Platy : White String Like Poop

[Dalton]

A real newbie here with a platy with a problem....long white stringlike poop. So far in the last three hours it has 'produced' approx 3" of the stuff. She/he is doing a shimmy type swim staying in the same place, not swimming around the tank.

Tank is a (copied & pasted) Marina Style Glass Aquarium Tropical Set 95 Litre 80x30x40cm
In the tank I have 4 platy and 8 danio, all seem ok apart from this one fish. Water has been tested and all ok levels.
Done a 20% water change this morning.

Any ideas as to what can be wrong ?

All answered most appreciated.

Dalton

 

[Fishy friend2]

can you please fill this out. to me it sounds like an internal parasite caused by unfavorable water conditions
Tank size:
pH:
ammonia:
nitrite:
nitrate:
kH:
gH:
tank temp:

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):

Volume and Frequency of water changes:

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:

Tank inhabitants:

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):

Exposure to chemicals:

Digital photo (include if possible):

 

[Kevin Goldstein]

Folks I am having this exact same issue. Attached is a photo, all levels are good, temp is 80 degrees. This is happening in one of my Guppies. Stays in the same place in tank and long white poop. See attached photo

https://imgur.com/MA8IEdO

 

[Colin_T]

Hi Kevin, don't get too into this thread, it is from 2012.

Normally we would get you to start a new thread for your issue, however I can help you out here.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons.
1) internal bacterial infection causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be cured because massive internal organ failure has already occurred.

2) internal protozoan infection cause the fish to lose weight rapidly (over a week or two), fish continues to eat and swim around but not as much as normal, does stringy white poop. If not treated the fish dies a week or so after these symptoms appear. Metronidazole normally works well for this.

3) intestinal worms like tapeworm and threadworms cause the fish to lose weight, continue eating and swimming normally, do a stringy white poop. Fish can do this for months and not be too badly affected. In some cases, fish with bad worm infestation will actually gain weight and get fat and look like a pregnant guppy. This is due to the huge number of worms inside the fish.

Livebearers like guppies, mollies, swordtails & platies are regularly infected with gill flukes and intestinal worms. If the fish are still eating well, then worms is the most likely cause.

You can use Praziquantel to treat tapeworm and gill flukes. And Levamisole to treat thread/ round worms.

You treat the fish once a week for 3 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second and third treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish's digestive tract. You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment. Do at least 2 big water changes between treatments to remove any medication.

Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time.

Do not use the 2 medications together. If you want to treat both medications in a short space of time, treat them with Praziquantel one day. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the next 2 days. Treat with Levamisole after the second water change. Then do water changes for the next couple of days before doing the second round of treatments with the Praziquantel.

 

[Kevin Goldstein]

Hi Kevin, don't get too into this thread, it is from 2012.

Normally we would get you to start a new thread for your issue, however I can help you out here.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons.
1) internal bacterial infection causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be cured because massive internal organ failure has already occurred.

2) internal protozoan infection cause the fish to lose weight rapidly (over a week or two), fish continues to eat and swim around but not as much as normal, does stringy white poop. If not treated the fish dies a week or so after these symptoms appear. Metronidazole normally works well for this.

3) intestinal worms like tapeworm and threadworms cause the fish to lose weight, continue eating and swimming normally, do a stringy white poop. Fish can do this for months and not be too badly affected. In some cases, fish with bad worm infestation will actually gain weight and get fat and look like a pregnant guppy. This is due to the huge number of worms inside the fish.

Livebearers like guppies, mollies, swordtails & platies are regularly infected with gill flukes and intestinal worms. If the fish are still eating well, then worms is the most likely cause.

You can use Praziquantel to treat tapeworm and gill flukes. And Levamisole to treat thread/ round worms.

You treat the fish once a week for 3 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second and third treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish's digestive tract. You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment. Do at least 2 big water changes between treatments to remove any medication.

Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time.

Do not use the 2 medications together. If you want to treat both medications in a short space of time, treat them with Praziquantel one day. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the next 2 days. Treat with Levamisole after the second water change. Then do water changes for the next couple of days before doing the second round of treatments with the Praziquantel.

Hey Colin, thanks for the reply! The guppy died the next day. I have a fancy guppy that looked pregnant starting a few days prior to this guppies intestinal fallout. We are almost positive he is Male though because of the fins and bright color, I wound up making a snap decision to pickup medication as quickly as possible to try to save my fancy guppy.

I purchased API General Cure for parasites and did my first treatment. I removed the carbon filter/foam filter from my Marineland 100 and waited 48 hours. I just dosed the tank with the 2nd packet.

Are there any further recommendations? My fancy still looks a bit big but both fish are eating and pooping normally. They are swimming and exploring swimmingly, no pun intended.

Here is a pic of my fancy guppy and his belly.
https://imgur.com/YrgF1Fb
https://imgur.com/YN0G186

EDIT: Colin! I have ome question... my treatment from API said to remove any active carbon filtration and then let the filter run to oxygenate the water. I did 2 tests on my water using the master kit and ammonia has spiked to an alarmingly high amount. It tops the charts above 8 ppm. Nitrite levels are good, PH is 6.7. Should I continue leaving the filter pad out? Should I add a new pad in since the old pad was used when the parasite outbreak occurred??

 

[Colin_T]

The guppy in the picture is pretty fat. Just reduce feeding.

If you removed the filter pad from the filter and it has been out of water for a few hours, then the bacteria on it are probably dead. You can try putting it back in the filter but cut the top of the pad open and pour out the carbon and throw the carbon away. Then put the pad back in the tank.

I assume you have a TopFin hang on back (HOB) style filter. If so these can be improved by adding a round sponge filter to the intake strainer, and adding a couple of foam filter sponges to the inside of the filter. This will give you addition filtration and help keep the water cleaner. The following link shows a TopFin getting some additional sponges. You can add more sponges to most filters and a round sponge over the intake strainer is easy and worth while.


Reduce the feeding to 2 times per week and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until the ammonia and nitrite are back on 0.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

 

[Kevin Goldstein]

The guppy in the picture is pretty fat. Just reduce feeding.

If you removed the filter pad from the filter and it has been out of water for a few hours, then the bacteria on it are probably dead. You can try putting it back in the filter but cut the top of the pad open and pour out the carbon and throw the carbon away. Then put the pad back in the tank.

I assume you have a TopFin hang on back (HOB) style filter. If so these can be improved by adding a round sponge filter to the intake strainer, and adding a couple of foam filter sponges to the inside of the filter. This will give you addition filtration and help keep the water cleaner. The following link shows a TopFin getting some additional sponges. You can add more sponges to most filters and a round sponge over the intake strainer is easy and worth while.


Reduce the feeding to 2 times per week and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until the ammonia and nitrite are back on 0.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

I had just read in my research that I should cut it open and remove the carbon from the cartridge. I have the Marineland 100 HOB filter and the 200 in my 36 which I just filled yesterday to start fish less cycling. I guess I need to get some bottled bacteria though for that...

I'm worried that all my bacteria are dead but read some BB may be in my sand substrate. Is there any merit to this?

With ammonia this high I'm worried that since I added my now carbon free filter pad back that I will have a nitrite spike and kill my fish. I'll do a 75% water change tomorrow and hope for the best by adding my Prime water conditioner. Is there anything else I should do now that I added my old pad back in? I was worried about parasites being on the pad since I removed it prior to treatment...

 

[Colin_T]

There is beneficial filter bacteria all through the tank. It is on the substrate, plants, glass, rocks, ornaments and in and on the filter material. Most lives in or on the filter media.

If you have a high ammonia reading (8ppm is very high), you need to do a water change now otherwise the fish could die. And if any fish die, they will add to the ammonia level that is already in the tank.

The only reason your fish aren't dead is because the pH is less than 7.0 (it is 6.7). If your pH was above 7.0 and the ammonia level was 8ppm, everything in the tank would be dead. Keep your pH below 7.0 while there is ammonia in the water and do big (80-90%) water changes each day until the levels are back down to 0.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

----------------------
If the filter bacteria are dead, you will not get a nitrite spike because there won't be any bacteria to convert the ammonia into nitrite.

Big water changes will dilute ammonia and any nitrite or nitrate that is in the water.

Reduce the feeding to 2 times per week until the filters have recovered in a month or so.

----------------------
If you are still treating the tank, any disease organisms on the old filter pad will be killed by the medication in the tank water.

 

[Cichlid4life]

Hi Kevin, don't get too into this thread, it is from 2012.

Normally we would get you to start a new thread for your issue, however I can help you out here.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons.
1) internal bacterial infection causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be cured because massive internal organ failure has already occurred.

2) internal protozoan infection cause the fish to lose weight rapidly (over a week or two), fish continues to eat and swim around but not as much as normal, does stringy white poop. If not treated the fish dies a week or so after these symptoms appear. Metronidazole normally works well for this.

3) intestinal worms like tapeworm and threadworms cause the fish to lose weight, continue eating and swimming normally, do a stringy white poop. Fish can do this for months and not be too badly affected. In some cases, fish with bad worm infestation will actually gain weight and get fat and look like a pregnant guppy. This is due to the huge number of worms inside the fish.

Livebearers like guppies, mollies, swordtails & platies are regularly infected with gill flukes and intestinal worms. If the fish are still eating well, then worms is the most likely cause.

You can use Praziquantel to treat tapeworm and gill flukes. And Levamisole to treat thread/ round worms.

You treat the fish once a week for 3 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second and third treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish's digestive tract. You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment. Do at least 2 big water changes between treatments to remove any medication.

Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time.

Do not use the 2 medications together. If you want to treat both medications in a short space of time, treat them with Praziquantel one day. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the next 2 days. Treat with Levamisole after the second water change. Then do water changes for the next couple of days before doing the second round of treatments with the Praziquantel.

oops, it happened again, someone found and old thread and thought it was new, just like i did earlier.

Are any of the guppies new? if so they could be pooping pout the store diet which is not the great usually, and it could be from that, or it could be an internal parasite that is causing this, but if your fish have been in you tank for more than two weeks, it may be an internal parasite or your just not feeding the fish the right foods. If it is an internal parasite do what colin said, but if you have any scaless fish such as loaches or corys, you must either remove them from the tank, move the sick fish out of the tank to QT them, or use other medication that is scaless fish safe.

 

[Kevin Goldstein]

oops, it happened again, someone found and old thread and thought it was new, just like i did earlier.

Are any of the guppies new? if so they could be pooping pout the store diet which is not the great usually, and it could be from that, or it could be an internal parasite that is causing this, but if your fish have been in you tank for more than two weeks, it may be an internal parasite or your just not feeding the fish the right foods. If it is an internal parasite do what colin said, but if you have any scaless fish such as loaches or corys, you must either remove them from the tank, move the sick fish out of the tank to QT them, or use other medication that is scaless fish safe.

Oh I didn't think this thread was new. When I was googling around this thread came up, however, so i posted on it not realizing that tons of others have asked more recently. But don't worry i have used forums plenty before to have noticed the posted date haha!

As far as the water change i am working on that as we speak. I tided the fish over with some ammo-lock to convert some of the high ammonia into something less stressful in the mean time.

 

[Cichlid4life]

you can't avoid water changes and ammonia lock is not going to solve the problem, it will only make the ammonia become ammonium, which will also be not harmful to the fish for about 20 hours until it becomes harmful again,and Unless your tap water has 8ppm ammonia in it, the ammonia is not going to become nitrite or nitrate because your tank is not cycled as it seems, so it won't convert into nitrite because if it could, it would mean the ammonia would already be at zero in the first place.

 

[Kevin Goldstein]

you can't avoid water changes and ammonia lock is not going to solve the problem, it will only make the ammonia become ammonium, which will also be not harmful to the fish for about 20 hours until it becomes harmful again,and Unless your tap water has 8ppm ammonia in it, the ammonia is not going to become nitrite or nitrate because your tank is not cycled as it seems, so it won't convert into nitrite because if it could, it would mean the ammonia would already be at zero in the first place.

I did a 80% water change first thing this morning and 13 hours later my ammonia is at 1 ppm. I suppose I need to do daily water changes to keep it low?

 

[Kevin Goldstein]

There is beneficial filter bacteria all through the tank. It is on the substrate, plants, glass, rocks, ornaments and in and on the filter material. Most lives in or on the filter media.

If you have a high ammonia reading (8ppm is very high), you need to do a water change now otherwise the fish could die. And if any fish die, they will add to the ammonia level that is already in the tank.

The only reason your fish aren't dead is because the pH is less than 7.0 (it is 6.7). If your pH was above 7.0 and the ammonia level was 8ppm, everything in the tank would be dead. Keep your pH below 7.0 while there is ammonia in the water and do big (80-90%) water changes each day until the levels are back down to 0.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

----------------------
If the filter bacteria are dead, you will not get a nitrite spike because there won't be any bacteria to convert the ammonia into nitrite.

Big water changes will dilute ammonia and any nitrite or nitrate that is in the water.

Reduce the feeding to 2 times per week until the filters have recovered in a month or so.

----------------------
If you are still treating the tank, any disease organisms on the old filter pad will be killed by the medication in the tank water.

I personally don't think he is just fat I believe its bloat. He was never this way until one morning when I checked on him and the other fish had the parasite. Should I still lower feeding to 2x per week? As mentioned above I did a 80% water change and got ammonia down to 1 ppm and will continue with daily water changes until it reaches a minimal amount.

 

[Colin_T]

I did a 80% water change first thing this morning and 13 hours later my ammonia is at 1 ppm. I suppose I need to do daily water changes to keep it low?

yep

reduce feeding to a couple of times per week until the ammonia and nitrite levels remain on 0 without water changes. If the fish is fat from bloating or something else, it will remain fat on less food.

 

[Kevin Goldstein]

yep

reduce feeding to a couple of times per week until the ammonia and nitrite levels remain on 0 without water changes. If the fish is fat from bloating or something else, it will remain fat on less food.

I see. I will continue the parasite treatment tomorrow night as it says to wait 48 hours and then treat again. I've given it 2 doses but want to be certain seeing as he is still so bloated.

Also the ammonia spike to 8 ppm is definitely from my stupidness removing the entire filter cartridge and therefor killing the beneficial bacteria.

If I could ask you one more silly beginners question, it would be why is my water milky in the tank that I just set up? It's a 36 gallon and I've filled it 2 days ago so it's not even close to cycling yet but I've added accuclear and it remains cloudy. I have a picture right here: https://imgur.com/a/N8qsXo0

Thanks so much for helping me find some expert answers!