Hello!

[Mohira]

Hi all!
Thank you for an add to this group! Geez guys and girls, you are all so knowledgable!
i have been reading posts for quite a while, and found many answers to my questions. Now i feel it is time to join a great conversation and share what i know!


I hope you can help me with one of the issues that i cant find an answer.
So, I have 240 Ltr tropical tank with internal filter.
20 male guppies
3 dwarf gouramies
10 rosy tetras
3 rams (one royal and two german)
12 neon tetras
3 bristelnose plecos (two babies and one about 4 months old)
1 albino longfin pleco (2months old)


so my question is. several months ago, i noticed one of my male gouramies having a long clear poo, which then i didnt know it was internal parasites. six weeks on, he has died but my few other fish show the symptoms, so i decided after reading a lot to give them Waterlife Sterazin treatment. I have removed Carbon filter media and dosed the medication,but the water looks quite cloudy and dirty. All parameters are good, although nitrates just on the verge. My kit doesnt tell exact numbers of them, but the colour is good according to their chart, although could be lighter. As the treatment interferes with the water change, i have decided not to change the water for as long as the parameters are good, but that cloudy, greenish water worries me. I have to add, that im struggling with green algae even though it is not in the direct sunlight, and i only keep the light on for about an hour or two a day.

Sorry for confusing long post, hope someone might know the solution! Thank you

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

If you can post a picture of the algae we can offer advice about that. But normal green algae needs more than 1 hour of light per day to grow so if you have algae growing rapidly it might be blue green algae (aka Cyanobacter bacteria). However, a picture will let us identify it correctly.

It's been a while since I used Waterlife Sterazin but if I recall right, one of the ingredients causes the water to go green.

I wouldn't worry about the discoloured water and just do a big (75%) water change and complete gravel clean each day for a week after you have finished treatment.

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Stringy white poop from fish can be caused by intestinal worms like tapeworm and thread/ round worms, internal protozoan infections and internal bacterial infections.

Tapeworms are easily treated with Praziquantel, available from any pet shop.
Thread/ round worms are treated with Levamisole, available from some pet shops but not all of them.
Internal protozoan infections can sometimes be treated with Metronidazole. This medication should be used as a last resort because it was designed for people, not fish, and it kills filter bacteria.
Internal bacterial infections are extremely difficult to treat in fish.

Dwarf gouramis (Trichogaster lalius) are riddled with diseases and the two most common ones are the Iridovirus and Tuberculosis (TB). Neither can be treated. TB is a bacterium that gets into and onto the fish's internal organs and builds up over many months before eventually destroying the infected organ. When this happens the fish swells up, stops eating, does stringy white poop, breathes heavily and usually hangs out by the surface or a filter outlets, and dies within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms.

The Iridovirus causes the fish to become weak and lethargic, spend lots of time sleeping, loses condition, develops sores on the body and eventual dies a week or so after showing these symptoms. As mentioned, there is no cure the Iridovirus, however as with most viruses if you keep the animal/ fish in ideal conditions and feed them up with vitamin supplements and good food and regular water changes, you can sometimes help the fish through the virus and they sometimes recover.

After the Sterazin treatment, you could try treating the fish for worms and then monitor the gouramis and other fish.

 

[Mohira]

Thank you Colin_T for such an extensive reply!

What is the difference between those worms? i mean how do i identify which one it is?
one of my pleco's has a bloated tummy and white stringy poo. He/she is my favourite so im trying hard to figure out what is going on before more fatalities....
I have to add, that the one gouramies i have lost had that problem for ages, and eventually just died, but because i didnt know what it was. He was skinny, wasnt putiing weight on although was coming for food every time i fed the fish and was happy, only sign was that white stringy poo. The same with my Plec, he is eating. munching on veg i out in the tank, still goes on all day cleaning and its just normal him/herself except of that swallen belly and stringy poo. Belly did go down a little bit, so not sure if medication helped or he was eating too much of that algae that grows in my tank. tried to take some photos of the algae. Hopefully it is visible enough....i have to say that algae in gravel looks slightly blue, dont know if thats the way to determine or not!

Thanks again! at least now i know what it might be!

 

[Colin_T]

Normally you can't tell which worms are infecting the fish so you just treat for one lot then the other lot. Sometimes fish are heavily infested with threadworms (camallanus) and you can see little red hair like things that are a couple of mm long and stick out the fish's butt.

But the best thing to do is treat all the fish with Praziquantel and that will get rid of any tapeworms and gill flukes in the fish. Then treat them for thread/ round worms. After that the fish and tanks should be free of worms.

All new fish should be quarantined for 1 month and treated for worms prior to being added to the main display tanks.

If a fish has stringy white poop for a month or more and is losing weight/ condition even tho it is feeding well, then it is usually worms.

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The algae in the pictures is simply green filamentous algae and is harmless. I'm amazed it grows with only a couple of hours of light. Does your tank have a skylight above it or is it near a window?

 

[Mohira]

Thank you Colin_T!
It definately not the camallanus as there are no visible signs of illness apart of that stringy poo. No redness, no lethargy, nothing.
I will do as you have adviced and will treat for the other type of warms once this treatment is finished.
Im desperate to change the water as it looks so cloudy and green.

Re algae. My tank is about 5 metres away from the window, no direct sunlight from the top nor anywhere. Its the east window, so sometimes the sun is really bright, but i close the blinds to keep it away. I have triedto put anti algae product, but if i keep light for three four/five hours a day (if we have visitors or i just fancy enjoying my fish), then algae goes mental.


Thank you for your help! i will keep you updated with worm problem

 

[seangee]

As to the algae I find that type useful to guage the state of my water.

The algae will grow more if there is too much light or an excess of nutrients. I wipe the walls down with a sponge every week with my water change. If there is a bit that is ok but if it is visible before the end of the week it suggests that I need to change something.

On the nutrients side of the equation:

1. How often and how much water do you change? About 50% is recommended once a week.
2. What is the nitrate level, in your tank and in your tap? Keeping the filters clean, avoiding overfeeding and cleaning the gravel are all ways to prevent the nitrate levels increasing

 

[Mohira]

Thank you Seangee for a reply!

I change 50% of water weekly. Sometimes (once in few months if we are away or something, i might change after 10 days rather than a week). I dont know nitrate level as my kit doesnt tell the number, it only shows the colour. according to the chart its about 10mg/l. in the last week since i started the treatment, it was about 20mg/l. I have never had any issues with the nitrates as it is always less than 10mg/l and according to the kit chart its on the best result it can be. It increased only recently since i have started the treatment, so once the treatment is finished, im going to do as Colin_T suggested and going to change 75% of the water.

I will try to sponge the walls every week to see if that makes the difference. I have to add that i vacuum the gravel every time i do the water change. There are spots in the tank that i cant get to, so those bits doesnt get vacuumed, do you think that might be the problem? the percentage of those areas is probably about 5% of overall bottom space. also every now and again, i take the ornaments out and wash excess algae of it. I have only done it twice as its not a long time i have this tank.

i definately try not to overfeed my fish. maybe i do, i dont know, but i feed them once a day and they eat everything in about one minute. What sinks down, my rams eats it in no time.

but definately going to try and sponge the walls to help prevent this problem.