Worms in saltwater fish

[JessKaye]

Hi everyone, I’m very new to saltwater fish keeping after coming over from the freshwater hobby. I’ve just recently (a week ago) purchased our first two juvenile clownfish for my 200L tank. They seem very active, eating well and happy. I’ve noticed long trails of white/clear faeces - video attached. In the freshwater world I would be querying internal parasites (tapeworms) and considering a praziquantel treatment. Just thought I’d check to see on opinions about this in the saltwater side - is this normal or a concerning sign of parasites? Does it require treatment? Thanks so much! Excited to learn from everyone’s experience here! Jess

 

[JessKaye]

 

[Fish Fan]

Sometimes this can just be the food they are eating, but let's ask the R2R FIsh Medic team to take a look. Internal parasites are not out of the question.

#fishmedic

What I see in your video is the water surface is very flat and calm. Typically, you want to point a circulation pump up at the water surface to increase gas exchange (CO2 out and O2 in). Unless you turned off your circ pumps for the video, I would look to add some more surface agitation to your system for better gas exchange.

Good luck!

 

[jackintheboxfish]

What kind of food are you feeding them? If the food you feed matches the color of the "poop string" it's likely just the food.

When I fed my fish paler colored foods like white fish eggs sometimes they also drag a long white poop string.

 

[winxp_man]

Internal parasites can also make a fish not eat.

Are the fish eating? You’re saying yes.
breathing looks normal? From the short vid I would say yes.
As stated above, what kind of food have they been eating? Mysis, brine and these types of food can make them have white feces.

My recommended food for seeing if this is an issues is New Life Spectrum pellets, Easy Reef DKi Marine food both come in small pellet size.
These two I listed above do not have fillers and have great ingredients for dry good. Yes reading ingredients for fish, in my opinion, is a must. Especially with how many foods have crazy amounts of fillers in them.

After a day or two you should start seeing some change in the feces. If you have a microscope and understand how to use it, you can get a sample and put it under and microscope to see if you find any parasitic things in the feces.

Some LFS’s feed more frozen foods, vs dry pellets. The ones near me do.

Since the fish is eating, what are you feeding them? And have you noticed feces coloration in the other fish?

 

[MnFish1]

Hi everyone, I’m very new to saltwater fish keeping after coming over from the freshwater hobby. I’ve just recently (a week ago) purchased our first two juvenile clownfish for my 200L tank. They seem very active, eating well and happy. I’ve noticed long trails of white/clear faeces - video attached. In the freshwater world I would be querying internal parasites (tapeworms) and considering a praziquantel treatment. Just thought I’d check to see on opinions about this in the saltwater side - is this normal or a concerning sign of parasites? Does it require treatment? Thanks so much! Excited to learn from everyone’s experience here! Jess

This can be internal parasites - or as @Fish Fan said merely their diet. What are you feeding? Do both fish have it? Metronidazole (in the water - not fed with food) would be the best choice if its determined to be a parasite. I apologize I don't remember where, but there is an article about white stringy poop on R2R, which when I search I cant see it.