The Puffer Forum

Hello, i picked up an irrubesco / loretti the other day. He has his own 10 gallon, with an aquaclear 20 & a fluval 1 plus underwater filter. I cycled the tank with bio media from an established tank. my params are: Ammonia=0 Nitrite=0 Nitrate=10-15ppm. He gets a water change every other day, and the water is treated with Prime. He has been eating like a champ! he is doing great, already getting some personality. for the past few days he has been getting frozen krill, frozen bloodworm, frozen brineshrimp, and a few live ghost shrimp. The other day, i looked at him, and there was white feces hanging from his bum. They weren't "stringy," but then again, i have never seen what IP poop looks like. I went to get my camera, but the batteries are dead, and right after i replaced them the feces had already fell off. When i feed him, his belly gets pretty big, but by the end of the night, it's already kind of skinny. I posted some pics of him, his eyes are kind of a cool looking orange, because i woke him up in the middle of the night, and it took awhile for his eyes to adjust to the light (his eyes turn white when he's sleeping). Does he have internal parasites? If so, is Jungle Parasite Clear a decent medicine? (contains paniquantel, diflubenzuron, metronidazole, and acriflavine). Thanks!

Please help me out guys, i want to do the right thing before it's too late.

He does look kind of sickly... It wouldn't hurt to treat him. Are his fins frayed a bit too?

I'm not that familiar with the species (they are so hard to find).

If I had to guess, I'd say he looks a bit skinny, and yes, like something's been chewing on his fins.

I'm one of those people who makes a habit out of deworming all my fish a couple times a year. The trick is getting them to actually eat the treated food, it tastes pretty bad. Usually a day or two of fasting is necessary.

Hah, my LFS had tons of them! males and females. I'm tempted to buy a female but i'm sure they'll kill each other before they breed. He's fins are slightly nipped, because they kept so many in such a small tank. If anybody wants one, i might be able to buy and send you one. ( with your money + shipping ) Anyways, I'm going to treat him with the medicine i listed in my first post. Thanks for the help

Apart from looking a little battered from being nipped I dont think he looks too bad. How's he feeding, is he readily taking food. I never saw my Salivator poop so I wouldnt worry about seeing it unless you see white stringy poop hanging from him then start to worry. A bit of Melafix and Pimafix wouldnt hurt to aid the skin healing. As for Jungle parasite clear i have never personally used it but I have read that other members have. Cant comment on dosing though.

He's feeding great, he is fun to watch eat. Since i have an underwater filter to add a little more filtration and current, the little bits of food go around the tank pretty fast, but he is pretty damn good at catching them. I'm treating him at 3/4 the recommended dose right now just to be safe.

Kind of funny story: The night of the day i got him, I wanted to see him. The lights had already been off for quite some time, so he was definitely sleeping. I picked up his caves to see him; he was doing that "dying fish swim" around the tank, and his eyes weren't red, they were white. They looked like the color my gsp's eyes turned when he was dying (i watched his final hours ). So pretty much i just got pissed and went to sleep. The next day when my gf woke me up, i asked her if she fed all of the tanks. Then i asked if the puffer died yet. She said he was doing great :/ So i looked in the tank, and his eyes were back to normal and he was beggin for food..I guess their eyes aren't red when they're adjusted for darkness. I woke him up in the middle of the night again yesterday, and i noticed he wasn't his usual colors. I got to see some really, really cool looking patterns that aren't visible on him when he's his normal black-ish color. Neato

Salivators eyes were silver sometimes at night when resting and they're body colour would change dramatically. Good luck with him.

Caution - NEVER use an anti parasitic at less than full dose. It will make the parasites resistant to the active ingredient, creating super-strains of the bug that can't be treated.

Eeek! Thanks for the heads up Nick. The only reason i didn't do a full dose is because a puffer is scaleless, correct? Does that only apply to ich medication?

Ich medication, specifically, those that contain formalin, which should never be used anyway. Salt, heat, and a month or so is the best treatment for ich for any fish.