Stringy white poo and fish not eating

[Oregon Grown Reef]

Welp, my dispar anthias isn't eating and it has stringy white poo. I tried 2 courses of general cure as per Humblefish's recommendation, but it didn't help. I tried soaking food in metro/focus. The fish was mouthing the food for awhile, but has completely stopped even that. I've tried soaking it in garlic as well, but with no success. I have a quarantine tank set up already. Are there any medications I can dose to the water directly that will rid the fish of internal parasites? I've lost some of them already for this same reason.

 

[LxHowler]

I have had great success with Nt labs internal parasite treatment when my clownfish showed symptoms of internal parasite which sounds similar to this. It's a harsher treatment that what you have already tried and has to be administered in a quarantine tank as it is toxic to inverts and corals but it worked very well when I used it twice in the past. It also works as a fluke treatment so dual purpose, I always have some on hand

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Metronidazole is very bitter, some fish will stop eating it after a few tries.
Marine fish constantly drink to maintain osmotic balance, so they intake meds at the same time....trouble is the issue could be worms, protozoans or bacteria, and no med can treat all three.
Once a dispar has stopped feeding, it is difficult to get them started again. Could you try live baby brine?
Jay

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

Metronidazole is very bitter, some fish will stop eating it after a few tries.
Marine fish constantly drink to maintain osmotic balance, so they intake meds at the same time....trouble is the issue could be worms, protozoans or bacteria, and no med can treat all three.
Once a dispar has stopped feeding, it is difficult to get them started again. Could you try live baby brine?
Jay

I picked up a bottle of pods for it to eat today. It seems interested. I'm pretty certain it ate some. At this point, I'm just trying to get him to eat any foods. I'll worry about the parasites once he's started eating again. For good measure, I'll start another dose of general cure tomorrow.

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

Update: He's pretty much at the same spot. Not dead, but I don't expect him to make it much longer. I started general cure last night instead of this morning. I threw some metro soaked food in as well to see if he'd take it, but it's still a no go. He seems less interested in the pods today. I won't give up, but I'm not going to keep spending $25 per bottle of pods to get a $40 fish to eat. Maybe that's the wrong way to look at it, but I'm not made of money.

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

I have had great success with Nt labs internal parasite treatment when my clownfish showed symptoms of internal parasite which sounds similar to this. It's a harsher treatment that what you have already tried and has to be administered in a quarantine tank as it is toxic to inverts and corals but it worked very well when I used it twice in the past. It also works as a fluke treatment so dual purpose, I always have some on hand

I tried finding fenbendazole somewhere, but wasn't successful. I would need to order it from a pharmacy here in the US. If the past serves as an indicator for the future, most vets won't give out prescriptions for fish.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I tried finding fenbendazole somewhere, but wasn't successful. I would need to order it from a pharmacy here in the US. If the past serves as an indicator for the future, most vets won't give out prescriptions for fish.

Take care with fenbendazole - a surprising number of fish species have fatal toxic reactions to it, (even at 2 ppm) and changing the water doesn't stop the mortality: flashlight fish, darters, catfish are just some that I found out about the hard way!

Jay

 

[LxHowler]

I tried finding fenbendazole somewhere, but wasn't successful. I would need to order it from a pharmacy here in the US. If the past serves as an indicator for the future, most vets won't give out prescriptions for fish.

Oh right, didn't realise it wasn't avalible in the us. Sorry I couldn't be of more help