long stringy poop flame angel

mattzang · Mar 19, 2019

so i added a flame angel about a week ago. i didn't qt (lfs claims to, but yeah) and the fish is doing well despite my female clown being a goon, but the last two days i've noticed he poos out some really long poops. they aren't white, looks normal brownish, but i'm wondering if i should maybe do some prazi or metro w/ focus on the food for a week? both being 'reef safe' i believe?

the flame is very active and loves to eat, doesn't look skinny at all, I just don't want to one day wake up to a dead fish because i didn't do what i could for him. if it's flukes that's also contagious in the tank I believe? so i don't want that spreading and i thought the telltale signs of that were long stringy (but also white?) poop.

Thanks in advance!

Reefing Madness · Mar 20, 2019

Frtdrmrose7 · Mar 20, 2019

mattzang said:
so i added a flame angel about a week ago. i didn't qt (lfs claims to, but yeah) and the fish is doing well despite my female clown being a goon, but the last two days i've noticed he poos out some really long poops. they aren't white, looks normal brownish, but i'm wondering if i should maybe do some prazi or metro w/ focus on the food for a week? both being 'reef safe' i believe?

the flame is very active and loves to eat, doesn't look skinny at all, I just don't want to one day wake up to a dead fish because i didn't do what i could for him. if it's flukes that's also contagious in the tank I believe? so i don't want that spreading and i thought the telltale signs of that were long stringy (but also white?) poop.

Thanks in advance!

Typically internal parasites cause the white stringy poop, a long brown skinny poop could be from diet, relief of constipation, etc.
You can do the GC or metro laced foods if you like as there is no downside other than buying the meds.

S-t-r-e-t-c-h · Mar 20, 2019

Stringy white poop is the classic sign of internal parasites. Long brown poop is probably just poop. What do you feed? Sometimes diets high in vegetable material will lead to some funky feces.

I'd probably do the medicated food anyway, for sake of precaution, but it's probably not an issue...

AllSignsPointToFish · Mar 20, 2019

You can add metronitazole to the food and feed normally. Make sure you use a polymer binder like Seachem Focus to ensure delivery of the medicine to the fish and not the water.

I'm treating an anthia in my display tank the same way for the same symptoms.

mattzang · Mar 20, 2019

someone else posted a thread at the same time with the same issue just in a coral beauty so i'm 99% sure that's all it is. i appreciate everyone's responses, though!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/coral-beauty-2-to-3-inch-string-of-green-poo.572868/

i feed a whole mess of different foods: rods, LRS, hikari mysis, hikari spirulina, cobalt some kind of mix, nyos pellets, hikari pellets, tdo pellets, pe mysis cubes and pellets.. lol. i'm a bit of a fish food collector apparently

i did also pick up some v2o veggie based food when i bought the flame angel since i was kinda lacking on that front (none of my other fish are big time herbivores).

i tried the skinned pea and the flame gave it a hard pass, while oddly enough my red line wrasse decided to pick at it quite a bit ;Facepalm

AllSignsPointToFish · Mar 20, 2019

mattzang said:
someone else posted a thread at the same time with the same issue just in a coral beauty so i'm 99% sure that's all it is. i appreciate everyone's responses, though!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/coral-beauty-2-to-3-inch-string-of-green-poo.572868/

i feed a whole mess of different foods: rods, LRS, hikari mysis, hikari spirulina, cobalt some kind of mix, nyos pellets, hikari pellets, tdo pellets, pe mysis cubes and pellets.. lol. i'm a bit of a fish food collector apparently

i did also pick up some v2o veggie based food when i bought the flame angel since i was kinda lacking on that front (none of my other fish are big time herbivores).

i tried the skinned pea and the flame gave it a hard pass, while oddly enough my red line wrasse decided to pick at it quite a bit ;Facepalm

Have you tried feeding thawed or fresh cherrystone clams to the flame angel? It's like crack for them!

)

mattzang · Mar 20, 2019

AllSignsPointToFish said:
Have you tried feeding thawed or fresh cherrystone clams to the flame angel? It's like crack for them! )

i have not, he eats basically everything i feed so i wasn't really worried about making sure he's fed enough.. but i do want to make sure he's getting a nice mix in his diet. next time i'm at the store i might have to pick up a clam or two for him since he's being a good fish lately

. i was actually going to remove him a day or two after i added him because he was being a jerk to everyone, but now he's calmed way down. my female clown likes to pick at him for whatever reason

but they seem to be working it out

AllSignsPointToFish · Mar 20, 2019

When I was trying to trap my flame angel for removal, those crack clams were the only thing that would get him into the trap!

They love 'em, for sure.

mattzang · Mar 20, 2019

AllSignsPointToFish said:
When I was trying to trap my flame angel for removal, those crack clams were the only thing that would get him into the trap! They love 'em, for sure.

i'll have to get some. have you tried that masstick stuff? i was thinking i'd get something like that to feed from time to time to keep him occupied so he doesn't start noticing all of the corals lol.. although i did see him go give a purple stylo a kiss.