What disease is this?

[NewToFish2020]

One of my guppies recently became lethargic after a water change and recently started excreting in an odd fashion. It doesn’t look like the white feces from a parasitic infection to me but I’m still not sure. I moved him away temporarily to ensure the safety of the other fish. I attached an image to this thread in hopes anyone knows what’s up. Any ideas?

 

[JuiceBox52]

@Colin_T is out disease expert here maybe he can help. I can get you started with answering a few helpful questions. What is your ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, PH, And GH levels? Guppies need hard water and if you have soft they will be more prone to disease and die sooner.

Do a 75 percent water change every day until we figure this out

 

[Colin_T]

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 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.


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2) Internal Protozoan Infections 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.

There is a medication (API General Cure) that contains Praziquantel and Metronidazole and might be worth trying.

It's interesting that API and the Californian government have listed Metronidazole as a carcinogen. That's a concern considering it was widely used to treat intestinal infections in people.

Anyway, handle with care, don't inhale the medication, and wash hands with soapy water after treating the fish or working in the tank.


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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. If you can't find these medications, look for Flubendazole, which treats both lots of 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 4 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second, third and forth treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish's digestive tract.

Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time to prevent cross contamination.
You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment. Clean the filter 24 hours after treatment too.

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 next time you treat them. The gravel cleaning will suck out any worms and eggs that have been expelled by the fish. Repeating the treatment for 3-4 doses at weekly intervals will kill any worms that hatch from eggs. At the end of the treatment you will have healthier fish.

 

[NewToFish2020]

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 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 Infections 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.

There is a medication (API General Cure) that contains Praziquantel and Metronidazole and might be worth trying.

It's interesting that API and the Californian government have listed Metronidazole as a carcinogen. That's a concern considering it was widely used to treat intestinal infections in people.

Anyway, handle with care, don't inhale the medication, and wash hands with soapy water after treating the fish or working in the tank.


-------
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. If you can't find these medications, look for Flubendazole, which treats both lots of 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 4 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second, third and forth treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish's digestive tract.

Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time to prevent cross contamination.
You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment. Clean the filter 24 hours after treatment too.

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 next time you treat them. The gravel cleaning will suck out any worms and eggs that have been expelled by the fish. Repeating the treatment for 3-4 doses at weekly intervals will kill any worms that hatch from eggs. At the end of the treatment you will have healthier fish.

Update: The guppy now has swim bladder and doesn't eat as much. It also seems to have some fin rot. I am using API melafix as I heard it helps resolve swim bladder. What else should I do to keep this guppy alive? Or is there already nothing I can do? Please reply soon as I really care for this guppy and want to do all I can to ensure his survival.

 

[JuiceBox52]

@Colin_T may be able to help

 

[Colin_T]

re: the swim bladder problems. What symptoms does it have?
Swim bladder problems in fish aren't that common. If the fish sinks when it stops swimming there is a problem.

If the fish floats to the surface as soon as it stops swimming that can be a swim bladder problem or too much air in the fish's digestive tract, caused by taking in air when eating floating foods.

There's no cure for swim bladder problems.

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Fin rot is normally caused by poor water quality that damages the skin and allows bad bacteria to get in and do lots of damage. Doing big daily water changes and salt will usually fix it.

Wipe the inside of the glass with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or two.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Add some salt. See below.

------------------​

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

 

[NewToFish2020]

re: the swim bladder problems. What symptoms does it have?
Swim bladder problems in fish aren't that common. If the fish sinks when it stops swimming there is a problem.

If the fish floats to the surface as soon as it stops swimming that can be a swim bladder problem or too much air in the fish's digestive tract, caused by taking in air when eating floating foods.

There's no cure for swim bladder problems.

------------------
Fin rot is normally caused by poor water quality that damages the skin and allows bad bacteria to get in and do lots of damage. Doing big daily water changes and salt will usually fix it.

Wipe the inside of the glass with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or two.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Add some salt. See below.

------------------
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

.
The swim bladder symptoms the guppy shows is that it swims in a position where it's head is pointed towards the ground or where it's on its side. I might have seen it sink when it stops swimming but I'm not sure

 

[Colin_T]

That sounds more like a sick fish than a swim bladder problem.

add some salt and see how it goes.

 

[NewToFish2020]

I don't have anymore aquarium salt and may not be able to go out due to the current epidemic. I do have some API general cure for parasitic infections. Could that also work?

 

[JuiceBox52]

I don't have anymore aquarium salt and may not be able to go out due to the current epidemic. I do have some API general cure for parasitic infections. Could that also work?

No that is for parasites. Keep doing the 75% changes. Is there a way you could order some on amazon or something?

 

[NewToFish2020]

Ordering on Amazon will take a month to arrive. Looks like I will have to just continue the 75% water changes.

 

[Colin_T]

You can buy swimming pool salt from a hardware store or pool shop. Pool shops will probably be closed but hardware stores should be open.

Otherwise get non iodised salt from a supermarket. Normal table salt has iodine in and sometimes anti-caking agents. Avoid these but look for granulated rock salt or sea salt. Even sea salt flakes will be fine. Just check the packaging and make sure there is no iodine or anti-caking agents listed in the ingredients.

 

[NewToFish2020]

You can buy swimming pool salt from a hardware store or pool shop. Pool shops will probably be closed but hardware stores should be open.

Otherwise get non iodised salt from a supermarket. Normal table salt has iodine in and sometimes anti-caking agents. Avoid these but look for granulated rock salt or sea salt. Even sea salt flakes will be fine. Just check the packaging and make sure there is no iodine or anti-caking agents listed in the ingredients.

Thank you. I will try to convince my parents to let me go to the store to get some. In terms of an update. The fish has become slightly more active but the white string is still there.