new clown fish with white stringy poop. Newbie here

[MattSD]

Hi all,
I'm new here and will be posting my introduction and build thread soon, but I have a question about our new clownfish. I've read a lot about clownfish with white stringy poo, and wanted to present my scenario for input.

Background: My wife and I just started our salt water aquarium and have never kept fish before. We are researching and reading daily, and trying to do it right. Our display tank is cycled with no animals yet. We got our first 2 fish 1 week ago, small clownfish (1 inch or so). We planned for observational quarantine for 3-4 weeks in a 10g tank with caribsea arag alive, some extra dry rock, and a little microbe lift starter bacteria. We went with a plan to treat if needed and not to treat prophylactically. I've been doing water changes every other day 20-30%.
Salinity 1.026
Temp 78F
Ammonia has been minimal or undetectable with API


2 days after getting them home one fish had a long white stringy poo.

Of course we found lots of information on this, browsed several threads, and I have read @Jay Hemdal article on mucus, which suggested this is most likely due to protozoan infection, despite what I frequently see diagnosed as "worms". Spoke with the LFS and they gave us metroplex and focus, which I mixed with hikari mysis, which the LFS had told us he was feeding them. Fish were eating ok, but often laying down on the sand bed. Both would eat, but one didn't seem to love the shrimp mixture. So we ended up buying New Life Spectrum thera A+ pellets (to get some greens) and mixing this with the medications as well. Both fish really loved it and have been eating well. Both fish continued to be active and 3 days after starting medications, the same fish passed another long white stringy poo.

This one had an almost pink fleshy type appearance at the end. After passing this, both fish continue to be quite active and just seemed to have more pep. Both continue to eat well. My plan currently is to continue treating with medicated food for total of 10-14 days and then observing for an additional 2 weeks before transferring to the DT (55g AIO uniquarium with live sand and dry rock, cycled).

I'm looking for some input on these questions.
Likely protozoan?
Metroplex and focus with food is sufficient/best treatment? 10 days?
Do the protozoa continue to live in the water or sand?
Does this observational/quarantine tank need to be sterilized after we transfer the fish to DT in a few weeks?

Sorry for such a long post, just wanted to give necessary info and hopefully learn something as we start out and take best care of our animals we can . Thank you all.

Thanks so much!

Matt

 

[MattSD]

Oh and as we have no corals or fish in the DT is there a risk of moving whatever infection they have to the DT if they were transferred and treated there?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi all,
I'm new here and will be posting my introduction and build thread soon, but I have a question about our new clownfish. I've read a lot about clownfish with white stringy poo, and wanted to present my scenario for input.

Background: My wife and I just started our salt water aquarium and have never kept fish before. We are researching and reading daily, and trying to do it right. Our display tank is cycled with no animals yet. We got our first 2 fish 1 week ago, small clownfish (1 inch or so). We planned for observational quarantine for 3-4 weeks in a 10g tank with caribsea arag alive, some extra dry rock, and a little microbe lift starter bacteria. We went with a plan to treat if needed and not to treat prophylactically. I've been doing water changes every other day 20-30%.
Salinity 1.026
Temp 78F
Ammonia has been minimal or undetectable with API


2 days after getting them home one fish had a long white stringy poo.

Of course we found lots of information on this, browsed several threads, and I have read @Jay Hemdal article on mucus, which suggested this is most likely due to protozoan infection, despite what I frequently see diagnosed as "worms". Spoke with the LFS and they gave us metroplex and focus, which I mixed with hikari mysis, which the LFS had told us he was feeding them. Fish were eating ok, but often laying down on the sand bed. Both would eat, but one didn't seem to love the shrimp mixture. So we ended up buying New Life Spectrum thera A+ pellets (to get some greens) and mixing this with the medications as well. Both fish really loved it and have been eating well. Both fish continued to be active and 3 days after starting medications, the same fish passed another long white stringy poo.

This one had an almost pink fleshy type appearance at the end. After passing this, both fish continue to be quite active and just seemed to have more pep. Both continue to eat well. My plan currently is to continue treating with medicated food for total of 10-14 days and then observing for an additional 2 weeks before transferring to the DT (55g AIO uniquarium with live sand and dry rock, cycled).

I'm looking for some input on these questions.
Likely protozoan?
Metroplex and focus with food is sufficient/best treatment? 10 days?
Do the protozoa continue to live in the water or sand?
Does this observational/quarantine tank need to be sterilized after we transfer the fish to DT in a few weeks?

Sorry for such a long post, just wanted to give necessary info and hopefully learn something as we start out and take best care of our animals we can . Thank you all.

Thanks so much!

Matt

Hi Matt,

There isn't any way to diagnose stringy poop in clownfish without a microscope, and even then, you can't always tell. Bacteria, coccidia, idiopathic, dietary or protozoans are all causes. Many time, this goes away on its own (or despite any treatment that you do) especially if there are no secondary symptoms.

I don't know if you saw my article on medicated food, but dosing is difficult. You can't just mix medication in Focus and feed it to the fish, you need to know the dose. Metronidazole needs to be dosed at 5000 ppm by weight of food. Trouble is, at that dose, it is very bitter and many fish will refuse to eat it.

Prophylactic quarantine is risky, but a bit less so with captive raised fish. I would extend the time to at least 45 days though.

Jay

 

[MattSD]

Hi Matt,

There isn't any way to diagnose stringy poop in clownfish without a microscope, and even then, you can't always tell. Bacteria, coccidia, idiopathic, dietary or protozoans are all causes. Many time, this goes away on its own (or despite any treatment that you do) especially if there are no secondary symptoms.

I don't know if you saw my article on medicated food, but dosing is difficult. You can't just mix medication in Focus and feed it to the fish, you need to know the dose. Metronidazole needs to be dosed at 5000 ppm by weight of food. Trouble is, at that dose, it is very bitter and many fish will refuse to eat it.

Prophylactic quarantine is risky, but a bit less so with captive raised fish. I would extend the time to at least 45 days though.

Jay

Thank you very much for the prompt reply, Jay. I really appreciate your expertise. I have now read your article on dosing. Very interesting and informative. Not surprising that the cookie cutter instructions on the bottles are likely too simplistic.

But it's bit tough to know how to apply it to home reef systems and hobbyists who only have access to these "over the counter" medications from the LFS. For sake of discussion, my 2 small clowns ~2.5cm each = 1.2-1.5g. Your article says metronidazole should be 100mg/kg daily. So, 0.15mg per day, I think? Combine that with fish eating 3% of body weight/day (45mg)...and I can't finish the equation with kids screaming in the background...

Thank you again. I guess the question I'll throw out to every one is...If these were your fish, what would you do? (Are the videos coming through? I couldn't see them on my phone)

 

[MattSD]

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thank you very much for the prompt reply, Jay. I really appreciate your expertise. I have now read your article on dosing. Very interesting and informative. Not surprising that the cookie cutter instructions on the bottles are likely too simplistic.

But it's bit tough to know how to apply it to home reef systems and hobbyists who only have access to these "over the counter" medications from the LFS. For sake of discussion, my 2 small clowns ~2.5cm each = 1.2-1.5g. Your article says metronidazole should be 100mg/kg daily. So, 0.15mg per day, I think? Combine that with fish eating 3% of body weight/day (45mg)...and I can't finish the equation with kids screaming in the background...

Thank you again. I guess the question I'll throw out to every one is...If these were your fish, what would you do? (Are the videos coming through? I couldn't see them on my phone)

Another option is to add metronidazole to the water. Marine fish drink water, so take it up that way in a pretty controlled fashion. Ed Noga's book gives a commonly used dose: 25 mg per gallon per day for three treatments.

Jay