Internal parasites--API general cure hasn't helped?

Cv111 · Oct 19, 2020

Hi, I have two clownfish, a firefish, and a fire shrimp. The female clownfish has displayed the common "stringy white poop" symptom for a while now--or rather on and off for a while. It's not always there, but occasionally it will have a little white string dangling around its underside.

I've treated now with API general cure twice (once in the food and once in food + water) and it hasn't stopped. This is the third time over several months I've seen this happen (today being the third). Any alternative diagnoses/treatments? The fish eats fine and seems normal otherwise and this entire time I haven't seen any of the other fish develop the same symptom.

Jay Hemdal · Oct 19, 2020

What foods are you feeding? The other diagnosis would be bacterial infection, but the symptoms just don’t sound severe enough to risk treating for that.
Did you say any relief after your treatments? The common protozoan causes for this are actually normal gut flora in fish, so they frequently flare up in susceptible fish.
Jay

Cv111 · Oct 31, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
What foods are you feeding? The other diagnosis would be bacterial infection, but the symptoms just don’t sound severe enough to risk treating for that.
Did you say any relief after your treatments? The common protozoan causes for this are actually normal gut flora in fish, so they frequently flare up in susceptible fish.
Jay

Hikari Canadian mysis, sustainable aquatics pellets. Occasionally some Rod's food. When they were smaller I occasionally fed frozen cyclopods from hikari too.

Not sure if there was any relief after treating. It's just been the one fish. Every couple months I'll see a strand. I treated both times after. I also had the fish for a couple months before I saw anything.

Jay Hemdal · Oct 31, 2020

Cv111 said:
Hikari Canadian mysis, sustainable aquatics pellets. Occasionally some Rod's food. When they were smaller I occasionally fed frozen cyclopods from hikari too.

Not sure if there was any relief after treating. It's just been the one fish. Every couple months I'll see a strand. I treated both times after. I also had the fish for a couple months before I saw anything.

Well, given the long time frame, this isn’t an acute issue by any means. I’m not sure what else you can do. You might try frozen adult brine as a food a couple of times a week to sort of serve as a laxative. The cyclops you were feeding should have the same effect.
Jay