Hi. I just bought two clownfish from my LFS and have now noticed that each fish has had one day of stringy white poop. I've read that this could be caused by internal parasites or overfeeding or empty stomach or too much protein in diet so wanted to check if anyone has a sense of what might be the issue here (I detailed all the feeding below). I don't want to treat them for parasites if it's not clear they have them but also don't want to miss the optimal window to treat if there is truly an issue.
I didn't feed them the first day since they had already ate at the store. The second day I fed ~10-20 pellets across two feedings and one of them was eating (and ate most of it) and pooped in a white cloud style and the other wasn't eating at all. The third day both ate a bit (probably 5-8 pellets each)--I tried a small piece of PE mysis flake but neither seemed to like it much and both only nibbled once before leaving it--and the one who pooped in a white cloud the day before pooped in a brown clump and the other one had a stringy white poop for an hour or two before it finally fell off. Today's the fourth day and both continue eating (~5-7 pellets each and seem more eager to eat than prior days) but the one who previously pooped in a white cloud (then a brown clump) now had something like the stringy white poop the other fish had (just much shorter). The one who had stringy white poop didn't seem to poop today or did it very quickly (didn't have the stringy one today). I've just been feeding New Life Spectrum Thera A (small pellets), which is also what they were fed at the LFS.
One last note, I had bought and left my clowns at the LFS for a few weeks while waiting for my new tank to cycle so one was at the LFS for 5 weeks (the other two weeks) before coming home with me (and both seemed very active and healthy there) and all the clownfish my LFS gets come from the same breeder, so I had hoped they would be quite healthy. My tank was also started with dry rock and dry sand to try and avoid carrying over anything from other tanks. Not sure if either of these factor into determining whether this is a case of internal parasites?
I didn't feed them the first day since they had already ate at the store. The second day I fed ~10-20 pellets across two feedings and one of them was eating (and ate most of it) and pooped in a white cloud style and the other wasn't eating at all. The third day both ate a bit (probably 5-8 pellets each)--I tried a small piece of PE mysis flake but neither seemed to like it much and both only nibbled once before leaving it--and the one who pooped in a white cloud the day before pooped in a brown clump and the other one had a stringy white poop for an hour or two before it finally fell off. Today's the fourth day and both continue eating (~5-7 pellets each and seem more eager to eat than prior days) but the one who previously pooped in a white cloud (then a brown clump) now had something like the stringy white poop the other fish had (just much shorter). The one who had stringy white poop didn't seem to poop today or did it very quickly (didn't have the stringy one today). I've just been feeding New Life Spectrum Thera A (small pellets), which is also what they were fed at the LFS.
One last note, I had bought and left my clowns at the LFS for a few weeks while waiting for my new tank to cycle so one was at the LFS for 5 weeks (the other two weeks) before coming home with me (and both seemed very active and healthy there) and all the clownfish my LFS gets come from the same breeder, so I had hoped they would be quite healthy. My tank was also started with dry rock and dry sand to try and avoid carrying over anything from other tanks. Not sure if either of these factor into determining whether this is a case of internal parasites?