please help me...not sure if my honey gourami has parasite

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wigglejaggles

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Oct 26, 2003
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north tonawanda, ny
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hey all,

well you might have read my post about white fish poop...well i am now concerned about the honey gourami. I brought home two of them last night and the honey gourami has been excreting white poop ever since.
ok so the white poop seems to be the only thing wrong with it. It looks perfectly fine...no lumps, smooth scales everything is in check. All of his fins are fine...not clamped. he is eating when I feed them, and is always constantly nibbling at all the plants especially the hornwort.

So I just dont know what to think. I have read up on how dwarf gouramis usualy have intestinal parasites. And with carp guys response in my other thread, I am now concerned. I started a different thread because I am so concerned and am hoping you guys have some feedback and can help me out.

the honey gourami is a juvenile, and was told it's a female. Very dull color and some other more mature honeys in the tank from where I purchased it had the horizontal stripe.

thanks!

take care,
Jared
 
I'd give it a few days before you get too worried. The white fish poo could be caused by the fish not getting good nutrition at the fish store. If you want to be on the safe side, I would soak it in water laced with garlic as this will help to discourage parasites.

As for the gourami being a female, it's unlikely (but not wholy impossible). Fish stores usually have to special order them because they aren't pretty and there's no demand for them.

When I bought my honey gourami, he was extremely grey with 0 color to be found. Now (a month later) he is a deep orange with yellow highlighting on his dorsal fin and a jet black chest area which extends to outlide the anal fin. It took him almost 2 weeks to reach this color. Your gourami probably will too once he's settled in nicely.
 
Hey WiggleJaggles…

Where did you find true Honeys in the area?

The stripe is typical of the females, who stay much duller than the males. Very cool fish. A male/female pair would be an ideal thing.

I didn't mean to make you overly stressed about this, but it bears watching. White poo isn't normal. Keep an eye on things and be ready to take further action if this doesn't clear up.

Ask your LFS about piperazine. Its an anti-nematode medicine.

The quote from the SkepticalAquarist refers to the heavily hybridized, fish farm, enzyme dosed Dwarfs (colisa lalia). The true Honeys are a different fish.
 
hey now carpguy,

haha don't worry about getting me stressed. I was anticipating a response like yours, because I do remember reading about how white poop is not normal, but I was hoping that there may be other reasons as to why its color was off. I have been watching the past hour enjoying them and the honey's poop that I was concerned about has been looking darker and isnt stringy but more like little chuncks, so I feel a bit better.

I am most likely over paranoid because this is my first tank that I have put alot of money, research, and time into as I am sure most everyone here can relate too.

I bought the gouramis at a wonderful shop called Tanks-2-U. its located in Northampton,PA in the lehigh valley. I am not too familiar with the shop,only been there twice, but I have never seen one dead fish in any of their tanks, and they label quarantine tanks. its family owned I believe and has been in business over twenty years. I felt really great about buying my fish from them. All of the holding tanks looked like actual homes for the fish, very nice aquascaping in them. I was happy to see that.

If this is in fact a "true" honey gourami I will be very pleased.


I will keep an eye out on the "white poop" situation :D and will keep you all updated, and I am sure if something is wrong you will hear about it fast..haha. I bring up all my aquaria problems here first.
This place is great, and I have learned so much here.

Thanks againf or the advice!

take care,
Jared
 
hey carp,

ahh...I just saw that you are in NYC. I am home from college on break for a month. I waited to get my fish until I was home, because all of the stores in the eastchester and yonkers area where horrible, you know the petcos, petlands, petgoods... its ashame how they take care of their fish.

I havent had a chance to see any fish shops in the city, but I am sure there are some golden shops around there!


take care,
Jared
 
Actually, I think NYC has a pretty dismal FishStore scene.

I've found a few in the area but my favorite is an hour out on the Island. There's a very good small shop in Greenwich CT. One in Jersey, one in midtown, one in Nanuet. Thats about all I've been able to find. Leads are always appreciated :) .

I'm looking into what I think is a protozoan parasite in one of my loaches. I try to run a good clean tank and I got the little feller from a good shop. It happens.

I post the link for the SkepticalAquarist as often as possible because I think its a great information resource. Definitely check it out.

My very thorough but dry Fishlopaedia has the following:

The color and consistency of fish feces vary according to the diet, and to some extent the species… Normal feces are usually brownish or greenish… Abnormal feces should be regarded as suspicious, particularly if persistent.
• White, stringy feces are characteristic of Hexamita or Capillaria.
• Feces with alternating dark and light segments may denote Capillaria…
Click to expand...

It runs like that for 350 pages and they blew off an index. :argh:

Anyways, good luck with it and enjoy.

HTH
 
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