Forget i said that, then.

If the same equipment is used to clean each tank this could spread diseases right?

Fella

Do think it might be worth trying Flubenol?

Yes, protozoans/bacteria can be easily transferred. However, I think the symptoms sound more like IPs like nematodes or similar. I'd soak the food with the med against worms. It's the most direct way to provide a high concentration inside the puffer.

I wouldnt bother with medicating food as its not that effective and there is no good med to do this with in the Uk, as Corvus says, it does sound like IP
As Rocker suggests and use some flubenol 15 from http://www.flubenol.co.uk that should sort it out ok, also if you add the code 51fluby, you will get a 10% discount

Out of curiousity, even though I have never seen flubenol here in the US and "knock on wood" haven't dealt with IP in my puffers, how do you figure the dosage of medication to add to water for soaking foods in? If you are using a medication that for instance says add 1 tsp per 10 gal water to the tank for 10 days or whatever, how much would you add to the water itself? I totally understand the soaking the food because the medication would get inside the puffer so much more effectively, but I would be afraid of too much or too little.

Flubenol is already diluted. It has 5% Flubendazole, which is the most important ingredient. This stuff prohibits many worms from eating. If you know the weight of your puffer, you can calculate and measure the dose needed, since for Flubendazole the daily doses are known (ca. 5 mg/kg weight = 5 ppm Flubendazole = approx. 100 ml Flubenol/kg). For a 100 g puffer you need about 10 ml, 10 g puffer needs 1 ml...). Because it is not easy to overdose and you probably won't get all of the fluid into the food and in the puffer, I'd use more.

If you put it into the water, you cannot be sure how fast it is destroyed by light/chemical reactions and after adding it for several days you'll have no idea how much actually is in the water. But as said, it is hard to overdose, so adding to the water is not bad either.

EDIT: Just saw Paul's link goes to Flubenol 15, which has 15 % Flubendazole. You'd need to calculate accordingly.

kimmers318 wrote:Out of curiousity, even though I have never seen flubenol here in the US and "knock on wood" haven't dealt with IP in my puffers, how do you figure the dosage of medication to add to water for soaking foods in? If you are using a medication that for instance says add 1 tsp per 10 gal water to the tank for 10 days or whatever, how much would you add to the water itself? I totally understand the soaking the food because the medication would get inside the puffer so much more effectively, but I would be afraid of too much or too little.

Thanks why I think adding meds to food is a bad idea, in a community tank its often the sick ones that dont get the food, its very hit or miss

Corvus wrote:Flubenol is already diluted. It has 5% Flubendazole, which is the most important ingredient. This stuff prohibits many worms from eating. If you know the weight of your puffer, you can calculate and measure the dose needed, since for Flubendazole the daily doses are known (ca. 5 mg/kg weight = 5 ppm Flubendazole = approx. 100 ml Flubenol/kg). For a 100 g puffer you need about 10 ml, 10 g puffer needs 1 ml...). Because it is not easy to overdose and you probably won't get all of the fluid into the food and in the puffer, I'd use more.

If you put it into the water, you cannot be sure how fast it is detroyed by light/chemical reactions and after adding it for several days you'll have no idea how much actually is in the water. But as said, it is hard to overdose, so adding to the water is not bad either.

Flubendazole at 5% is not strong enough to kill all parasites and they can build up a resistance to it. Also its not water soluble, so adding normal flubenol 5 to the water wont actually do a great deal... to make it water soluble you need to use acetone or DMSO, neither of which are exactly safe for fish use....

Certainly right for the community tank!

edited above

Flubendazole at 5% is not strong enough to kill all parasites and they can build up a resistance to it.

If you dose 3times it is no difference.

Also its not water soluble, so adding normal flubenol 5 to the water wont actually do a great deal.

That's another reason why to add it to food.