eating and acting normal but clear and stringy feces

[wencui]

Problem

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?

The 6"+ brilliant female is eating and acting normal but pooping clear and stringy feces occasionally. I noticed this problem right after shipping when I got it out of bag one month ago. When I put it in my tank from shipping bag, it pooped some black feces followed by a stringy white one. I thought it was just stressed from shipping.


2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds).

No hiding, no turning dark, no any other abnormal activities.
It eats good and comes to the front eating from my hand but has those clear/white stringy poop once a day(sometime half clear and half black).
This clear/white feces only happened once a day a couple of weeks ago. Recently it extruded clear/white feces more often. The clear/white stringy poop sometime came out quickly, sometimes hang out on anus for half an hour or one hour.
it actually spawned twice with the male turqs this month so that I am assuming it's healthy.

3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.

I suspected the protozoan at the beginning so that I fed them the anti-protozoan flake from angelsplus for ten days. During this period, the white/clear stringy poop didn't clear up.
I then fed them the de-worming flake with Fenbendazole for ten days. No improvement either.
After that, I also treated with Praziquante. No change.
Now I am treating with 500mg/10gal Metro in water. It has been 10 days. I still haven't see it clear up.
I only feed flake, beefheart mix and Freeze Dried Blackworm.

Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.

29 gallon two sponge filter, a pair of 6"+ turqs( male and female)


5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).

Every day 60%-70%


6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?

The tank has been running two months. The first month was running fishless. Bare bottom.
The tank hasn't contacted any other fish.

7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
Do not age water. Just add Prime after water changing. straight tap water.

8. Parameters and water source;


Note: Water Parameters are important in diagnosing problems within a tank. If you don't own test kits for the following information, you can purchase them, test your parameters and post this info as soon as possible.



- temp ___84__

- ph _7.6____

- ammonia reading _0___

- nitrite reading __0__

- nitrate reading _0-5___

What type of water or combinations of water sources do you use? If it is an RO/tap/well water mix, please list percentages in the mix.

- well water ____

- municipal water ____

- RO water ____


9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.

No other fish or live plants and inverts.


10. Include any pictures or videos you have which shows the symptoms. If you can't add them to this post, please provide a link to them
http://s1381.photobucket.com/user/Ya...7718d.jpg.html
http://s1381.photobucket.com/user/Ya...82c63.jpg.html

[wencui]

The feces is actually a little greyish/clear.

[wencui]

please help me. I know there is something wrong with the fish but I just don't know what it is.

[nc0gnet0]

Do you have access to a scope?

Not a big fan of the medicated flakes btw.

How did you go about treating with prazi?

-Rick

[wencui]

No scope.
I used liquid PraziPro.
Could that be internal bacteria infection? But I haven't seen any bloating.

Do you have access to a scope?

Not a big fan of the medicated flakes btw.

How did you go about treating with prazi?

-Rick

[YSS]

Not a big fan of the medicated flakes btw.

-Rick

I have never had success treating sick fish with medicated flakes. In fact, I've had more issue with my fish when I fed medicated flakes.

[wencui]

I will try heat treatment today.

[nc0gnet0]

I will try heat treatment today.

Why?

I am not a big fan of this. Seeing how you just finished up with a 10 day course of metro (not even sure this was necessary) I would leave well enough alone, plenty of clean water and as long as the fish is still eating, see if it (the problem) sorts itself out. I do not recommend raising the temperature, I would leave it at 82 degrees.

[YSS]

Why?

I am not a big fan of this. Seeing how you just finished up with a 10 day course of metro (not even sure this was necessary) I would leave well enough alone, plenty of clean water and as long as the fish is still eating, see if it (the problem) sorts itself out. I do not recommend raising the temperature, I would leave it at 82 degrees.

I've successfully treated fish many times using the heat treatment. However, I've only treated fish with heat after fish stopped eating. After the treatment, fish would recover, eat, and be back to normal. As Rick stated, not sure if heat treatment is necessary at the moment.

[wencui]

I've successfully treated fish many times using the heat treatment. However, I've only treated fish with heat after fish stopped eating. After the treatment, fish would recover, eat, and be back to normal. As Rick stated, not sure if heat treatment is necessary at the moment.

Although it is still eating, there is obviously a decrease in appetite along with the more white clear poop.

[YSS]

Although it is still eating, there is obviously a decrease in appetite.

Understood. Heat treatment, just as any treatments, is tough on the fish and it is very important to raise and lower the temp very gradually. Heat treatment may not be the most popular treatment option around here, but it is very highly endorsed by a very well known sponsor here. If he says ditch the meds and go with heat, then that's what I'll do.

[wencui]

I know Steve from Angelsplus also recommends heating for the internal parasite problem. I also have a symptom similar to HITH. The white cotton spot appear on the head above the eye. After treating with salt, the white cotton thing cleared up but a small pink hole left. This happened two weeks ago. The hole recovered but there is a scar(a small concave area). This happened again two days ago on the other side of head also above the eye. I treated with salt for the white cotton thing. Now I can see a small pink hole.
So far I haven't seen any other symptoms related to bacteria infection. I only see the decrease in appetite and white/clear feces, which is more likely to be the protozoan related. So I will go with heat treatment.

[nc0gnet0]

So I will go with heat treatment.

Suit yourself.

I also have a symptom similar to HITH. The white cotton spot appear on the head above the eye. After treating with salt, the white cotton thing cleared up but a small pink hole left. This happened two weeks ago. The hole recovered but there is a scar(a small concave area). This happened again two days ago on the other side of head also above the eye. I treated with salt for the white cotton thing. Now I can see a small pink hole.
So far I haven't seen any other symptoms related to bacteria infection. I only see the decrease in appetite and white/clear feces, which is more likely to be the protozoan related.

Starting to sound more like a water quality issue here.

I know Steve from Angelsplus also recommends heating for the internal parasite problem.

When it is used (the heat treatment) it is normally used in conjunction with the metro treatment, not afterwards. Personally I find in unnecessary, but there are still some that swear by it.

My advice to you is to give the fish a time out with nothing but good clean water and plenty of it. It is completely normal for a fish that has just been though a ten day course of medication to be a bit off its feed.

[YSS]

My advice to you is to give the fish a time out with nothing but good clean water and plenty of it. It is completely normal for a fish that has just been though a ten day course of medication to be a bit off its feed.

I'm with Rick on this one. Give your fish at least a few days to recover.

[wencui]

I'm with Rick on this one. Give your fish at least a few days to recover.

I think the clear water is the best way right now. I am just worried about those clear/white poop coming out more often.