Long Stringy White Feces

Aito

Aito

AC Members
Aug 3, 2008
15
0
0
I bought a pair of balloon mollies on Sunday who seem to be doing fine except one seems to have long stringy white feces. I suspected it might be an internal parasite of some sort, so I went to Petco looking for some medication. I think I heard Jungle has medicated fish food that's supposed to work well for internal parasites, but I couldn't find it. Instead I bought Jungle Parasite Clear tablets that you're supposed to just drop in the water. I know the medication would be more effective if it's ingested, so I was thinking of maybe dissolving the tablet in a cup of water then adding some fish flakes. Hopefully the food will absorb some of the medication and I can feed it to the fish. Will this work or am I just wasting my time trying it? Are there any other medications I could try?
 
Aito said:
I bought a pair of balloon mollies on Sunday who seem to be doing fine except one seems to have long stringy white feces. I suspected it might be an internal parasite of some sort, so I went to Petco looking for some medication. I think I heard Jungle has medicated fish food that's supposed to work well for internal parasites, but I couldn't find it. Instead I bought Jungle Parasite Clear tablets that you're supposed to just drop in the water. I know the medication would be more effective if it's ingested, so I was thinking of maybe dissolving the tablet in a cup of water then adding some fish flakes. Hopefully the food will absorb some of the medication and I can feed it to the fish. Will this work or am I just wasting my time trying it? Are there any other medications I could try?
Click to expand...


What are you feeding them? Mollies are algae eaters, regular tropical flakes are bad over the long haul and will cause digestive troubles.

Before I medicated I would try feeding them some mushed peas to clean them out. They like them and they act as a laxative for the mollies.
 
Read the instructions on the tablets box, Im pretty positive it says for external use only. So, no dont try to feed it to your fish.
 
robbob2112 said:
What are you feeding them? Mollies are algae eaters, regular tropical flakes are bad over the long haul and will cause digestive troubles.

Before I medicated I would try feeding them some mushed peas to clean them out. They like them and they act as a laxative for the mollies.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I have never heard of that. Do you have any definitive proof of that?

That article mentions no evidence about the problems with feeding mollies flakes other than that wild mollies are mainly herbivorous...I'm not saying you are wrong but I would like to see more proof before I believe that statement.
 
robbob2112 said:
What are you feeding them? Mollies are algae eaters, regular tropical flakes are bad over the long haul and will cause digestive troubles.
Click to expand...

Well, I throw in pieces of algae wafers for the cories every once in a while that I see the mollies peck at. They also peck at my cabomba plant and their feces is sometimes a darker greener color but still long and stringy (looks a lot like the poop my pleco used to make constantly back in the day). It's also white most of the time. I feed Omega One btw.

A little off-topic but I've long read the advantages of adding marine salt to a tank w/ mollies. Would this affect my malaysian trumpet snails or plants?

Blueiz said:
Read the instructions on the tablets box, Im pretty positive it says for external use only. So, no dont try to feed it to your fish.
Click to expand...

It says not for use on Food Fish... which I'm guessing they mean feeders. Anyways, I guess that's a clear sign not to try and feed it to my fish.
 
jpappy789 said:
Interesting. I have never heard of that. Do you have any definitive proof of that?

That article mentions no evidence about the problems with feeding mollies flakes other than that wild mollies are mainly herbivorous...I'm not saying you are wrong but I would like to see more proof before I believe that statement.
Click to expand...


Not anything I can give you a reference for... in the link I posted it talks about "Going Vegetarian" and their natural diet....Several people have written in to wetweb about stringy poo and Niel replied with something to the effect of "feeding mollies tropical flakes is like you eating nothing but steak every night.. it might be good tasting, but not good for you in the long term".. search the site and you will find it ... read his bio and decide for yourself if he is qualified..

On the personal level I have kept mollies for a long time and on a diet of algae flakes, seaweed, zucchini, and other greens they stay healthy and happy and breed like crazy (30~40 new babies every few weeks)... I also keep them at specific gravity of 1.003~1.004 with marine salt (1 tablespoon of Instant Ocean per gallon of water)... the plants don't mind it and the mollies are happy.

Interesting note on the marine salt... if I lower the level to 1.001~1.002 the swordtails breed like crazy and the mollies slow down breeding to once every 6~8 weeks... ... not sure what that is all about, but I have alternated it a few times just to test...

The month old baby mollies and swordtails are tasty treats for the cichlid tank so I can keep from overpopulating the 46g and at the same time not have to buy feeder fish.

I don't know about the snails, but the plants don't mind a low level of salt as described above. I am guessing the snails would be unhappy about it...
 
Actually, "not for food fish," means fish meant for human consumption. But don't try to force-feed your fish medication.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom