Clownfish with white poop

[brandonj978]

I have two ocellaris clowns by themselves in a 15 gallon that I bought from a LFS two months ago. At the moment, both of them are displaying occasional white, slightly stringy feces which i’ve noticed for a little over a week. Occasionally there are small brownish chunks in the feces and most of the times ive observed, the feces arent that long and arent excessively stringy. On one occasion I noticed my clown poop normally, only for the white feces to return the next day. I’m wondering if this is benign or an indication of internal parasites or bacterial infection. No livestock was added since their feces went from normal to white.

Both clowns are eating like pigs still, colors are good, don’t appear to be losing weight, and otherwise seem perfectly healthy and normal.

I primarily feed them flakes and frozen food once in a while. They are fed once a day.

I fed them pellets mixed with seachem focus and API General cure for a couple days but the problem still persists, which leads me to believe there may be something else other than parasites at play here. I’m hesitant to medicate too aggressively since the clowns seem otherwise fine.

Can anyone help me out? Thanks!

 

[Reefer5640]

If you add medication to their food it’s important to follow through and treat the full course of the medication. Stopping and starting can allow certain ailments to build up a tolerance to the medication. When I see stringy poo I usually feed with metro or general cure and focus. General cure is good because it contains praziquantel and metronidazole which will treat internal parasites and internal worms. Are the fish loosing weight or color? Do they have a bloated or pinched stomach? Do they behave normal otherwise?

 

[brandonj978]

Thanks for the reply.

the reason I stopped the feeding was because I have a feather duster and cleaner shrimp which may be sensitive to the medication. I am running carbon to try and counteract that but theres not much I can do to prevent the cleaner shrimp from eating the medicated food as well. I don’t currently have space for a QT. When i try to move the clowns into a separate container temporarily for feeding, they don’t seem too interested in the food.

They otherwise seem perfectly healthy other than the white poop. No weight loss, colors are vibrant, and are accepting food enthusiastically. Essentially the only difference ive noticed in the fish are their feces. Behavior seems exactly the same.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Sometimes, stringy feces in clowns is benign, other times it is a reaction to the food being fed. Internal metazoan parasites usually don’t change the feces (like tapeworms for example). The only real issues are bacterial and protozoan. General Cure can help with protozoans and metazoans, but the dosage is not nearly as simple as the focus box makes it seem (I have an article on medicated foods posted here). So bacterial issues can also cause this, the microbiome of the fish’s gets upset. Not sure what to do to reset that, probiotics are useful in people.

In the end, if the fish are otherwise symptom free, you can try feeding some frozen brine as “roughage” to see if that cleans out the pipes so to speak.

Jay

 

[brandonj978]

Sometimes, stringy feces in clowns is benign, other times it is a reaction to the food being fed. Internal metazoan parasites usually don’t change the feces (like tapeworms for example). The only real issues are bacterial and protozoan. General Cure can help with protozoans and metazoans, but the dosage is not nearly as simple as the focus box makes it seem (I have an article on medicated foods posted here). So bacterial issues can also cause this, the microbiome of the fish’s gets upset. Not sure what to do to reset that, probiotics are useful in people.

In the end, if the fish are otherwise symptom free, you can try feeding some frozen brine as “roughage” to see if that cleans out the pipes so to speak.

Jay

Thanks for the information! I’ll do that and see if that helps.

 

[brandonj978]

so far ive fed them focus + api GC binded to frozen brine for a few days and the feces are still white/stringy. No other symptoms however.. fish still seem happy as normal.

i’m going to keep feeding medicated food for a few weeks and hopefully that will resolve the issue..

do internal parasites/bacterial infections usually kill off clowns quickly? I’m not sure if I should be too concerned considering I havent seen any other symptoms. At this point i’m suspecting it may be benign.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

so far ive fed them focus + api GC binded to frozen brine for a few days and the feces are still white/stringy. No other symptoms however.. fish still seem happy as normal.

i’m going to keep feeding medicated food for a few weeks and hopefully that will resolve the issue..

do internal parasites/bacterial infections usually kill off clowns quickly? I’m not sure if I should be too concerned considering I havent seen any other symptoms. At this point i’m suspecting it may be benign.

I suspect this may be benign.

Be careful, medicated food cannot be fed long-term. For this application, it is typically fed 3x. Remember, as I said it is almost impossible to achieve a proper dose with Focus and GC just mixed together and fed - you have no idea how much the fish is actually getting. One known dose for metronidazole (In GC) is 5000 ppm in food for three days, then repeat after a week. Trouble is, you don't know what your Focus food contains. Praziquantel (the other drug in GC is dosed differently - 50mg/kg of fish body weight per day.

Jay