Stringy Poo From Clownfish

melmel · Mar 25, 2016

Have a Clownfish that has stringy poo/ internal parasite
He eats always and alot, had him for about a year only started noticing about 1/2 months ago

in a 57 gallon with about 5 other fish(all healthy as far as i can tell)

Ive read about prazi and setting up a QT tank but he seems fine and i dont want to set it up unless he looks unhealthy...

Im looking into soaking some pellets in APIs general cure(Prazi &Metronidazole) or New life Spectrum Thera -A pellets or Possibly HEX Shield

What do you guys think?

Duke4Life · Mar 25, 2016

Prazipro your whole tank, or remove fish and Prazipro in a quarantine tank while your dt sits fallow. Parasites are in the system at this point I'm sorry 2 say.

melmel · Mar 25, 2016

dang was hoping you wouldnt say that lol

Ive read Prazi is reef safe but kinda scared to dose whole tank

How long to fallow tank? 72 days like for ich?

Duke4Life · Mar 25, 2016

melmel said:
**** was hoping you wouldnt say that lol

Ive read Prazi is reef safe but kinda scared to dose whole tank

How long to fallow tank? 72 days like for ich?

Yes and that's to be safe, could be shorter due to the fact you're dealing with parasites and not ich. I'm sure 1 of the others will clarify the fallow part.

melmel · Mar 25, 2016

That sucks because i probably wont be able to that.
Im just gonna try a soaking some food or getting the premade food just dont know which is better...

melypr1985 · Mar 25, 2016

At this point we know only that you have internal parasites. My advice is to just dose the prazi in the DT - OR- Do it in the QT. You'll want to do 1 round that includes 2 doses 5-7 days apart with a water change in between. Afterwards (if done in the DT, you can do a water change and run fresh carbon).

Humblefish · Mar 25, 2016

Prazipro might work, but another approach is to buy some metronidazole (ex. Seachem Metroplex, Metro-MS) and soak that in the fish's food. You'll also want to use a binder, such as Seachem Focus, to prevent any of the medication from leaching out into the water. Praziquantel successfully targets most internal parasites, but IME metro covers a wider range. Metro just doesn't treat gill flukes, which is what prazi is best for. This is why I like API General Cure (and yes, you can soak that in food as well) because it contains both prazi & metro, and these medications compliment each another nicely.

melmel · Mar 26, 2016

Yup the API general cure is what I plan to get, should I be worried about the metro aspect getting into the display ?

Omar Torres · Mar 26, 2016

You can also use rally from ruby reef. Dosed my whole tank for 5 days. Didn't lose anyone. Holes in heads disappeared and white poop disappeared. Clowns are very hardy fish and usually do not die from parasites. They could be past the point where dosing food works unless you use sea chem focus and pazipro. Hope everything works out.

Humblefish · Mar 26, 2016

melmel said:
Yup the API general cure is what I plan to get, should I be worried about the metro aspect getting into the display ?

The binder should prevent that from happening; however it's always a good idea to run carbon as an insurance policy.

Omar Torres said:
You can also use rally from ruby reef. Dosed my whole tank for 5 days. Didn't lose anyone. Holes in heads disappeared and white poop disappeared. Clowns are very hardy fish and usually do not die from parasites. They could be past the point where dosing food works unless you use sea chem focus and pazipro. Hope everything works out.

Did you do this in a reef or FO? Acriflavine turns the water an orangish color, and Rally also contains traces of formalin.

Can't imagine either being good for corals/inverts.

Omar Torres · Mar 26, 2016

Dosed the whole thing brother. I'm running a 29g with a pencil urchin, 2 emerald crabs, fighting conch, 2 pepermint shrimp, snails etc.... torch coral, zoas, brain..... everyone made it fine. Did 5 day treatment. Did the coral like it? Proboably not but they are still alive and kicking. Eating like little monsters. I did not remove my carbon filter though to remove excess medicine. After 5 days, changed all my filters for brand new ones. Scrubbed skimmer, media basket.... 50% water change..... Clowns are fine. Eating more. No stringy poop. Just a suggestion

Omar Torres · Mar 26, 2016

Also remember that white stringy poop can be due to too much protein in diet. Usually due to feeding a lot of pellet food. Are there any other signs? does the poop drag for hours? Does the fish have holes in the head? Swimming on its side? Gasping for air? or just white poop?

Humblefish · Mar 26, 2016

It would be interesting if acriflavine could be used to treat internal parasites and possibly other worms, like flukes. I've only used it to treat brook and as temporary relief for velvet before the fish goes into CP.

melmel · Mar 26, 2016

Just white poop for a few minutes,you might have a point about the pellets ...
Because before I used to feed mostly frozen and never noticed the stringy poo now mostly pellets and I see stringy poo from the clown

melmel · Mar 26, 2016

None

Omar Torres said:
Also remember that white stringy poop can be due to too much protein in diet. Usually due to feeding a lot of pellet food. Are there any other signs? does the poop drag for hours? Does the fish have holes in the head? Swimming on its side? Gasping for air? or just white poop?

^ he swims vertically in "his" corner for over a year besides that none of the other possibilities

Omar Torres · Mar 26, 2016

@melmel feed frozen for 3 days see if the poop changes color. I alternate between pellets and frozen. I also make sure i throw algae chips and use LRS REEF FRENZY for my frozen. These foods introduce algae into a high protein diet. taking care of the white poop if that is the cause. @ReefFrenzy is pretty active on here and the stuff is great. You just want to make sure you don't treat stuff you don't have.