White Stringy Poo

[LolaLouie]

Just noticed that my Dwarf Gourami has white stringy poo!

I have heard that this means a parasite... is this true?

What do I do?

My tank seems like 1 problem after the other at the moment. My catfish had some illness where he was spinning when he tried to swim, I'm currently treating for mouth fungus and now this.. what am I doing wrong?!?

Any advice really appreciated!

 

[bucksgill]

If you post your water stats and what you do for maintinence etc. im sure someone will give a suggestion on how to make your tank less problematic. Ill try to help but I cant promise anything

 

[LolaLouie]

Water stats all good.. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 5-10 (use a liquid test).

I do a 10-20% water change once to twice a week depending on readings.

I feed a mix of flake, frozen blood worm, live blood worm, frozen tubifex, live daphnia and algae wafers for the corys.

I feed flake 3x a week, frozen food 1/2x a week, live food 1x a week and usually don't feed 1/2 days a week.

Thanks

Gemma

 

[bucksgill]

They all look fine to me, although im not exprienced I have looked into water parameters because they are very important. I hope someone else can help.











Also may I add 100th post WOOHOO!!!

 

[LolaLouie]

My female dwarf gourami now has the same problem.

Please could someone help me as I have no idea what this means or what to do!!

 

[WILDER]

Lomg stringy white poo can be constipation, bacterial infecion, to internal parasites.
I would give your fish some peas to flush things through, daphnia as well as that good for disgesting the fish food.
Don't feed bloodworms for a week.
Is the anus of the fish enlarged or red and inflamed.

 

[LolaLouie]

Ooops I just fed them frozen tubifex which i guess is bad. I will get them some peas tonight (as can't seem to find any in the freezer)

Everything else about the fish looks totally normal no redness swelling or anything.

How do I know if it's a parasite or constipation?

If it's a parasite isn't that quite hard to treat?

Could it be from the meds i'm giving them for mouth fungus?

Thanks for the advice

 

[WILDER]

Try the peas first if no improvement get back to the board.
I had the same problem with gouramis with long stringy white poo, even though they was on a good well balanced diet.
Tryed a bacterial med but still the same.
I thought in the end is was probably internal parasites, sadly they all died.

 

[LolaLouie]

Yeh I've been reading up and seems they all die... Am gutted coz it's my favourite fish (Billy the Gourami in my profile pic) who's got it.

Will try peas and repost if no luck. How long should it take for the peas to work?

Thanks it's always great to get help from here!

 

[WILDER]

They work pretty fast, I feed mine twice a week on the peas.
Its a shame they took flubenol off the market that for internal parasites as it was the only med that worked.
I wormed all my fish and don't seem to have any problems now.
Good luck.

 

[LolaLouie]

Ok so I just put 3 frozen peas in the tank and they sunk straight to the bottom.

My male gourami doesn't really eat off the bottom so how do I get him to eat it?

Also the other fish don't seem overly interested in the peas either!!

 

[WILDER]

Cook peas for a few minutes in boiling water, let them cool down, pop out of shell, then mush them between the fingers and add them to the tank, this way all the fish get abit of them.
If you havent cooked the peas and popped them from there shell remove them from the tank.

 

[LolaLouie]

Oops ok thanks will give it a go now!

 

[WILDER]

Ok lol.
Really mush them up into little bits fish will love the peas this way.

 

[LolaLouie]

Well they've eaten all the peas guess just have to keep fingers crossed that it's not a parasite! Thanks Wilder!