Porcupine puffer help
- Thread starter grim332
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vlangel
Seahorse whisperer
Porcupine puffer often come with lots of parasites. I think I'd try prazi pro also. If you can quarantine him maybe try Maracyn also in case its bacterial. Can't remember if you can use those simultaneous or not so be sure to read the instructions.
vlangel
Seahorse whisperer
Melafix will also help with bacterial although I don't know if it works as well as maracyn. You can pull Melafix out with carbon and a chemi- pure pad.
vlangel
Seahorse whisperer
Yes, I believe you can use that in a quarantine tank. Do not use it in your DT. Watch your puffer closely to make sure he is not showing signs of distress. You can lower your salinity a little from your DT too to help with parasites. For example: if your DT is .021 salinity you could safely lower it to .019. Most marine fish can adapt to this but especially puffers.
vlangel
Seahorse whisperer
When I say lower the salinity, I mean in the quarantine tank. Thought I better clarify.
Lowering salinity to 1.019 will do nothing for parasites. Lowering to 1.008-1.009 is effective against Ich, but that is about it.
FishGuyTy
Active Member
Are you sure it is not a build up of gas in the eye? I have seen many eye parasites/flukes on a wide range fish. Prazi pro is the best for that, I literally watch them leave the eye when I add it. However, the problem I think you have is not necessarily on the eye, but rather in the eye. The picture looks like it illustrates a bubble within the eye, making me think otherwise. I have heard of people using a needle to extract the air/gas to help it deflate, but that is a lot more difficult on a puffer. One experience that comes to mind is a passer angel we had in a 500 gallon tank in clinic. The angel formed the bubble, out of no where and was brought back to a hospital holding tank. 6 months and endless medications later (pima/mela, tripple sulfate, eurythromiacin, copper, prazi pro, and a few others to no avail. The fish learned to cope and is now back in her original tank with one good eye and one odd looking eye. A small bubble still exists and it is clear there is no use of the eye, but she has been going strong for over a year now.
FishGuyTy
Active Member
Prazi pro is the way to go than! Try that first. I like to fill a 5 gallon bucket and mix a 4-5 strength of it in the bucket and put him in there, keeping a close eye on him for signs of stress. Remember to wet catch your puffer so he doesn't puff up with air as it can be a real pain in the butt for him and you to get it out. Soak him in the concentrated prazi for no more than 20 min, i usually see the flukes crawl right out and leave the eye within a minute or 2. I like to then return the fish to the tank, or ideally a QT and dose the prazi to the specified directions. Prazi does kill some worms like feather dusters, tho I have not had any die, it does specify. This should rid the fish of the flukes, but the gas bubbles are a different story. Ideally, the gas will leave the eye thru the fluke's hole/with the fluke, but if it does not go away, you may need to consider medications like antibiotics. Again, I have heard of some wholesalers/LFS that use a vet tiny needle to remove gas bubbles in eyes with relative success, but an angry puffer can pose more of a challenge than most.
vlangel
Seahorse whisperer
Yes sir, that's it. Its fairly inexpensive comparatively.
FishGuyTy
Active Member
I guess that is Hikari, but my bottles look different and I've been buying it for 2 years. We use it at my work from time to time and order new stuff often. I found an old bottle of it that was there before I started and it looked similar to this, that's why I feel it's old.
