advice on my striped burrfish

[seanathon]

i recently picked up a striped burrfish(Chilomycterus schoepfii) and was wondering if anyone had any experience with these guys. he is currently in a 40gl soon to be moved to a 90gl and is about 3in.

from what i read these are supposed to be more difficult to keep than other puffers but the only reason i could find about that was that they are hard to get on prepared food.

this is not the case with this guy. the first thing he did when i put him in was start trying to eat everything. he even takes down spectrum pellets without question. Also, do you think pellets will help to keep his teeth worn down?

the only problem is that he has a few spots on his fins that look like ick. i have been treating him with RxP since i got him and seems to be fine, yet none of the spots are gone.

any other advice on this guy?

 

[Pomatomus]

No advice, but I can say that I've kept them in a marine laboratory before. I have not noticed any differences in care from other puffers. Just try not to feed him to the point he explodes!

 

[Pufferpunk]

The other problem is internal parasites. Is his belly concave? Does he get fat after eating & then thin again in a day or less? Most need to be de-wormed several times.

 

[seanathon]

The other problem is internal parasites. Is his belly concave? Does he get fat after eating & then thin again in a day or less? Most need to be de-wormed several times.

yeah it does do that. what should i use to de-worm? the RxP said it works for various parasites but i know that it may not be the best for what you are talking about.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Generally, it is a loosing battle with this species... This is why most don't make it in captivity. They must be dewormed several times throughout their lives.

http://www.**************.com/forum/library/hospital/internal-parasites-prevention-and-treatment/

You might also want to search Puffer Queen's threads at Marine Depot for more info on this.

 

[Pomatomus]

Huh. Weird. We have kept them from 1" to 12" for years without any problems (maybe 10-15 during my time at college). However, we did catch them all.

 

[Pufferpunk]

What was their longevity like?

 

[Pomatomus]

Still counting lol. Years. Our foot-long one is in a 12,000 gallon with other local fish and from time to time I still see him milling around the rock structure. We also keep southern puffers and balloonfish.

 

[Fat Homer]

Wow, that sounds like quite an amazing setup... got pics of the fish and the 12,000G tank by any chance?

 

[seanathon]

So i gave the fish some medicated food and it looked like he "purged" some worms the next day. Its stomach is staying at a relative similar size from day to day. I have notice a couple other spots of ick though. Also there is something that looks like a huge ick spot on one of his fins. The RxP worked for me before on a a firefish but im not sure if it is helping this one. Should i try a different treatment for this or should i continue treating for a while longer?