Transparent segmented poop

[Filip]

2 days ago ive noticed less apetite on one discus ,yesterday after the meal he had a long transparent,partly segmentet poop,with a little brownish parts .Brownish parts of the feces looked as if they are wrapped inside this transparent and partly segmentet tubing.
He was bottom of pecking order discus,so he often hide from bullies but was comming out and eating every meal until 2 days ago.

So what do you guys think it is , Hex or tapeworm or something else?
I got metro and prazi powder ready for use in my cabinet,and a 10 g.for this one discus QT .

[Ardan]

Could you post a pic? Without a good pic it is hard to tell.


Ardan

[Eddie]

Also maybe post a questionnaire and what type of foods do you feed?

[Filip]

Ill try to get a pic today.,and fill the questionary.

[Eddie]

And foods? What type?

[Filip]

They are 4 inch semi adults,and i feed them. 3 times a day heVily with Bh and shrim mix, artemia frozen and tetra discus granulated. Plus 4 th. Small feed via autofeeder in mornings.
I do 80% daily WC with siphoning, and today i also changed the gravel with new sand bottom.
Fish were outside during change.
Today they are in 100% fresh water with new sandy bottom and they really got reborn. Swimmimg around and enjoying,plus the colours perk up more brightlу.
The stringy poop discus is still eating. But after 3 bites ,he cant eat more and retreat to hide again.

Sorry about questionary. I cant fill it via my crappy mobile while at work. Ill try to find some time home after work on.my PC.

[Eddie]

Give it time, especially with the new change. Monitor for another week or so.

[Filip]

Here are some pics from the poop.
i dont think this will heal off by its self though .i just hope it wont go further to other discus.

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[Filip]

Disease questionary


1. 2 days ago loss of apetite and transparent poop

2. hide in corners , dont eat

3.no medication yet

4. 65 g. tank, cycled , with 7 discus 4 inch semi adults , i have them for 5 weeks , plus 5 torpedo barbs and 3 SAE.

5. WC 80% every day

6. planted tank with substrate , now reverted to one inch sand bottom .

7 . i WC straight tap , through filter floss ,sponge and 80 micron mesh , i havent measured Ph swings yet ,but i suspect it is considerable according to my fish behavour 15 min. after WCs

8. 83-84 Fahrenheits . Nitrate below 20 . No ro water , straight tap-very hard water GH above 20 and Kh of 15

9.Discus are new fish in old enviroment and old dieter fish from before.

[Eddie]

Give it time, especially with the new change. Monitor for another week or so.

Above

[Filip]

Yesterday he skipped BH/shrimp mix and tetra granules,but on the last meal of artemia he ate more than sufficent.So i guess he is half way healthy.

Ill just watch and hope that things will turn up allright for him,as you advice me to .And ill keep on reporting my experience .

[Eddie]

Yesterday he skipped BH/shrimp mix and tetra granules,but on the last meal of artemia he ate more than sufficent.So i guess he is half way healthy.

Ill just watch and hope that things will turn up allright for him,as you advice me to .And ill keep on reporting my experience .

Sounds good. The idea is to get the fish come around on its own without any treatment at all. Clean water and nutrition will help build the fishes immunities.

[Filip]

Sounds good. The idea is to get the fish come around on its own without any treatment at all. Clean water and nutrition will help build the fishes immunities.

Thanks Eddie.
This sure gives me a little wind in back .
I was scared that since he came allready in this stage with his poop its too late for profilactic measures.

[Eddie]

Thanks Eddie.
This sure gives me a little wind in back .
I was scared that since he came allready in this stage with his poop its too late for profilactic measures.

All fish have internal parasites, period. It is when their immunities are low that these issues begin to negatively effect the fish. Keeping stress levels low will help the fish deal with issues on its own. That's why it's important to maintain pristine water at all times. New water should match tank water as much as possible. Filters should be cleaned of excess foods and gunk. And nutrition is another key factor. A variety of foods will help build a robust immune system.

[Filip]

One week past ,but situation doesent look good.
This discus constantly hide and dont eat at all anymore.
Tansparent poop as seen on pictures still continues.

What worries me more is that i got 2 more fish with similar symptoms,barely eats and have transparent to white segmentet poop.it seems like this may be spreading along other discus fish.
The 4 biggest discus ,3 RTs and one mellon are not affected and have normal poop ,only the 3 smaller ones red mellons have this.
What should i do ?
Please some advice.Should i treat with metro?
Should i administer it in this tank for all fish , or should i do QT. Just for the 3 so far affected fish?

[Eddie]

You could treat the main tank with metro although it would take quite a bit. You could lower the water level.

[Filip]

You could treat the main tank with metro although it would take quite a bit. You could lower the water level.

With the recently given symptoms,do you think i shouldn wait no more and start the treatment?

P.s. For me treating main tank would be the easiest to maintain and quickest to do solution.

And metronidazole is not that costly in my country.
It would take me 10 dollars to do the 12 Day ,500 mg per 10 gallons daily treatment.

So should i start, or wait some more ?

[Eddie]

If you are concerned about it and other fish are having issues. I always look for other reasons why fish fall ill. All fish have internal parasites. Something is weakening your fishes immune system, whether it's it's nutrition deficiency or water related.

[mbruizer187]

Not an expert, by any means but I would say seperate the ones with white poo to a Qt tank, and do not treat with chemicals. Just change water and raise temp to 86. Resume feeding when they start pecking at glass. Bought my first batch in January, and have had a few issues at first. Used meds and that seems to kill th faster than anything. No meds and they have recovered. Same symptoms, something changed in their environment and that happens to some not all.
Thanks
Rich

[Filip]

If you are concerned about it and other fish are having issues. I always look for other reasons why fish fall ill. All fish have internal parasites. Something is weakening your fishes immune system, whether it's it's nutrition deficiency or water related.

I decided to help them out with metro treatment in the comunity tank. 400 mg.per 10 gallons for 10 days.

My wild guess is that i made first big mistake introducing them in old established tank with fish allready in it.
Also before i switched to sand i suspect they went one month in bad watter condition due to dirty supstrate.
Anyway i will administer metro to help them overcome this, and i try to keep pristine water so that it doesent happen again in future.

[Filip]

Not an expert, by any means but I would say seperate the ones with white poo to a Qt tank, and do not treat with chemicals. Just change water and raise temp to 86. Resume feeding when they start pecking at glass. Bought my first batch in January, and have had a few issues at first. Used meds and that seems to kill th faster than anything. No meds and they have recovered. Same symptoms, something changed in their environment and that happens to some not all.
Thanks
Rich

Thanks for sharing your experience Rich.
I decided to treat the whole community tank ,cause it would be much easier for me.i hope they will overcome this problem.

[mbruizer187]

Well good luck to you, been there done that. Just seem to me that the chemicals take to much of a toll on them. Lost 3 over the first 3 months until I stopped with the metro and such. Seemed clean warmer water helped more. No food till the act like they want to eat. Keeping them separate from the rest relieves stress. Had 3 successful recoveries that way.
Thanks
Rich
P.S. Same exact symptoms as you.

[Filip]

Well, I put my first dose of metronidazole in my community tank after the lights went off.

The other day I noticed that the 3 noneating and hiding discus improved their behaviour towards swimming with the other fish in the school and pecking on food trying to eat with the other ones.
Also I noticed more intense release of white,green opaque poop from the affected fish.
I guess they are still in good health and the hex or whatever that is is still in early stage, since they responded so well after only one dose.
This night I put the second dose, and in the morning I also put epsom salt half tablespoon per 10gallons.
I think that epsom might help with releasing the bad poop faster that's why I administered it.

I'll keep on dosing for 10 days and will informing on progress.
Any suggestions or informations are also welcomed
.

[Eddie]

Treatment takes time. Even after treatment, you have to be patient with the recovery process. Many people have this idea that the fish will be eating, either during treatment or immediately after. That's rarely the case. Continue with good upkeep and the fish will eventually come around.

[Filip]

Update on situation.

It's been 11 days since I started the metro 500 mg/10gallons treatment.
For the last 5 days I have also elevated the temperature to 34 Celsius /94 Fahrenheit.

Affected discus started to be active and swimming with the rest of batch even from the first dose,but they didn't eat at first.

They started only picking on food from the 7-8th day, and started eating only a bit from the 10th day.

So I guess as Eddie mentioned it's a slow process where our patience is a virtue.
So after 11 daily doses I finnish the metro treatment.

For How long should I keep the heat treatment to 34 Celsius temp.it's been for 5 days till today?
Should I do something else beside heat-epsom etc.??

[Filip]

For How long should I keep the heat treatment to 34 Celsius temp.it's been for 5 days till today?
Should I do something else beside heat-epsom etc.??

Anybody please , share some thoughts on this . I dont want to over do it with the elevated heat treatment. Till today im on 7th day with 34 C.

Is there an upper limit of days for doing this without hurting discus?
BTW they are all fine and eating better and better everyday.

[Katia_K]

Hi Filip, do you have an update on how this ordeal played out in the end? I have exact same issue going on with two of my discus - clear stringy poo and not other symptoms for now. They are in QT and I am torn apart between just sticking with top water quality and waiting it out or following your course of action. The pics of clear feces you posted match my situation so precisely. Thanks in advance!

[Filip]

Hi Filip, do you have an update on how this ordeal played out in the end? I have exact same issue going on with two of my discus - clear stringy poo and not other symptoms for now. They are in QT and I am torn apart between just sticking with top water quality and waiting it out or following your course of action. The pics of clear feces you posted match my situation so precisely. Thanks in advance!

Hi Katia.
It turned up allright eventually,fish are great right now, but it was a slow process requiring lots of patience.
They were idle and docile once the disease hit them and didn't eat nor swim at all.
I started the metro treat on their 3-4th day of noneating.
They perk up and started swimming right after the second dose of metro but they still refused to eat any food.
Their fasting lasted for about 14 days from my first treatment, when they started to eat only tini bits of food.
Once they started to eat,they were increasing amount of food gradually and I think they got their full appetite one month after they stopped their fasting.

So it was a 14 days until they start to eat, and additional 30 days until they regain their full appetite again.
I did the metro treat in conjunction with 34C degree temp.
I changed 80% daily all along the process of healing.

Wish you good luck.Just have patience and don't loose hope.It's a slow recovery process.

[Katia_K]

Thank you so much for your response! Mine are eating and acting normal for now, do you think I should wait to confirm an actual issue first? I am leaning towards waiting a bit. You did three things simultaneously - water, heat and metro - so technically it is possible that just water changes would have done the trick. I am particularly afraid to mess with my community tank... to much at stake there...

[Filip]

Thank you so much for your response! Mine are eating and acting normal for now, do you think I should wait to confirm an actual issue first? I am leaning towards waiting a bit. You did three things simultaneously - water, heat and metro - so technically it is possible that just water changes would have done the trick. I am particularly afraid to mess with my community tank... to much at stake there...

If they swim and eat i wouldnt administer any medications. Just do large Wc s daily,fed them regulary and wait for fish immune system to deal with it.
i resorted to metro treatment only after discus havent eat and swim for one week and two more also got the same simptoms.
Thats why i decided to help them out with metro. Temp.raising was to speed up their metabolism and trigger apetite since they went fasting.
Your case (at least so far) seems much lighter than mine was and i think your discus will recover with only good nursery, and thats clean and fresh water and quallity foods.

[Katia_K]

Thanks Filip, I hope they will recover without any meds. It killed me to even have to move them to QT. They were eating like pigs every day, flirting with each other and swimming around fine but I panicked and moved them so I can watch and see exactly what is going on. My QT is 16 gallons (kind of small I know) and I change 90% of the water twice a day but they look depressed in this setting. Still eating, just not as happy and active as previously. I feel like they miss their spacious 125 gallon tank and generous feedings...

[Filip]

I wouldn't rush to get them back to the community tank.QT is much easier to keep it pristine,make WCs,observe feces and behaviour, administer meds.if needed and etc.
But i wonder why are they depressed In qt?
Mine never did.

[Katia_K]

I am not sure myself. It is my first experience with QT, following advice on this forum... One possibility is that there is in fact an underlying problem and that is how it manifests itself at this time - reduction of activity and depressed kind of look. Another possibility though is that they miss their community tank and huge space, generous 5-6 times per day feedings and yet still pretty great water quality. I do not think my twice a day 90% WCs in QT can possibly get the water any better than it already is in the main tank, so no upgrade in that sense, just isolation in an unfamiliar setting, less food, no one to bully or chase around... what's to be happy about ? :) In the event that I did in fact drag two healthy fish in to a QT, I can see why they would be less than thrilled. QT is probably a welcome upgrade for sick fish, but a depressing downgrade for the healthy ones. Just my theory though, since this is my first experience with QT. :)