The Puffer Forum

I am a little worried about my fahaka. This morning when I turned on his tank light I noticed some different poo than usual hanging out. It looked like a long strand and had a little brown chunk at the end. I wouldnt say it was white colored, but actually clear. It almost looked like how the bloodworms sometimes look when there is red parts missing in their bodies. Does that analogy make any sense to you all? I was able to see through the strand hanging out of him. So does this mean he has internal parasites? Is this just a one time thing? I did feed him snails and bloodworms last night, maybe the whole bloodworm analogy has a part in the poo. His poo has always been the nice brown chucks until this morning.

Information

Fish 3 inch Fahaka, had him for about 1 and a half months now
Acting completely normal, swimming around joyfully
Has a hearty appetite, stomach is nice round and full after feeding, not sunken in at all
No unusual discoloration or behavior
Feeding him snails, bloodworms, krill, shell on shrimp, earthworms, mussels, and little crab pieces left over from my palembangensis dinner

Tank 75 gallon tank, hes going into a 120 soon
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Ph 7.6
Temperature 80 degrees
Weekly water changes of 30 percent
Only have used prime for water changes, no other chemicals present


The only thing that I can suspect that has changed is I got a new batch of snails this past week. I have usually fed pond snails from my snail breeder tank. I got 100 small gold mystery snails from the lfs. They are in the snail breeder but all look healthy. I fed him some of those. Could the snails be the problem. Thanks.

I'd just watch him for now. If he's nice & round, it might just be an "off" poo. I'd think if he had IPs for as long as you've had him, he'd be skinny.

I've seen poo that was clear or gray and long and the puffers did not have IP, IP "white stringy poo" tends to look a bit more like either bright white or ivory-white kite string, and very thin.

So for the next three days after I posted, he had normal brown poo. Today I fed him gut loaded ghost shrimp and some snails. He started to poo like this. It looks kinda whitish cream colored with large beads. Is this internal parasites? Should I start treating him with anything. Thanks.

Hmm, still looks a bit ambiguous to me. Perhaps ghost shrimp give him lighter poo? There's really no HARM in using flubenol-15, but over medication is always to be avoided, so go wtih how paranoid you are feeling. I'd probably not treat at this time personally, but have the product on hand.

My puffs poo always looks funny after eating snails.....

I never really associated his poo with him eating snails. I will try not feeding him snails and seeing if his poo comes out different. I have been feeding him some gold mystery snails and apples snails that I got last weekend. They are a white color, different from the usual brown pond snails. Maybe thats why his poo is lighter. Can snails from my snail breeder tank be giving him internal parasites? The snails look healthy in the breeder, Im not sure how you can tell if they arent though.

I dont have any flubenol and their website doesnt seem to work. I ordered some gel tek ultra cure px to give to him. Would it be bad to medicate just in case he has IP?

Thanks everyone for their advice.

It shouldn't hurt to treat him just in case. I would if it was mine. Just make sure you soak his food in the Gel-Tek rather than use it as the label says, and treat for at least 7 days.

Received my GelTek yesterday and treated him with it. I soaked a cube of bloodworms in it mixed with just a bit of water. I let it soak for 30 minutes, then gave it to him. He promptly started eating all the bloodworms. This morning he had some brown chuncks of poo hanging out, so that is really promising. I am going to treat him for one week just to make sure he is good. My question is how much geltek should I be using to soak the food? What food do think is the most absorbant? He eats anything so I dont think the medicated food will be a problem. Should I be more than the usual one day a week water change while medicating? Thanks everyone for your advice.

I normally don't recommend freeze dried food of any kind, but mixing some freeze dried bloodworm reconstituted in just geltek with the soaked cube would be even more cautious. I'd soak for a few hours in the fridge if you can, and the cube+no water+ enough geltek to cover it should do.