Clownfish, red/white string under belly. Constipation? Parasites?

[shew]

Just found this long string under my black/white clownfish tonight. The fish have been in my system for 6 weeks, and I have been mostly feeding my tank pellets the last 2 weeks (frozen mysis shrimp before that).

I understand that white stringy poop is typically associated with internal parasites. This has what seems like unprocessed pellets in it (the red end bits, same color as the pellets I feed). Could it be overfeeding and constipation? Internal Parasite? Any help would be great

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

The stringy feces can be bacteria, protozoans, plain mucus, or a mixture of those. Did you see how the other clown bit at it in the video? That's how cross contamination happens. Pellets are more binding than frozen foods - have you considered feeding a mixture of the two foods? Can you move the fish to a treatment tank? If so, you could dose with API General Cure. If not, you could try medicated food, here is a link to an article I posted recently:

Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods

This article offers information about developing medicated foods for aquarium fish

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[shew]

The stringy feces can be bacteria, protozoans, plain mucus, or a mixture of those. Did you see how the other clown bit at it in the video? That's how cross contamination happens. Pellets are more binding than frozen foods - have you considered feeding a mixture of the two foods? Can you move the fish to a treatment tank? If so, you could dose with API General Cure. If not, you could try medicated food, here is a link to an article I posted recently:

Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods

This article offers information about developing medicated foods for aquarium fish

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

Thank you Jay!

Unfortunately I don't have a treatment tank, but I've read that the combo of Seachem Metroplex & Focus could be the key. Wil definitely read your article as well