Guppy poop colour - should I be worried?

[guppiesandtetras]

Newbie alert! Is pale coloured poop always a bad sign? Some of my guppies are producing waste that seems long (in my very limited experience) but I noticed one that produced something of the same consistency but it was white (NOT stringy though).

So - is anything pale or white the sign of a parasite problem?

 

[Colin_T]

In common livebearers that are feeding normally, it is caused by intestinal worms. See section 3 of the following link for deworming the fish.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

 

[guppiesandtetras]

Thank you for replying and the post link.

Feeling a bit out of my depth keeping these guys healthy and we’re only a few weeks in!!

So - do I need to treat with..

Praziquantel?
Levamisole?
Or both?

 

[Colin_T]

Guppies regularly have intestinal worms so it's nothing major to worry about. The fish can live with a few worms for a long time but if they have lots of worms, they eventually die from lack of blood. They don't need to be treated immediately but they should be done in the next few weeks if you can.

If you can get Flubendazole, it will treat flat and round worms.

If you can't get Flubendazole, then go for Levamisole first. Most guppies have round/ thread worms and Levamisole will treat them.

Remove carbon from filters before treating so the carbon doesn't remove the medication.

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To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these before measuring the height of the water level so you get a more accurate water volume.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.
You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

 

[guppiesandtetras]

Thanks @Colin_T I really appreciate you taking the time to reply. I’ll try and get some Flubendazole.

 

[guppiesandtetras]

Will this kill the cherry shrimp?

 

[Colin_T]

Will this kill the cherry shrimp?

no idea, maybe start a thread asking if anyone has used Flubendazole with cherry shrimp.

 

[Essjay]

There are two products in the UK which I know contain flubendazole - NT Labs Anti Fluke & Wormer, and Maidenhead Aquatics own brand AquaCare Anti Fluke & Wormer. (They are probably the same product) NT Labs website says their product kills shrimps, snails and other invertebrates, unfortunately.

eSHa sell two products, one with levamisole, the other with praziquantel so you'd need both to make sure.
eSHa gdex kills tapeworms and the website says it is tolerated by shrimps.
eSHa ndx kills round worms. The leaflet says "we did not observe any negative effects on crustaceans" so shrimps should be safe.