White poo?

[Zephaniah]

I noticed one of my guys stopped eating the past week and today I saw white poop come out of him. It wasn't clear, just solid white. See pictures, sorry it's not clearer.
I have moved him out of the main tank and into a hospital tank (suitable I hope, it's only a 2.5 gallon tank) and was told to start administering Furan-2 by my LFS.

Water parameters in the original tank:
0 ammonia
0 nitrites
5 nitrates

I do 50% water changes every 2 days.

Can someone tell me if Furan-2 is the way to go? What else should I be doing? Is my hospital tank suitable? I can throw an airstone in there as well if it's needed.

[Zephaniah]

Additional info:

I recently got him. Had him in quarantine with another guy I bought for 2 weeks before moving him to the main tank.

Ever since I had him, I hardly see him show any interest in shoaling with the other discus.

I have 5 other discus in the main tank with him. They are all pretty much the same size as him or slightly bigger. Only two are smaller than him.

[Zephaniah]

Also:
Had the main tank at 82 degrees.
Raised the hospital tank to 86 degrees and threw in half a teaspoon of aquarium salt.

[waitaki]

white poop is a sign of worms. That is why he is not eating and showing little interest in mixing with the new tank mates.
You need to dose him with worm tablets that contain praziquantel, 100mg, follow the instructions on the container, you will need to treat him again in a week to make sure you get the eggs. If he is still sick after this you could try metro from the pharmacy or vet. Try feeding him but keep his water clean.
Good luck, hope he gets better quickly

[Zephaniah]

Ok I got metro. I was told to soak frozen blood worms in metro for an hour and try to feed it to him. If he doesn't eat then treat the water with metro.

Is that right?

[waitaki]

yeap, that's right; but make sure you get the amount right.
There is a sticky here somewhere on the metro quantities.

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4190

I had the vet work out the rates for my fish. Check some of the other posts as well.

[Zephaniah]

Does metro have an adverse effect on cories?

The little blue guy wasn't eating so I fed the rest of the metro soaked bloodworms to the discus in my main tank in case they have any worms.

The next day I find all my cories dead.....

[Zephaniah]

And I'm guessing food soaked in metro isn't too tasty for the discus.
When I did feed them to my other discus, I saw quite a few of them spit the worms back out and try eating it again, only to spit it out again.

That's never happened before, they usually just gobble up what they can as quickly as they can.

[Zephaniah]

Update:
It's been over two weeks in the hospital tank. Been changing 90% water every day and redosing with metro. I stopped putting salt in the water about a week ago also.

He still doesn't seem to eat anything I put in the tank and later in the day I'll find the food stuck in the filter, which I wash off in tank water.

But he doesn't appear to be as skinny as before.
Perhaps he's nibbling at something when nobody's looking?

I still saw white poop a few days ago. :cry:

[ILLUSN]

Once you finish your dose of metro start treating fo nematode worms, i had a fish just like that that wouldn't get better no matter how much metro i threw at him, had a look under my work scope and guess what, full of nematode eggs.

[Zephaniah]

Interesting. I don't have a microscope, nor am I about to go out and buy one just to look at fish poop. My wife thinks I spend too much time and money on these fish as it is.

But I'm willing to give some other medication a shot. What's the treatment for nematode worms? And is there a drawback for treating the fish with this medication if it doesn't have nematode worms?

[zar]

Most people use Levamisole for nematode treatment. Search this forum for levamisole and you'll find more details on the exact treatment steps. check out the stickies as well.

[BigDaddyAdo]

I have had similar issues with a juvie eruption recently. As previously suggested try meds containing praziquantel (prazi).


Ado

[Zephaniah]

Ok so I got Levamisole HCL (for pigs but should be ok for fish too from what I've read) but I'm a little hesitant to start treatment since I'm not 100% sure it's nematode worms.

Is there a downfall to treatment if it's not nematode worms?

[ILLUSN]

an over dose can cause the fish to loose its appities, at 2mg/L (1mL/7L) its had no adverse efect on my 8 week old discus fry, except make them hungrier.

[Merrilyn]

Use the Levamisole to treat for nematodes (roundworm and hookworm) It's quite harmless to fish, even if they don't have worms.

The dose rate is 1ml per 7 liters of water, or 10ml per 70 liters. Leave for 48 hours, then do a big waterchange. Repeat dose 7 days later.

[Zephaniah]

Well, first night of Levamisole treatment and I find the little guy dead. Stuck to the bottom of the filter. :cry:

[Hollowman]

Sorry to hear that. Did you follow the instructions to the letter, did you overdose?

The trick to keeping discus is to recognise a problem before it takes over. Little signs often tell of bigger problems. It's just a case of getting to know your fish.
Don't be too disheartened, don't give up on discus yet.

[Zephaniah]

I don't really have anything to measure out something as small as 2mg for my 2.5 gallon HT. I kinda just guesstimated how much to put in based on a little scooper (100mg) I have.

[ILLUSN]

the dose is 2mg/L, your 2.5 gal is 10L hence you needed 20mg.

next time measure out the 100mg, disolve it in 10mL of water and you have a stock solution of 10mg/mL.

use 2ml of this solution in your 2.5 gal tank (gives you 20mg).

sorry I only work in metric you'll have to do the maths to work it out in American