New fish constantly have long stringy poop

[abak42]

Please could someone help me. I have had a aquarium tank '600 REKFORD TANK' for around a year. I have had harlequin fish for around ten months. All has been going well with them. I brought 2 new fish around 2 days ago they are called 'pineapple !!!!!! not sure of full name. Since i put them in the tank they have been constantly passing very long stringy poop! Its happening nearly allday and all the 'strings of poop' are laying around my lovely fish tank. I am very concerned as i am new to having aquarium fish and very worried about there well-being and the harlequin fish that i have had for a year. Please can someone let me know is this normal for fish to be pooping all-day and so much off it?????????? Thank you Alison

 

[neilanh]

Moving to FW- Sick Fish forum.

 

[Homedog98]

It could be the food they got in the LFS. Don't feed them for a day or two to get it out of their system, then put them on your regular food. If it doesn't help, then I'm not sure what's up.

 

[ChelseaLake]

It could definitely be overfeeding.

It's totally possible that the LFS was overfeeding. I would follow Homedog's advice on this one.

 

[TraceyB4602]

I have feeder minnows for my leporinus and they always have stringy poop. It's so ugly. I feed them once a day. So I don't know if maybe it's the type of fish or the diet but I know I have tried two differnt foods TetraMin tropical flakes and the the aquaeon tropical flakes and they do it with both foods. If the change in diet doesnt work I'd say it's the fish.

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[Homedog98]

Hey, no offense to your fish keeping skills, but what if your overfeeding?

 

[tyspot1000]

Clear stringy poop is a sign of internal parasites (Overfeeding would most likely cause constipation more than string poop...). Did you happen to QT the fish?

 

[i3k]

If it's clear stringy poop...it can be internal parasites as mentioned above...but if it's dark stringy poop...it can be from stress/overfeeding/poor diet.

 

[TraceyB4602]

Hey, no offense to your fish keeping skills, but what if your overfeeding?

I highly doubt that I feed them a small amount and let them pick for 3- 5 minutes once a day. I've been doing this for years and the minnows seem to be the only ones that do it.

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[HUKIT]

I would treat the whole tank with Metronidazole which can be found in Jungles Parastite clear, Clout or Metro+. Are these fish eating? If so Jungle also makes antiparasitic food which is a better option if they are eating. Follow the instuctions including removing carbon and follow the treatment through and they'll be fine.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

Sorry to thread hijack, but I have a related question.

I have had a Pleco in the past but I bought him at a much larger size than the one I have now. He used to have long poops but they'd at least break...

My new one is 3 inches at most, a baby, and he often has long stringy poop, sometimes a foot long (out of a 3 inch fish). It usually is dark brown in color. Is it normal for a pleco?

 

[TraceyB4602]

Sorry to thread hijack, but I have a related question.

I have had a Pleco in the past but I bought him at a much larger size than the one I have now. He used to have long poops but they'd at least break...

My new one is 3 inches at most, a baby, and he often has long stringy poop, sometimes a foot long (out of a 3 inch fish). It usually is dark brown in color. Is it normal for a pleco?

With the couple that I have had I have never seen any of them have this issue. Maybe someone else might.

 

[i3k]

What are you feeding the pleco?

 

[Tim Wheatley]

It's getting diatoms mostly, at least that's all I've confirmed... But there's plenty of food which goes in there he could be getting.

There's an algae wafer and catfish pellets dropped in every 3 days along with flake, bloodworms, brine shrimp and floating carnivore pellets because of the fish he is sharing with currently. None of that goes in every day, it's very varied and sparing. But, only confirmed him eating the brown algae, which I assume is diatoms.

 

[Fishu2]

Love the placo. I've read that they need to have driftwood in their tank. It's fiber for them as they eat it. Mine sometimes has a long string of poop following him. Not a foot long, maybe it's a common pleco thing.

 

[Luna112]

Whenever I see my pleco, he has a poop string coming out

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[Tim Wheatley]

Yeah it is a common pleco. It isn't there all the time and it looks the same color as my old adult pleco used to poop.

The 18" adult I had last year (traded him in) used to get a lot of protein and I am really trying to avoid that with this one, but he could be getting some overnight and between cleanings. It got to the point with the adult where he could smell the instant frozen brine shrimp hit the water. He would swim up and try to take it right from my hand. He'd then fall to the sand with the block in his mouth and the fish the shrimp were intended for never got any. When I traded him in they said he looked awesome, and he did, I guess in the wild they will scavenge anythng they can find.

I could need more driftwood. That tank only has a small piece in right now... I'll get some more and hopefully he'll find it. I've never seen him using the wood in there now and maybe that's the issue.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

Just wanted to not leave the thread unfinished.

I put a bunch more wood in the tank and haven't seen anymore long Pleco poop... He is attached to the new wood permanently it seems! lol

 

[Bobobriny]

I have to agree , " stringy poo " is stress related , or parasites .
Stress may come from water change , new habbitat , mixing the wrong fish , children and dumb adults tapping tank , heavy metals , and on the list goes . keep it simple to begin with , and when introducing new fish don't forget to allow time to aclimatize .
My first post , sorry if this is already known .