Skinny puffer... Intestinal parasites?

[nemirn]

One of my 2 Green Spotted Puffers is exhibiting symptoms of intestinal parasites.

She looks emaciated, pinched, and very dark. She has good appetite, and I've been making an effort to feed her extra until I get my hands on some medication.

The other puffer is extremely healthy. All the coral and other fish are fine, too.

My question is:

What kind of medicine can I use to treat her?

Preferably, I'd want something that she can eat (like soaked in with her food) rather than dosing the whole tank.

Where can I get it?

In addition, I would like to know how parasites are typically introduced into the tank. Several weeks ago I did feed them some "nuisance" snails from the freshwater tanks at Aqua Dome for the puffers to wear their beaks down on-- that's all I can think of right now.

Thanks!

[nemirn]

One of my 2 Green Spotted Puffers is exhibiting symptoms of intestinal parasites.

She looks emaciated, pinched, and very dark. She has good appetite, and I've been making an effort to feed her extra until I get my hands on some medication.

The other puffer is extremely healthy. All the coral and other fish are fine, too.

My question is:

What kind of medicine can I use to treat her?

Preferably, I'd want something that she can eat (like soaked in with her food) rather than dosing the whole tank.

Where could I get it?

[+Hydro]

Not sure if this is to late but I picked up parasite medicine for my GSP at River City, just let the guys know what you need to treat for and they will fix you up.

[nemirn]

Not sure if this is to late but I picked up parasite medicine for my GSP at River City, just let the guys know what you need to treat for and they will fix you up.

I ended up buying Seachem's Metronidazole.

I'm on the 3rd day of treatment. I mix it with her frozen mysis and scoop it into a tiny net.

The poor little thing curls up inside the net and slowly munches on the mysis and does not want to leave the net!

It's almost as if she KNOWS that I am medicating her.

Can you tell me about your experience? Did your GSP have the same symptoms? What kind of medicine did you use? Did it work?

Thanks for responding. I'm really attached to my GSP's.

[Derek]

Usually they get very fat if they have parasites, like explodingly fat. Do they eat when you feed?

[nemirn]

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to update it just in case anyone else had the same problem.

I tried antibiotics and garlic with the puffer. Neither helped at all.

Finally, I did a freshwater dip... straight into a 5g bucket filled with dechlorinated tap water (and a bubbler).

She turned black, and gradually became more energetic.

After an hour, she was swimming along the perimeter of the bucket.

Then I released her back into the tank.

She hid for about 10 minutes, then returned to the open water.

Over the next 3 days, she ate normally and lost all her strange behavior.

After 2 months, her health had apparently returned to normal.

I doubt if this procedure would be orthodox for most marine fish, but I reasoned that since puffers can transition between fresh and saltwater relatively quickly

that she would not be adversely affected by the dip.

Today, she is the "dominant" of the two puffers in my tank.

No, I don't know how to sex them. But I named it "Tammy" a long time ago, so it's a girl to me.