Long White Stringy Poo

[yabadaba]

I'm sure I've read on here that long stringy white poos are not a good sign. I have a female American Flagfish that that's swimming around with one attached to her now. Should I be concerned?

 

[Haych]

going by what people say on here, sounds like internal parasites

 

[yabadaba]

going by what people say on here, sounds like internal parasites

Okay thanks. Seems to be one thing after the other in my tank. It's the first time I've noticed this, so I'll keep any eye on it for a few days and hope it's just a one-off occurence. Failing that it looks like I'll be needing to medicate my tank again.

 

[WILDER]

How many gallons or litres is the tank.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

What do you feed the fish?
Does the fish look bloated or thin.

Long stringy white poo can be constipation, bacterial infection, internal parasites.

 

[yabadaba]

How many gallons or litres is the tank.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

What do you feed the fish?
Does the fish look bloated or thin.

Long stringy white poo can be constipation, bacterial infection, internal parasites.

Hi Wilder. 110 litres tank, ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, nitrate is around 15 and pH is 7.6.

Stocking is:

2 x Clown loach
1 x RTBS
3 x Peppered cory
1 x Hillstream Loach
3 x Otocinclus
2 x Bolivian Ram
1 x SAE
1 x American flagfish (originally had 2 but returned the male due to aggression)
1 x red eye red tail puffer.

overstocked, yes....but some of the above will be moving into my new 5ft tank when it finally finishes cycling.

I've only had the flagfish for a couple of weeks, so I'm not quite sure what the norm would be for her, but at present she seems to be darting around quite a lot - almost constant movement and frequent snappy direction changes. Maybe that's the norm for that species, but I'm not sure. I wouldn't say bloated, but she certainly isn't slim. I've only just treated the whole tank for bacterial infection with Interpet Anti Internal Bacteria, courtesy of my rtbs developing a reddish lump on his side, but I guess I could treat the tank again.

I know she's eaten a ton of hair algae recently, though I don't know whether that would induce constipation or the opposite. She's a greedy fish so has also taken a share of the frozen bloodworm and brine shrimp that I feed, primarily to meet the needs of my puffer. If it's parasites I wouldn't know what medication to use.

What would you do....just observe for a while first?

 

[WILDER]

Not sure on flag fish diet needs will have to look it up.

Any signs of flicking and rubbing, excess mucas, laboured breathing, or a greyish white film on the fish.

Check the anus of the fish to see if its enlarged or red and inflamed.

Darting can mean bad water quality, toxins, ph shock, over dose of med, parasites, stray voltage.

I would also post this thread in the right part of the forum.

http/www.examiner.com/x-2932-Cleveland-F...rican-flag-fish

 

[yabadaba]

Not sure on flag fish diet needs will have to look it up.

Any signs of flicking and rubbing, excess mucas, laboured breathing, or a greyish white film on the fish.

Check the anus of the fish to see if its enlarged or red and inflamed.

Darting can mean bad water quality, toxins, ph shock, over dose of med, parasites, stray voltage.

I would also post this thread in the right part of the forum.

[URL="http/www.examiner.com/x-2932-Cleveland-F...rican-flag-fish"]http/www.examiner.com/x-2932-Cleveland-F...rican-flag-fish[/URL]

No obvious flicking or rubbing, no excess mucus, greyish white film or signs of laboured breathing. Anus looks normal. If it wasn't for the huge length of white poo emanating from her I wouldn't have any concerns. I'm not sure I should have described her movement as darting as it's not really that excessive. Maybe restlesness would have been a better word - doesn't stay put in one place at all, always moving and shifting direction, but I guess that could be just normal behaviour.

Think I'll try adding a couple of half peas, as I've heard that would be a good treatment for (possible) constipation. I take it I'm supposed to boil or blanche these first..and I assume frozen peas would be okay?

 

[loraxchick]

if the fish is eating loads of algae, dont bother with the peas as the algae would have the same effect. algae eaters poop a LOT. ask any plec or otto owner.
LOADS of brineshrimp might give white poo and eating a lot of alge sometimes produces poop that is longer than if the fish didnt eat it(if that makes sense-in the same line of eating peas, it gives them huge poops an a LOT of them). keep an eye on the fish to see if the poop is continually off-color.
how does your filter now handle the bioload? if no ammonia, why not put them all in the bigger tank NOW with the existing filter running alongside the new filter?( after a few huge water changes to get rid of any ammonia in there)...then theyd be able to go into the big tank now and th eexisting filter will help seed the new one.
best of luck

 

[GuppyGoddess]

I'm sure I've read on here that long stringy white poos are not a good sign. I have a female American Flagfish that that's swimming around with one attached to her now. Should I be concerned?

I would be concerned. One of my guppies had the same and I treated him and the tank with both anti-parasitic water and food treatments and all the other fish were just fine except that fish. The others still had normal poo, even when they ate algae (it was just green, NOT white), but the white poo fish developed worse problems AFTER treatment (and had to be euthanized), whereas the others swam along as normal.