Mating rams with white stringy poo....

[Kelly5978]

My german blue rams laid their second set of eggs yesterday! (I'm very excited and hope they survive)! Before laying the eggs, I noticed the female turning grey in the head area and her poo is white and stringy. She laid eggs anyways, but doesn't seem to have much interest in them, and the male is the one fanning and watching over the eggs. Today, I noticed the male now has white stringy poo also. I do feed them a blood worm treat every day (along with their flake dinner and veggie tab nighttime snack), but I'm fearful it's internal parasites. My ammonia and nitrites are 0. Nitrates are 5-10. I did a water change yesterday. I use an RO/tap mix for softer water. No recent additions have been made, and the tank has no plants. Can anyone tell me if white stringy poo could just be due to the blood worms? I do have metro food (from a previous issue). If I begin them on the food, will it affect the eggs? Does the females head turning grey mean anything? The pic is before she laid eggs. Her stomach is flat on the sides again, but her white thing still sticks out

 

[Kelly5978]

Are my pics showing on this thread? Well....the female is swimming up and down in front of the tank, very dark all over her body (except almost bright white in the gill area and blood red belly). They both keep swimming over the spot that the eggs WERE, but I see either none there. Why would they keep guarding/fanning a spot with no eggs? They were rubbing and twirling earlier, so I thought maybe they would lay more eggs, but I see nothing. When I first noticed the eggs missing, the male was behind the castle, and there was an obvious pit in the rocks near him. I was hoping he moved the eggs, but he hasn't gone back there since. I knew it was probably coming, but it's still depressing . I hope the parents are ok, so I get another chance. Just trying to decide when to remove the divider again.

 

[haleybeth30]

hi kelly, I see your pics. I think it could be blood worms, I've read they are hard to digest, even for bigger fish. I hope you get more responses soon. Maybe you could make a new thread with your questions about breeding in that section. I've also read white stringy poo is actually lining of the intestine so there is def some kind of digestive problem