White poo but acting fine?

[Jko915]

Hello!

I have a 29 gallon, I set it up 9-10 weeks ago. It cycled 2 weeks before I added any fish. I currently have 6 assorted male guppies (all 1-1.5in) and 1 powder blue dwarf gourami (approx 2in), 6 live plants of various sizes. I got one of the guppies and the gourami 3 days ago. I floated them for 15 minutes and then slowly added water from my tank to their bag over the course of 15 minutes.

I did a 20% water change/ siphoned gravel earlier that day before purchasing them. I generally do a 20/25% water change one a week. I have not changed the filter cartridge since setting up the tank.

Parameters -
Temp: 76° F
pH: 7.5
GH: 80ppm
KH: 100ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 20ppm
Don’t have anything to read ammonia.

I have an Aqueon QuietFlow Power Filter size 50, 250gph. This size filter was recommended to me at the start, I now wish I went with a 30 or 40 instead because the water stream is quite strong, but replacing the filter is a whole process that I haven’t been able to get around to. Also, I have noticed it leaves a sheath if bubbles at the top of the surface, I’ve noticed leaving the lid off the aquarium helps to dissipate them.

Nothing else new has been added to my tank besides the addition of these two fish. I use pH up to keep the tank at 7.5, my town water is 7.0. I also add stress zyme x1 week. When I do water changes I add imagitarium water conditioner and then a biological booster. I also use the booster when adding new fish.

I feed “Aqueon color enhancing tropical flakes”, and every few days I toss in a few “Tetra freeze dried bloodworms”. Once a week I give them a “Topfin Algae Wafer”.

So the issue is white poo. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s “stringy” though. I have black gravel and have never noticed this until yesterday. All the fish are acting fine, are excited to eat, not lethargic, bloated, are swimming fine and have no lesions/discoloration from what I can see. I know white poo can be a sign on internal parasite, I’m just not sure whether to act on this or not since they are all acting fine. Also, I want to siphon the gravel so badly to get all the poo out but I don’t want to stress/disrupt them since I did a water change only 3 days ago. Please let me know what you think!!! Thanks!!

 

[Liambomb123]

White poo means parasites so if you see white poo most of the time the fish is perfectly healthy then slowly gets sicker so i would get some multi cure or worming tablets for fish like para cide or fluke and tapeworm tablets there are many more

 

[Liambomb123]

also when you got those fish you should of treated them with a general cure or multi cure incase they had parasites of fungus etc so now you will have to treat all your fish

 

[Dragooness]

Quick comment, why are you raising your PH? None of the fish you have need an elevated PH. 7 is fine, the more chemicals you use the faster your tank CAN crash. I would lay off the stresszyme and PH buffering. If you really feel like you need something extra, change 10% or so of the water a day.. properly conditioned water mind you. Extra water changes hurt nothing.

You dont need a biological boost, for one mos of those products are useless. The second issue with that is the bacteria you NEED lives on surfaces. If you are worried about that, the best thing you can do is keep the filter you have and buy some ceramic filter media to dump in the box. Its porous so has much more room for bacteria to live on!

Likely parasite, I agree with Lia treat the whole tank NOW.

I don't recommend gravel vacing, most of the surface are of your tank is your gravel. THIS is where your bacteria that cleans the tank for you lives. Leave the bacteria alone!

 

[Jko915]

White poo means parasites so if you see white poo most of the time the fish is perfectly healthy then slowly gets sicker so i would get some multi cure or worming tablets for fish like para cide or fluke and tapeworm tablets there are many more

I tried a general cure while I waited for a bottle of prazipro to come in. It did not help. I then tried the prazipro but that didn’t work either and my gourami is sicker than ever:/ hasn’t eaten in about a week and a half - two weeks and just lays on the substrate all day, occasionally switching spots. White poo still persisting. Not sure what more I can do ): anything you can think of?

 

[Jko915]

Quick comment, why are you raising your PH? None of the fish you have need an elevated PH. 7 is fine, the more chemicals you use the faster your tank CAN crash. I would lay off the stresszyme and PH buffering. If you really feel like you need something extra, change 10% or so of the water a day.. properly conditioned water mind you. Extra water changes hurt nothing.

You dont need a biological boost, for one mos of those products are useless. The second issue with that is the bacteria you NEED lives on surfaces. If you are worried about that, the best thing you can do is keep the filter you have and buy some ceramic filter media to dump in the box. Its porous so has much more room for bacteria to live on!

Likely parasite, I agree with Lia treat the whole tank NOW.

I don't recommend gravel vacing, most of the surface are of your tank is your gravel. THIS is where your bacteria that cleans the tank for you lives. Leave the bacteria alone!

I have stopped the stress Zyme and pH buffering, had no idea I was doing more harm than good. Thanks. What is ceramic filter media? Also this may be a stupid question, but the prazipro I used says “remove activated carbon”. Do Aqueon filters have built in activated carbon that I should have taken out?? Thanks. Sorry..I’m trying to learn but there’s so much information!!!