Ok, I have two green spotted puffer. I know that these fish are better in brackish water but they were in Freshwater at my LFS. I have them since about 2 weeks and they don't seem to be really healthy. They rub theirself against gravel and rock and the seem to bend their body in 2 from time to time. The smaller one seem to be sicker because sometime it stop swimming and stay between two rock or on the gravel like a dead fish. The bigger one do that sometime but far less than the smaller one. Since they were rubbing theirself I tought they had somekind of parasite and my LSF recommended using a product called Parasick RIGA. It look alot like methylene blue to me. As soon as I added that thing to my tank, I noticed a bunch of really really small white worm swimming everywhere in the water. What are these and how can I get ride of them? Most of them got sucked up by the filter but alot of them are still free in my tank. Thanks alot for the help
Sick Puffer
- Thread starter Fat_Mike
- Start date
Sounds like you've got a nasty infection, very common with puffers, but even more so when they are in fresh. If possible, I would start adding salt to the tank, and get a hydrometer. The normal, healthy salinity of brackish water will keep your puffers healthier.
If they are eating, soak their food in garlic extract. It's available at most health stores, and will help with parasites. Without knowing exactly what kind of parasite you have, it's hard to recommend a specific course of action. I would do lots of water changes, and rinse the filter media very well--scrub and rinse heavily. There are a few places that might help identify the intruder; can't think of any right now... www.skepticalaquariast.com might help you a bit.
If they are eating, soak their food in garlic extract. It's available at most health stores, and will help with parasites. Without knowing exactly what kind of parasite you have, it's hard to recommend a specific course of action. I would do lots of water changes, and rinse the filter media very well--scrub and rinse heavily. There are a few places that might help identify the intruder; can't think of any right now... www.skepticalaquariast.com might help you a bit.
Thanks for the reply. Like I said the worm only come out in the open when I add that methylene blue into the water. The worm are really really small and swim like crazy. It seem that there are less worm since the medication was added but my puffer are eating less and less and do nothing except stay on the gravel or rock. They used to patrol the glass up and down almost everytime before that and now I think they might die pretty soon. If that happen I will just quit trying to keep puffer since I bought 2 figure eight puffer about 2 years ago and they became sick after 6 month. I will continu to search for someway of killing those nasty parasite but I guess it might be too late.
Thanks alot for any info you might be able to give me,
Mike
Thanks alot for any info you might be able to give me,
Mike
Both GSP and Figure-8 are brackish water fish, perhaps keeping them in the proper water would improve your results.
