Stringy White Poop - Internal Parasites?

Does this mean internal parasites? If it is what do I treat it with? I have inverts and scaleless fish

 

How is it’s behavior? He is eating normally? Picture is not clear. It could be as simple as constipation.

 

It is behaving and eating normally.

 

I would try veggie pellets for couple of days. Feed once a day and see if it improves.

 

I just fed omega one veggie rounds today. What does feeding veggie pellets do?

 

I just fed omega one veggie rounds today. What does feeding veggie pellets do?

Veggie rounds should be good enough. Did it eat though?

 

Veggie rounds should be good enough. Did it eat though?

It did eat. It also ate a cichlid pellet that was supposed to be for my bolivian ram.

 

Just feed veggie rounds. Other fish will be fine even if they don’t eat this. Do this for 2 days and then go back normal routine and check.

 

doing a good ol round of prazipro doesn't hurt anybody

 

I just saw a new bolivian ram flashing. Will prazipro treat that? Is it ok for inverts and scaleless fish?

 

I just saw a new bolivian ram flashing. Will prazipro treat that? Is it ok for inverts and scaleless fish?

I’m sorry I don’t know anything about flashing

And yeah it’s fine for inverts for sure, none of my snails died. I imagine it would be fine for scaleless fish too since it’s 1/2 of general cure cory uses that on all their fish

 

I really hope its nothing serious for you. It really does suck when you think your babies are suffering.

There are so many things it could be and to narrow it down you have to look at everything going on in your tank. Like water parameters, temperature, what you feed them, when you feed them etc. If you use the sick fish template they have here on the forum it will help other members help you figure it out.

Also, once you have a better handle on what you are dealing with a great source of info for treatments and different types of fish can be found here

;Here is the sick fish template

Tank

• What is the water volume of the tank?
• Does it have a filter?
• Does it have a heater?
• What is the water temperature?
• What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.)

Maintenance

• How often do you change the water?
• How much of the water do you change?
• What do you use to treat your water?
• Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water?

Parameters

• Did you cycle your tank before adding fish?
• What do you use to test the water?
• What are your parameters? We need the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.

Out of strips will buy some more tomorrow.
Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:

Feeding

• How often do you feed your fish?
• How much do you feed your fish?
• What brand of food do you feed your fish?

Illness & Symptoms:

• How long have you had this fish?
• How long ago did you first notice these symptoms?
• In a few words, (more room for details below) what are the symptoms.
• Have you started any treatment for the illness?
• Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase?
• How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all?

 

Tank

• What is the water volume of the tank? 36 gallon
• Does it have a filter? Yes
• Does it have a heater? Yes
• What is the water temperature? Around 76 Fahrenheit
• What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) 2 bolivian rams, 1 blue gourami, 3 platies, 2 swordtails, 7 corydoras aeneus, 1 bristlenose pleco, some platy fry, 1 rabbit snail, 2 baby rabbit snails 4 mystery snails, 3 nerite snails

Maintenance

• How often do you change the water? At least once a week usually every few days
• How much of the water do you change? 20% 3-4 times a week or 30-50% twice a week
• What do you use to treat your water? Prime
• Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Both

Parameters

• Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
• What do you use to test the water? ApI master test kit
• What are your parameters? We need the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0-5
pH: 7.6

Feeding

• How often do you feed your fish? Once or twice daily and sometimes fasting once a week
• How much do you feed your fish? Floating food in 30 seconds to 1 minutes, sinking food in 1 minute if soaked, sinking food in 2-3 minutes if not soaked
• What brand of food do you feed your fish? Omega one, hikari, tetra

Illness & Symptoms:

• How long have you had this fish? Bolivian ram since yesterday and swordtail about 2 months
• How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? Today
• In a few words, (more room for details below) what are the symptoms. Ram is flashing and swordtail has white stringy poop
• Have you started any treatment for the illness? No
• Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? Swordtail no bolivian ram might have been but I can’t see anything
• How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? None except bolivian ram flashing

 

I don't know anything about the types of fish you stock so I cannot help with your fishes requirements and the answers you have given.

Your Ram is new, could he be flashing because your water (ie ph etc) is different to what he was used to? Did you quarantine him before adding to the main tank? the white poop from the sword tail could be parasitic or it could be so simple as constipation or too much gulped air during feeding.
The two together are worrying though.
If it is a parasite it was likely brought in with the swordtail.
Before you start throwing meds at them I would wait and watch for a day or two, though. See if there are more symptoms, or more fish changing their behaviour or pooping the same white stringy poop. After a day or two of close observation you should have a better feel for what is going on in your tank.

 

I did not quarantine the ram but the rams in the tank looked healthy at the store besides a little bit of chasing/showing dominance. My other platy has stringy poop. The thin part is white and the normal part is brown. Is it internal parasites since 2 of them have it? I also added 2 corydoras aeneus eariler this week but none of the corydoras show any symptoms.

 

Fish poop is actually stringy. Its hard to tell by what you have shown in the pics.

Often internal parasites are not noticeable at the fish store as the staff are meant to pull out any sickly fish from display... so you really can't tell by what you see in the store. They can be newly infected and not yet showing symptoms so you really do save yourself time and money by only having to treat a few new fish in less water rather than your whole tank. Especially important when you have invertebrates who have to be treated differently.

I do know that by the time you do see worms the infection is usually pretty bad and you have to assume that all of your fish have them. Have you looked at the page for diagnosis and treatment? I think people here would be afraid to try to diagnose without better pictures. I won't even try, I am too new myself to pretend to be knowledgeable enough to tell you anything for definite - was just trying to get as much info as possible from you so that someone more knowledgeable could jump in....plus every time we comment it bumps your post back up.

Really hope you solve the issue!

 

I did look at the website. What kind of pictures are considered good pictures? I haven’t seen the bolivian ram flashing again. I’ll try to take some pictures but my camera is not very good.

 

if it can be clear enough to zoom in on then it is easier for folks on here to see more than the white blur... My camera isn't very good either but hopefully this keeps it bumped up for someone to help you...

Any new developments?

 

My other platy is pooping white but it’s short and mostly brown. My bolivian ram looked like it had ich but it was just sand. I have not seen any more flashing or stringy white poop.

 

Could you be panicking over some stressed fish?

 

I'm not really panicking. I don't see why they would be stressed though (except maybe the new bolivian ram). I haven't made any changes to the tank, parameters are good (temperature 76, ph 7.6, nh3/4 0, no2 0, no3 5-10, gh 7, kh 5, tds 200 something). I'll do a water change today.

 

Veggie rounds.

 

Veggie rounds.

What do you mean by veggie rounds? Should I feed them?

One swordtail now has a fungus on its head. Probably unrelated to the white poop.

Whitewolf ?

One of my corydoras is flashing now. Some platy fry had white/clear poop. A mystery snail died yesterday (unknown reason). I did a water change after that (20%). Also I moved a clown pleco a few days ago to put it there temporarily or permanently if it gets along with the bristlenose.

A swordtail has clamped fins. Maybe from chasing though. Platy still has white poop. Haven’t seen other fish besides rams and one corydoras flashing. Gourami might have hith. What should I do?

 

It looks like entire tank is having issues. Take a look at this
You may want to medicate the entire tank.

 

The rams probably flashed because they were digging breeding holes and I think the corydoras was just digging for food.
Swordtail still has clamped fins.
Haven’t seen any more stringy white poop (mostly brown). All fish are eating.
Should I use general cure or polyguard?
Found about 5 platy fry yesterday.

 

I will try to make this as short as possible. My fish have been suffering from stringy white poo and now they are dying at an alarming rate.

My ammonia is 0, nitrite 0, nitrates 5. Temperature is 77. I have guppies and cories in it.

I noticed that my fish have stringy white poo about two weeks ago. My adult guppies were hiding in the ants. They have never done this. The fry were swimming around nornally. The cories were fine. A few days later I noticed my adult guppies were bloated and one was having a hard time swimming so I bought general cure and did a full treatment.
This week they are dropping like flies. I am finding one baby or adult dead at least a day. The guppies are getting strange humps on their backs and still have stringy white poo but no other symptoms other than lethargy and still hiding. The babies are either shivering at the top or down at the bottom. I bought kanaplex because I thought maybe it's a parasite but that is not working either. It looks like 75% of fish are effected but still the cories are fine. Does anyone know what this is please? I was thinking about taking them out of a tank that is probably infested with parasite eggs and putting them in a 40 gallon tub to continue treatment but at this point it looks like a total loss.

Also, I have always changed my water weekly 20-30% no matter what.

 

Would it be possible to see any pictures of the white humps?
I breed both corydoras and guppies.

 

I just took another look in the tank and some of them are flashing. Also, they are ALL eating just fine which I find interesting. I feed them omega one flake 5 times a week and omega one frozen shrimp or blood worms once a week, and every other week I hatch baby brine for them.

Would it be possible to see any pictures of the white humps?
I breed both corydoras and guppies.

They aren't white humps, they are just humps. I'm a nurse and it makes me think that it's internal parasites because the humps could be from calcium depletion via worms. I could be wrong though. I will get a pic for you. Thank you for your reply. This whole thing is just so sad.

 

Unfortunately I feel like this might be columnaris. Look up some pictures. It attacks both inside and out, deaths are constant and corydoras are usually last affected. It's when they peck at the dead guppies they get sick.

 

The red one has the hump. The other one has a swollen belly and is nose down and can't swim well at all. It's interesting because the adults are bloated looking and the babies look skinny. I don't see any sign of external bacteria or fungus on any of them.

Unfortunately I feel like this might be columnaris. Look up some pictures. It attacks both inside and out, deaths are constant and corydoras are usually last affected. It's when they peck at the dead guppies they get sick.

It really does not look like culmanaris at all. No white patches anywhere on any of them. Actually, every time I take a dead fish out of there the past week they look pretty healthy. I'm stumped.

 

Most likely not columnaris. I've had this before though and it's very contagious. Especially among females

 

Most likely not columnaris. I've had this before though and it's very contagious. Especially among females

Here is one of the babies. It looks like I will lose her tonight. She's so pretty too. They don't get much thinner than this before they die.

 

It came in with a beautiful large female. In quarantine she lived bloated for 4 months. Everyone that came into contact with her died within 3 weeks. The only way to save the rest is to check at least twice a day. If anyone shows signs of any boating whatsoever, quarantine immediately. Epsom salt in quarantine gave some relief, but we came to the conclusion it was either a protazoa or bacteria that was not treatable with run of the mill antibiotics. Unfortunately , without a microscope we may never know. When I autopsied the bodies I found not parasites I could see with the naked eye or under magnification.
We eventually lost around 300 females. It was really sad. They didn't have dropsy, but where fluid filled. ( Was an Army Nurse)

That's a completely different sickness. I usually call it wasting disease. It usually happens very young or in very old guppies. It's horrible. These are the reasons we got into breeding in the first place. We wanted to provide a healthy, happy fish to people that don't have to suffer like this. It took us a few years to get there.

 

Another nurse. It's nice to meet you! I was in the airforce.

I'm starting to think that this is not treatable either because nothing is helping. I haven't bought any new guppies but I forgot that I have otocinclus in there and I put new ones in there about 3 weeks ago. I usually don't quarantine those. I should have. I also fed live bloodworms for the first time about a month ago but I don't know if this is the cause.

What your female had sounds a lot like what is going on in my tank. What is even worse is I just started to breed too. I bought expensive dragon guppies and just got my first fry. They are in a different tank but I took fry out of thos infected tank about 2 and a half weeks ago before I knew they were sick and put them in the dragon guppy fry tank. I saw two with stringy poo which is the first sign so I may lose that whole tank too. A lot of lessons learned this week.

 

You will likely never find the exact cause.
To be on the safe side, always quarantine plants and fish for 4-6 weeks. You can actually aquire worse things than these two diseases. I'm so sorry for your loss and wish you the best. Unfortunately, you are going to lose most of the guppies in there right now. Just try not to let the others fish nibble on the dead bodies and keep spreading it around.
Best wishes

So sorry. About 9 months ago I purchased some dumbo dragons. They were so healthy and beautiful I decided to add them to a tank of females at 3 weeks. 2,000 dead fish and 1200$ in antibiotics later I almost quit. It was 2 different strains of columnaris. The deaths from that disease are excruciating. Skin and scales fall off and/or their insides explode from swelling. All in 24 to 48 hours.

 

Wow, you are a strong person for going through all of that and still staying in it. That must have been traumatic to watch all of those fish die. I used to think that people who say they are going to quit after losing a tank were silly, but now I know why. It's hard. Thank you for your help and I will take out all I see sick in the morning after I buy another quarantine tank. What about the cories? Are they going to fall to this too? I started with 7 and still have them.

 

You know , I have raised thousands of corydoras and have ever only lost 1 to sickness. They live in every guppy tank I have had and have never gotten sick except the 1. The disease that you currently have never affected my corydoras so I think they will be fine.

 

I've been dosing levamisole to treat some new fish with camallanus worms. While researching it, I recall it being mentioned as an effective treatment for "wasting disease"/"livebearer's disease". I'm not familiar with the disease (if it is a specific disease?) but what you and DeanEllenFins describe sounds like what I've read about it.

Levamisole is a different kind of deworming agent so it may succeed where General Cure did not.

 

You know , I have raised thousands of corydoras and have ever only lost 1 to sickness. They live in every guppy tank I have had and have never gotten sick except the 1. The disease that you currently have never affected my corydoras so I think they will be fine.

Thank goodness. I love those little guys. I can sit and watch them play with each other for hours. What you are doing with breeding guppies so they will be stronger for hobbyists like me is honorable in my opinion. I don't know if we are allowed to share info on this forum. Time for me to read the rules. But if you sell guppies online I would love to finally find some that are hardy. That's if you ship fish. Thanks again.

I've been dosing levamisole to treat some new fish with camallanus worms. While researching it, I recall it being mentioned as an effective treatment for "wasting disease"/"livebearer's disease". I'm not familiar with the disease (if it is a specific disease?) but what you and DeanEllenFins describe sounds like what I've read about it.

Levamisole is a different kind of deworming agent so it may succeed where General Cure did not.

I believe that you are correct with what my guppies have. I don't know what else it could be but this. Thank you and I will get some levamisole online right now.

 

I believe that you are correct with what my guppies have. I don't know what else it could be but this. Thank you and I will get some levamisole online right now.

I bought mine on eBay but there are other online vendors including a drench solution on Amazon. I did not follow the seller's included instructions, which would have resulted in a dose of 13+ ppm.

There is some debate about the best concentration to use (13 ppm to kill or 2-3 ppm to paralyze and expel) and how long to leave it in the tank (overnight or for several days). I can't tell you what's best as folks are still debating it and dosing it various ways.

I administered a concentration of about 3 ppm, in the tank for about three days, given once a week for three weeks with thorough substrate cleanings and big water changes in between rounds. My fish have shown no adverse effects, only improvement, and my cycle was not impacted.

Keep us updated and good luck!!!

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