One dead clownfish, white stringy poop on the other

[agnesmattsson]

Hi,
We recently added our first fish to our cycled red sea 170 aquarium.
Yesterday one of our clownfish died after refusing to eat for 24 hours, hiding and having white stringy poop.

Today we noticed that our other fish also has white stringy poop, she is still eating fine, but she seems a lot calmer than yesterday.

I think this could be from a bacterial infection or a parasite.
All water parameters are pristine and the tank is well cycled using Dr Tims fishless cycling protocol.

Can we save this fish?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi, welcome to Reef2Reef!

Did you see any rapid breathing in the fish?
What is the actual ammonia level?
How long had the clownfish been in the tank before the symptoms began?

Jay

 

[agnesmattsson]

Hi, welcome to Reef2Reef!

Did you see any rapid breathing in the fish?
What is the actual ammonia level?
How long had the clownfish been in the tank before the symptoms began?

Jay

Hi,
No rapid breathing and the ammonia is zero tested with both solutions and permanent test card in the tank.

The clownfish had been in teh tank for 6 days before the first on died

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi,
No rapid breathing and the ammonia is zero tested with both solutions and permanent test card in the tank.

The clownfish had been in teh tank for 6 days before the first on died

Well then, it could be an internal protozoan disease related to Hexamita. That is difficult to treat because an oral medication is best, but that is difficult to dose accurately. You'll read, "mix the medication with the food" - but the dose is never given, and that cannot work. The medication to use would be metronidazole, and in the food, it is dosed at 0.5% by weight. Of course, sick fish often don't eat, then you need to dose the water (marine fish will drink water, and take up the medication that way). Two products could be use; Metroplex or General Cure. Both are best used in a hospital tank, but if your tank only has this one fish in it, you could dose it there.


Jay

 

[agnesmattsson]

Well then, it could be an internal protozoan disease related to Hexamita. That is difficult to treat because an oral medication is best, but that is difficult to dose accurately. You'll read, "mix the medication with the food" - but the dose is never given, and that cannot work. The medication to use would be metronidazole, and in the food, it is dosed at 0.5% by weight. Of course, sick fish often don't eat, then you need to dose the water (marine fish will drink water, and take up the medication that way). Two products could be use; Metroplex or General Cure. Both are best used in a hospital tank, but if your tank only has this one fish in it, you could dose it there.


Jay

Thank you,
We got recommended by one of our local LFS to do a freshwater dip for no more than 5 minutes so we have done that now. It looked like something was in the water after this was done. We also got recommended to do a big water change so that is also on the way.
Do you think medication is also good?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thank you,
We got recommended by one of our local LFS to do a freshwater dip for no more than 5 minutes so we have done that now. It looked like something was in the water after this was done. We also got recommended to do a big water change so that is also on the way.
Do you think medication is also good?

Medicate with general Cure as mentioned which contains metronidazole

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thank you,
We got recommended by one of our local LFS to do a freshwater dip for no more than 5 minutes so we have done that now. It looked like something was in the water after this was done. We also got recommended to do a big water change so that is also on the way.
Do you think medication is also good?

A freshwater dip is often tossed out there to try because they are easy to do. However, these will not have any benefit in treating internal disease issues, so I'm afraid the LFS was just grasping at straws here.

Jay

 

[agnesmattsson]

A freshwater dip is often tossed out there to try because they are easy to do. However, these will not have any benefit in treating internal disease issues, so I'm afraid the LFS was just grasping at straws here.

Jay

We thought it was worth a shot and the fish is actually doing much better. We have also talked to the LFS were we purchased the fish and they have not seen issues in other fishes and they have been properly quarantined before they were sold to us.
It might be due to overfeeding and constipation so we're are trying to resolve this now and just hoping for the best.

 

[lubeck]

these symptoms are happening to my wrasse that I’ve had for 2 yrs. White stringy poop and he is not eating. I won’t be able to catch him unfortunately and I have a full reef setup. Any thoughts

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

these symptoms are happening to my wrasse that I’ve had for 2 yrs. White stringy poop and he is not eating. I won’t be able to catch him unfortunately and I have a full reef setup. Any thoughts

That's very rare in long term captive fish. If you can't catch it and it isn't eating, I'm afraid there isn't anything you can do other than observe it and hope it gets better on its own.

Jay

 

[lubeck]

That's very rare in long term captive fish. If you can't catch it and it isn't eating, I'm afraid there isn't anything you can do other than observe it and hope it gets better on its own.

Jay

Okay. He was hiding for three days not eating. He finally came out today and that’s when I notice the stringy poop. I tried feeding pellets and even flakes but normally feed house made food with scallops, oysters, shrimp, mussels and cod, selcon, fresh garlic, spiranella


hope he will pull through. Appreciate your guidance