White Stringy Poo And Flicking

[xman]

all my fish have been flicking on objects in the tank for a while now. i treated them with white spot treatment at first. didn't see any grain of salt on them but thought it may have been early days, more recently i treated with king british methylene blue as it's described to treat velvet,fluke & other parasites. fish still have same symtems.

there poo is also white and stringy.
fish look healthy , no grains of salt or any other things that you normally can see when the fish catch something.
i also run a uv sterilizer but nothing has helped rid the white poo or the flicking.
it started out just with flicking on the gravel or ornament's but has now also progressed to white stringy poo.

water conditions:
ammonia 0.
nitrite 0:
nitrate 5-10
ph 6.8

please help as i hate to know my fish are sick but not being able to help them myself. i have tried but so far no luck.

 

[bjmagik]

2 symptoms of having a parasite are white stringy poo and scraping their bodies against objects in the tank so i would say that you need to speak to the pet store and get a multitreatment remedy for parasites.

 

[zoekin8yg]

yep totally agree, its a sign of parasites, methylene blue only works for external ones, so could be an internal one maybe?. also feeding them some peas will help with the stringy poo, but dont just use the peas, use some meds as well.

 

[WILDER]

Flicking and rubbing with no symstoms can be flukes.
Long stringy white poo can mean constipation, internal parasites, to internal bacteria infection.
What do you feed your fish?
For now I would feed the fish some peas.
Cook frozen peas for a few minutes, let cool down, pop out of shell, mush between fingers and add to the tank.
http/article.dphnet.com/cat-02/flukes1.shtml

 

[paulf]

Where are you located?

White poo sounds like internal parasites/worms, if you can, take a sample to an lfs that has a scope to confirm this.
What fish is it? you didnt say
I would use some flubenol 15 meds for this, a long as you have no snails/shrimp in the tank it will be ok and it doesns't matter if you mix it with other meds you are currently dosing. Alternative med to try would be octozin, although this is a very strong med and ou will have to run carbon for a couple of days first to clear the water of all other meds

 

[xman]

fish are:
golden barbs x10
danios
glowight tetras x5
neon tetras x5 (young)
gouramis x2

the 2 gouramis have stopped eating and are resting on bottom of tank. they have been like this for some days now.

i feed them all tetra min flakes, freeze dried blood worms ,some prima discus food that i have (barbs love it) and freeze dried brine shrimp. also blanch a cucumber and add that once in a while (barbs mainly eat that).

i have tried peas but the fish don't touch them.

tank is a juwel vision 260. i run the standard h filter that came with it and also a tetratec ex1200. 9 watt uv. temp is around 78.4.
i do water changes 2 x a week. tank is super clean to look at.
all fish exept the gouramis seem fine as in there activity and feeding.
there are no signs of illness from the outside that i can see.
i feed them 2x a day. 1 in the morning and the other around 5pm.

sometimes the barbs poo is red but i presume thats from eating red food
i'm located in manchester.

 

[WILDER]

Are you sure it red poo and not a worm.

 

[xman]

yes red poo when they have eaten red food
but most fish now only poo stringy white ones.

 

[WILDER]

The long stringy white poo could be constipation feeding to many dried foods.
Need frozen food in variety and veg in there diet.
If water quality is good and they are flicking alot with no symtoms sounds like skin flukes,
Check the gills to see if they are pale with excess mucas on them, or red and inflamed.

 

[xman]

if it was constipation, what can be done if the fish wont feed?. gills seem fine although rapid movement on the 2 sick fish.
when the smaller gourami swims up for air it takes ages to make it to the top of tank. after it takes in air it just drifts back down kinda sinks to the floor where it lays partly side ways
noticed some danios seem to have fat bellys kinda flat underneath maybe squarish.

 

[WILDER]

http/www.bobstropicalfish.com/constipation.html

 

[xman]

tried the cod liver oil approach but this morning my sickest gourami had died.
i forgot to mention 2 weeks ago 3 new guppies died within 3 days of going in the tank.
could it be a parasite?.

now have 1 gourami still not eating. rest of fish are lively and eating well for now.

 

[paulf]

could it be a parasite?.

yep. like I said yesterday, it could be worms or parasites

Have a look on google or ebay for flubenol 15, not a lot of other meds can kill these and its not available in many shops

 

[xman]

will flubenol 15 damage my biological filter though?

 

[jgray152]

even if it does, most medications reguire you to change 25% of the water after 4-5 days so ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels should be kept to a minimum or even none doing the water changes IF the meds harm the bacterial.

I have never had a fish die from ammonia level around 4ppm and below. Same with nitrite. So as long as you keep the levels very low, you shouldn't have problems.

My fish do the scratching too but no stringy poo. They do it now and then. Maybe about few times a day. MUCH less since I got rid of the electric blue that stressed out everyone. So im keeping a good eye on them while I search for a good med if I need it.