ok so i have a GT pair, the male is a petsmart GT but the female is from a good lfs, now the male has white stringy poo pretty much all the time, though sometimes its not stringy, its like the regular consistency but white in color, the female usually has normal poo but i have seen her have stringy poo a couple of times, now i thought this might be parasites but they were in my 120g and didnt want to treat whole tank so i just medicated their food for a week (2x day) after this i saw him have a normal poo but now it white again, so now iv taken them and put them in my 20g long holding tank and am going to treat the water and everything for parasites but what else could it be? i mean if it were parasites shouldnt the week of treated food have killed them? they are luckily still eating so i really want to figure out what it is and cure it before they get to the point of no return, what else could cause white stringy poo but not a change in behavior?
What else could be white stringy poo?
- Thread starter Sarah88
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i read up on this cuz i was curious, but everything i found points to parasites. one page noted that stringy white poo every now and again is normal, just when it's continuous is it bad. i couldn't say how accurate that is... but that's what i found.
I had a similar experience with a gt, white poo and bloating, but no loss of appetite or signs of distress. I tried a bunch of anti-parasite meds, but in the end, the thing that finally helped was fasting for a few days, then cutting back on the amount I fed.
Usually it's a sign of hexamita, but by the time you start seeing white, stringy poo the fish usually aren't eating. Do they look thin at all?
Metronidazole is the best treatment for hex, so you could always try that for a week and see if that changes anything. I would give them a rest after the medicated food, though. It's not good to do several treatments back to back. When I'm treating things like wild fish, I usually give them a week or two in between treatments to let them rest up and recover from the meds.
Metronidazole is the best treatment for hex, so you could always try that for a week and see if that changes anything. I would give them a rest after the medicated food, though. It's not good to do several treatments back to back. When I'm treating things like wild fish, I usually give them a week or two in between treatments to let them rest up and recover from the meds.
Could be just a general internal infection too, but it's probably parasites. If they are eating, you need to treat them with medicated food for a couple of weeks, not just until you see them normalize. The life cycle of the parasite has to play out completely in the presence of meds.
no thats the weird thing they are still eating are fat little pigs and are active they just have bad poo, AGHHHHH!!! its soo frustrating, i think the jungle parasite clear that i treated their food with has metro as well as prazi in it so would that get rid of hex as well?, its been a few days since i fed the medicated food and i was planning on starting the actual water treatment tomorrow after their waterchange so would like a four day break be enough? and thanks bob if this treatment doesnt work then that is definitely what i will try
ok thanks chris, maybe thats why because i only fed it for a week and then stopped so then hopefully this full water treatment plus medicated food will eradicate them for good...
ok thanks chris, maybe thats why because i only fed it for a week and then stopped so then hopefully this full water treatment plus medicated food will eradicate them for good...
hexamita, when ever i have bought an adult riv from my lfs they nearly allways have this problem. lack of water changes, bad food, or lack of filtration can cause it. have allways treated it with metronidazole 400mg tabs. 200mg per 10 litres, 50% wc than dose than a 50% wc after 7 days and redose than wc per normal after 7 days. then the fish usually comes good in next 2-3 weeks ( eats reg and no more white stringy poo ). this is only my experience so dont take it a gospel but that is what has worked for me. for some reason i find rivs get it the easiest and worst of all cichlids i have kept.
thanks for sharing your experience, its definitely sounding like that is what it is and the more experiences i can hear about from other people the better i can judge and decide on how to treat my pair in the best way possible
White stringy poop is internal parasites - however the poop itself isn't always live.
The poop could be mucos membrain from the digestive tract, it could be old dead skin from either live or dead parasite, or it could be an actual tapeworm live or dead, or it could be dead skin loaded with egg cysts, to name a few. Alot of times when treatments are performed the egg cysts are still attached somewhere in the tank or re-ingested by the fish and still safe and sound from meds in their eggs. Even with extensive cleaning these cysts can still survive. Some egg cysts will be highly visible being already attached to the extrnal body or fins of the fish. Some cases can be really severe esp. when it's more than one fish that share them. This is why seperating fish that are infected to a hospital tank isn't as effective as treating the main tank -Vigilance- and best of luck.
The poop could be mucos membrain from the digestive tract, it could be old dead skin from either live or dead parasite, or it could be an actual tapeworm live or dead, or it could be dead skin loaded with egg cysts, to name a few. Alot of times when treatments are performed the egg cysts are still attached somewhere in the tank or re-ingested by the fish and still safe and sound from meds in their eggs. Even with extensive cleaning these cysts can still survive. Some egg cysts will be highly visible being already attached to the extrnal body or fins of the fish. Some cases can be really severe esp. when it's more than one fish that share them. This is why seperating fish that are infected to a hospital tank isn't as effective as treating the main tank -Vigilance- and best of luck.