Filefish with white fluffy poop

StacyMarie · Jan 25, 2023

So I have had this pygmy filefish for a little over a week now, and a few days ago I noticed in the tank there was what looked like an explosion of white fluffy particles. It looks like styrofoam or very tiny cotton balls... For a second I actually thought that my filter pad was somehow disintegrating just because there was so much of it. Until I realized it was my fish's poop....... I did some research and realized it could've been his diet. When I first got him he was completely uninterested in the pellets or flakes that I got and the only frozen I had was brine shrimp, so thats all he was eating for a few a days until he started eating the pellets. Since then (3-4 days ago) he has only had hikari marine "s" twice a day and occasionally some freeze dried mysis shrimp. However tonight I saw more of the white fluff... Not as much as when it first was happening but I still feel like he hasn't had just any normal looking fish poop that I have seen. He is super active and happy seeming otherwise and eats like crazy, and it looks very different than the stringy white of parasites that I have seen online so I'm not thinking its that but I am also pretty new to this so just not sure... Any thoughts would be appreciated if I should change his diet or if theres a chance its a parasite... TIA