White Poo Need Advice Urgently

[axl]

Hey,
i purchased 5 discus yestersday and they have only been in the tank about 24 hours and i noticed today when i got home that 3 of them had white string poos coming out of them, also they are poking at the driftwood with there mouth abnormal i think and then i started to panic, just want to no if it is hexs and what should i do, they have there colour but are not eating yet. Do i treat it with metro right now at 250g per 40ltr or use the 400g per 40ltr, i need your help please, whats peoples opinions is it HEX or is it worms, need to act now and doing some slight scraping on driftwood
cheers tim

[Benny]

ummmmmmmmmm
it will only be worms if there are fine white strings coming out of the vent, normally 2-3mm or so....


Otherwise it sounds like it might be hex.. However i bough a fish from a store that only fed sera dry food... Her poos were white for a while, but only coz the sera food was still passing thru... My fish also get white stringy poos, when they eat the white algae that grows on new suctioncups and plastic objects placed om the fish tank....


Wait for LR's opinion,
but i'd be preparing a medicine tank, incase....

The fact they arent eating, is overly confidence inducing, are they adults or juvenille discus?

[axl]

Hey,
they are only 8 weeks old and i dont no what to do, hope they dont die on me

[jim from sydney]

Hey,
i purchased 5 discus yestersday and they have only been in the tank about 24 hours and i noticed today when i got home that 3 of them had white string poos coming out of them, also they are poking at the driftwood with there mouth abnormal i think and then i started to panic, just want to no if it is hexs and what should i do, they have there colour but are not eating yet. Do i treat it with metro right now at 250g per 40ltr or use the 400g per 40ltr, i need your help please, whats peoples opinions is it HEX or is it worms, need to act now and doing some slight scraping on driftwood
cheers tim

Tim got your private message......you have worms my friend.....get some fluke and tapeworm tablets by aqua master.......follow instructions and bingo white poo is gone.......you should do this 2 or 3 monthly intervals.......do one thing at the time dont use metro yet i dont think you need it......thanks for the pm...good luck ...Jim

[axl]

Hey Jim,
thanks for the reply i purchase Big L before and the aqua master tableys should be here tomoz i hope, shouls i put some Big L in tnite and then use the aqua matser tomoz when i get them? what you reckon
cheers tim

[Benny]

hold your horses.. dont medicate unnecessarily...

It DOES NOT sound worms to me at all... Flicking is somewat natural in moderation, but treating for gill flukes is less of a concern then the lack of apetite, and white poos.....

Sounds much mroe like hex, then worms to me..

Mixing medicines IS LETHAL, will stress the fish, AND IS POINTLESS

[Matrix]

I had the same problem with some of my discus (at different stages). I tried deworming them using tablets at the specified dosage and it didnt work.

Once I tried to give the pills to blackworm to eat the deworming pills. Then feeding the black worms to the discus. But since the discus were not eating it was a no go.

Anyway I very much hope that deworming works for you, but if you hear of any other possibilities of what this might be I would love to hear it.

[axl]

Thanks for the advice benny im just panicing at the moment, i will wait and see what lady red has to say i think, i have got metro ready right now, so i will wait and see what she thinks i need to do, just want to get it fixed quickly thats all
cheers tim

[Ben]

Hi Tim,
As per phone discussion, let’s sit tight and do lots of water changes until the doc gets here.
Don’t stress we will work it out and medicate if needs be.

Ben

[Proteus]

Tim as per my PM, just make sure you have both Prazi & Metro on hand, I would be more inclined to thinking the Prazi will be the course of action.

[kalebjarrod]

I would think its worms

prazi is the way to go

if it was hex your fish would be looking pretty crap at the LFS and you probably would not have bought them anyway, and by the time you got them home they would have been looking like death!

[Benny]

then why the long stringy white poo's????

Do worms cause discus to shed the lining of their stomach too?

[chris]

Good old Hex hey, when she see white Poos we think of Hex, Ive lost fish after treating for what I thought was hex.

Recently i had some Fry no older than two months show signs of Hex facing backwards in the tank not eating white poos, Im yet to see a fish swim backwards another sign of hex, more advanced Im lead to believe?

Anyway with further discussion with my LFS he said try Lemisole a pig/bird wormer. this worked> so the fry developed some sort of worm. Maybe Caprilla worm :?:

If we had had access to Microscope new what we would be looking for it would make it so easier.

[kalebjarrod]

then why the long stringy white poo's????

Do worms cause discus to shed the lining of their stomach too?

i could be wrong but in my case i have found that my fish look "drastic" when hex is around

they often look normal and full of colour but with a white thin poo for worms

two cents

[Merrilyn]

I wish there was an easy answer to the 'white poo' question, but unfortunately, there isn't.

Now, white poo is the result of the fish shedding the lining of the gut, due to some irritant. Fish normally shed some of the cells of the lining daily, but in the case of some kind of irritant, the number of cells shed will be increased, in an effort to flush the irritant out of the system.

Having said that, the droppings produced when hex is present, is a fairly thick opaque white mucus. Other sysmptoms will be that the fish refuses to eat, and spends a lot of time hiding. I've never seen one swim backwards, but I guess that's possible. The fish generally looks sick and miserable. The signs are unmistakable in advanced stages.

I believe that the bacteria that causes Hex is present in most fish, but their natural immune system keeps things under control. It's only when a fish is stressed, and the immune system is low, that hex can take hold, and cause symptoms. Transporting fish and putting them into a new tank is a form of stress.

Another thing that can irritate the lining of the gut, is threadworm, and this will show up as thin white droppings, that hang from the vent for a long time. Treating with Levamisole will rid the fish of internal threadworms and roundworms.

In this case axl, I'd be inclined to wait and see. The symptoms you describe could be either, or it could be that the fish is simply stressed from being transported and a change in water.

My suggestion is this, wait and see. Don't treat with anything just yet. Do daily water changes of around 50% and keep offering good quality food several times a day, in very small amounts. Observe the fish carefully, and if the droppings change from thin to thick white mucus, or if the fish begin to darken, then treatment with Metro is in order. You may also need to treat for worms too, but Metro is the first treatment.

If the droppings remain thin and stringy, and the fish begin eating, then I think we can safely assume worms, and treating with a de-wormer is appropriate.

Good luck, and please do keep us informed of their progress.

[jim from sydney]

Tim are things better now Pal???

[axl]

Hey Jim,
yeah all is good fish are going awsome now they have finally got use to the tank and are eating well now. White poo was from the stress of the 3 hour trip and they are all pooing correclty now which is good. I was worried there for a while

[Ben]

Great to hear Tim!!

when you get a chance some pictures would be awesome!

cheers
Ben

*as it is no longer an emergency i moved the post to medications and illness's

[axl]

Yeah no worries will post some on tnite for ya all to look at

[jim from sydney]

That's great news Pal :thumb

[croydon_downunder]

where do you buy medicines such as metro from?

[the german]

vet