White stringy popo - Regal Angelfish

[Stuginski]

Hi guys, how are u?

My Regal Angelfish os producing a typical white stringy poop. He is in my display tank. Fish seems fine, eating and with a good body condition. My display tank is currently running in hyposalinity for almost a month right now (i had a ick outbreak even quarantining my fishes, i don't know but maybe these jerks came with my Clean up crew, i Just don't know). My questions are: 1) Is It possible to differentiate worm infection from ciliate infection? Iam asking because I know that both parasite infections can be diagnosed based on white stringy poop but treatments are different. 2) Can I use any kind of intank treatments in my DT? Yes, I know that maybe I should remove my Regal to a QT but this is an easily stressfull and delicate fish, he is ok in my DT but usually doesn't go very well in my QT. Besides that, probably some of my other fishes could be infected, removing all of them to a QT wouldn't be possible at this time.

Thanks in advance!

D.

P.S: I couldn't edit the tittle. So, *poop instead popo

 

[Stuginski]

*I mean flagellates instead of cilliates.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

*I mean flagellates instead of cilliates.

Generally, white stringy feces can be caused by dietary issues, bacteria, flagellates or no apparent reason (possible viral causes). Larger helminths, worms, do not typically produce mucoid feces in fish. A fish can have a tapeworm for example, and the only symptom (unless you looks through the feces for eggs or proglottid segments) will be emaciation.

Is the angel eating well, or just picking? How does it look otherwise?

Here is an article I posted that has some background info in it (the link is the PDF on the right side of the page).

Mucus - The Slime That Binds

Mucus: The Slime that Binds Jay Hemdal C. 2020 This article examines the various causes of excess mucus coatings on fish, as well as fecal mucus issues. ------------------- The mucus produced by the fish’s epidermal cells gives them their...

www.reef2reef.com

For flagellates, one treatment is metronidazole in food. However, to do that correctly is tricky. Everyone seems to go with the easy Focus+medication idea, but the dose is completely uncontrolled - like if a doctor handed you a bottle of pills and said - "here, take some of these, any number between 1 and 50 ought to do it".
If you want to take a deep dive, here is my article on medicated food:

Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods

This article offers information about developing medicated foods for aquarium fish

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[Stuginski]

Hi Jay, how are u?

First of all, thank you for always help me.

I was thinking that worms will also cause
white stringy feces! That's a great info!

Besides the white stringy poop, the angel is perfect. He is eating like a pig, swimming well, normal behavior, fat etc.
I recently introduced a powder blue tang in my aquarium and I guess the tang stressed my Regal a little bit. The powder isn't attacking the regal but he is very aggitaded fish, trying to dominantes the tankmates. Sometimes threatening the other fish. No contact at all but mostly using body language.
Maybe this stress could be the cause of some imbalance in Regal intestines, i don't know.

Thank you for the articles, cleared my mind. I was thinking about the possibility to use metronidazole in tank (no inverts). Here in Brazil we don't have Metroplex, so I would need to go with regular metronidazole. I tested one pill to dillute in water and this thing is very hard to dissolve. So, i was thinking to use injectable metronidazole (intravenous solution) directly in my tank but I don't know.

I saw white stringy poop only two times, so I guess I will wait a little bit and check If this issue will continue before any action. Could be a bacterial issue due to some accute stress, IDK. Maybe something that could be solved without medication. Let's see.

Thank u very much!!!

Best regards

D.