stringy white poop

[cmmatxh]

i purchased a black storm clownfish last week and didn’t qt him due to reading/hearing captive bred fish don’t need qt. well i noticed that his poop is white and stringy but i read somewhere that it should be fine it’s due to them being starved prior to shipping, should i start treatment? and also noticed these whiteish marks on his side is it normal or could it be related to his poop?

 

[SurfTrack]

Could be worms, so you could quarantine for internal parasites if it gets worse. Are they eating? Thats the most important thing IMO.

But can you tell us some more information about your tank - size, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, salinity, etc.. Anything you can.

 

[cmmatxh]

it’s a new 20 gallon tank, i set it up this past sunday so it’s about 5 days up and running. i used live rock and sand from caribsea and a little bottle of turbo start 900.
salinity is at 36ppt.
for ammonia im using a Seachem AmmoniaAlert badge and its reading <0.02 ppm.
nitrate is at 5 ppm
temp is at 75°

 

[SurfTrack]

it’s a new 20 gallon tank, i set it up this past sunday so it’s about 5 days up and running. i used live rock and sand from caribsea and a little bottle of turbo start 900.
salinity is at 36ppt.
for ammonia im using a Seachem AmmoniaAlert badge and its reading <0.02 ppm.
nitrate is at 5 ppm
temp is at 75°

Are you familiar with the nitrogen cycle in reef tanks? Id suggest looking into that, it will help a lot if you aren't familiar. But basically, your tank probably isn't fully cycled. So first things first keep a very close eye on your ammonia levels, if those are anything above 0 that will amplify issues, ammonia is lethal to fish. Monitor all of your levels and I would do daily small water changes - and do not get any more livestock - your tank cannot handle the bioload as is.

They do look a little bit pale, but I cannot tell if that's just their natural color. Are they eating? You are right they probably were starved which means you need to make sure they are eating quality food - if you want to go an extra step you can enrich their food with amino acids and vitamins, that will always help and its pretty cheap. When did you get the fish?

Another note, I would not dose any sort of treatment into your actual tank - if it gets worse id suggest getting a small quarantine tank.

 

[cmmatxh]

i just did tested the ammonia and i’m reading 0. i dont plan on adding more livestock yet probably in a month or so. i did add a bta yesterday and it’s looking way better in my tank than what it did at the lfs. i don’t see any stringy poop on the fish today. i was feeding pellets but i switched it today with Rods food. and the lfs guy told me that the color will darken up as the fish mature, right now is a dark brown and eventually will turn black (i hope so bc i told him i was looking for a black and white clown) but hopefully the change in food will change it fix it, so far he’s not acting /looking different