More white stringy stuff

[Squirrelbuddies]

My two little plecs have white stringy poo(p). Just when I thought all was well again....

Can I treat the whole tank with Metronidazole? Does it hurt the biological filter?

The package claims it does not hurt "the filter bed".

Or is it best to take them out and put them in a hospital tank. The bad thing with that is the hospital tank has zero algae in it - plus this doesn't treat the tank with the problem.

I've been doing twice weekly water changes with weekly gravel vacs. Water conditions are excellent.

I've only used the Metronidazole in a hospital tank - which is why I'm asking if I can just treat the whole tank with it and cure this for good.

I think I may go nuts.

 

[Tolak]

It hasn't hurt the bio filtration when I've used it. I use a hospital tank unless every fish in the tank is sick with the same thing. No sense in medicating well fish, plus with a hospital tank you use less meds. What are you feeding the plecs, and what type are they?

Tolak

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

They are two common plecs (I believe) about 2 inches each. I had them in a quarantine tank (when I bought them) and recently just added them to the 55 gallon.

There was quite a bit of algae in there due to the high phosphate level which I finally got under control. They cleaned all of that up very nicely. The tank is looking it's best ever and the water conditions are great.

I feed them algae wafers. However, I also put in shrimp pellets for the upside down catfish - but the plecs (and the krib) seem to get most of these. Could they be constipated from too many shrimp pellets? (those are high in fat, right?)

I have a slice of zucchini in there right now and they are having a wonderful time of it.

I hate to quarantine them because they are so hard to catch and I worry that will stress them out and make things worse.

 

[Tolak]

The shrimp pellets I feed my plecs have more protein than fat, they do fine with it. You may want to try feeding more veggies like the zuke, the roughage is good for them.

If you want to catch them the easy way, get a clean glass jar or vase, submerge it in the tank with some zuke in it. Sit back & wait until they go in and start to chow down. Pull them out, container and all.

Tolak

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

The jar/vase thing is a great idea!

If I remove the plecs, will routine gravel cleaning and regular water changes be enough to remove anything that may be living in the gravel?

 

[lennym75]

im no epert, but the stuff you are asking to use, i wouldnt.
i used it about 12 weeks ago and have regreted using it ever since. since then i promised myself no more chemicals unless really needed..Have you used this before?? can you not cycle the spare tank.also feed the plecs plec tabs or wafers. maybe add lettuce and cucumber

 

[lighter]

Those white poo are symtoms for internal parasites, and you should buy those medications for this purposes only.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Yes, I have used the metro before. I really think I need to treat the whole tank as the two plecs and now my one remaining krib has the white stringies. I would guess the 5 USD cats do, too, as they are bottom dwellers as well. (I can't see their "poo" - much less see them!) But I really do not know that for sure....

At this point, it's not practical to move 8 fish into a hospital tank as the only two spares I have are a 5 gallon and a 10 gallon.

The plecs have been feeding on zucchini, lettuce and algae wafers for the past few days and it hasn't helped.

I really want to start treatment before they lose their appetite (which is what happened to my other krib...)

 

[Mariah]

To treat my internal parasites I used "parasite clear jungle buddies" made by Jungle. I found that it did work but I think it takes longer to treat the parasites than other meds, thats what I was told. I dont know first hand as this is the only med ive tried.
I have heard that metronidazole works as well. I was going to use that but I havent had to re treat....
Good luck with the parasites They can be a challenge to get rid of. I think ive just had some bad luck...