Help with Possible Parasites??

[RedSarah]

Hello folks! I'm getting worried about my honey gourami buddy, Cheese... I have had him for just over a year and noticed that his color has been fading slowly over the past month. He is in a moderately planted 5.5 gallon (will be upgrading in the next few months after I move). I struggled with green hair algae for a while and introduced three Amano shrimp and three nerite snails in February. I also introduced some new plants about three weeks ago.

What is really starting to worry me is Cheese's poop. At times, it is clear and stringy intermixed with brown, normal looking poop. His poo has been stringy before, but it was clearly because he was eating the hair algae. He is still active and a pretty ravenous eater, but is looking skinny. I am feeding him New Life Spectrum Thera A pellets once a day, along with blanched veggies (for snails, as well).

Water Parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20-40 (not sure if this could be stressing him?)
PH: 7.6

I do 50% water changes with Prime and gravel vacs once a week. The filter is an Aqueon Quietflow 10 which I clean every other week. Here are some photos of his color changes and stringy poop. Thank you so much!!

May 1st, 2018:


February 7th, 2019:


March 28th, 2019 (today):


Stringy Poop (today):

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

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. Unlikely to be the issue.

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, however I doubt this is the issue.

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.

If the fish is still eating well, then worms is the most likely cause of this problem.

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

Remove carbon from filters before treatment and increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels in the water.

You treat the fish once a week for 3-4 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.

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, use Praziquantel on day one. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate on day 2 & 3. Treat the tank with Levamisole on day 4 and do a 75% water change and gravel clean on day 5, 6 & 7 and then start with Praziquantel again on day 8.

The water changes will remove most of the medication so you don't overdose the fish. The gravel cleaning will suck out any worms and eggs that have been expelled by the fish.

-----------------------------
To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.
When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.

 

[RedSarah]

Hi and welcome to the forum

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. Unlikely to be the issue.

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, however I doubt this is the issue.

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.

If the fish is still eating well, then worms is the most likely cause of this problem.

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

Remove carbon from filters before treatment and increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels in the water.

You treat the fish once a week for 3-4 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.

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, use Praziquantel on day one. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate on day 2 & 3. Treat the tank with Levamisole on day 4 and do a 75% water change and gravel clean on day 5, 6 & 7 and then start with Praziquantel again on day 8.

The water changes will remove most of the medication so you don't overdose the fish. The gravel cleaning will suck out any worms and eggs that have been expelled by the fish.

-----------------------------
To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.
When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.

Thank you for the detailed response!! I am about to order a bottle of PraziPro and will dose as you advised.

Is it safe to feed food soaked in Seacham Metroplex and Focus along with dosing PraziPro? Also, would feeding him peas help? Fingers crossed that the little guy reacts well to the medication!!

 

[Colin_T]

I don't recommend mixing medications or using more than 1 medication at a time. All medications cause stress to fish so the fewer they are exposed to, the safer it is.

Peas don't normally do much for fish. You can use them if you like. Boil them first and remove the shell. Fish will pick at algae if there is any and they can digest it easier than terrestrial plants.