string fish poops

[mislisa]

I've noticed that a few of my tiger barbs will occasionally have stringy poop hanging out of them. Is this normal, or is it a parasite or disease? How can i fix it? Also, one of them seems to have a bit of a shrunken belly. Is this related?
thanks for any and all help!

 

[Ulan]

It's probably related. Sounds like internal parasites.

The best medication is some medicated fish food. It's available from different companies, for example Jungle Labs.

 

[mr rosco]

carefull,before you go down the road of treating an internal parasite,remember,if you overfeed any fish,even slightly,ive always found that fish will poo a heck of a lot of stringy poo..the more you feed the more the fish will poo.

 

[nickmcmechan]

how long does it take for the barbs to eat all the food up you put in?

 

[soccerkidbs]

my mollys always have poo trailing them because they will eat anything i put in the tank... i have to trick them to feed the other fish

 

[Ulan]

Okay, we should probably define "stringy poop". I meant that kind of stringy poop, where the poop pieces are connected by a thin white line that might hang out several inches from the fish. That's not what happens from overfeeding.

 

[jm1212]

an over fed fish will not have a sunken in belly. it sounds like an internal bacterial or parasitic problem to me also.

 

[musho3210]

buy some 100% metrodinazole, buy some frozen food, follow instructions (mixing metrodinazole with frozen food) and feed it to the fish. Those medicated fish foods have medicine in such low concentrations its pretty much useless.

 

[Blueiz]

I agree, sounds like internal parasites. I use anti-parasite by jungle to feed my fish when they have signs of parasites. If in doubt, treat them. Some fish dont like the "taste" of antiparasite foods..so..that may present a prob for you..

I will have to disagree with musho. If you feed the medicated food as the directions say, it will get rid of parasites.

Blue

 

[Star_Rider]

if you can get them to eat the anti parasite food..they will most likely pass the parasite.
the jungle brand has levamisole,prazi and metronidazole
I'm curious about the concern for treating for parasites ..

I common treat all fish i get for internal parasites. it may be hard to believe but..many fish are infected.,.the parasites may live in the host with no problematic signs or only mild distress.
it is beneficial for the parasite to not harm the host ..what happens many times is the host gets stressed and loses the ability to keep the parasite in check..that is when we see the problem.

during the 4-6 week quarantine I use meds to help the fish pass possible parasites.