# white stringy poo ALWAYS bloat?



## FishFishBoy (Feb 4, 2009)

Hi,

I added some acei to my mbuna tank and the first day or second it had a long trail of brownish string poo, and a couple days later, it has a white stringy poo.

I have fed conservatively with NLS 1mm, but this particular acei is the largest fish in the tank and probably gets a good share. It did show up with brown stringy before I fed it but I dont know what it was fed or how often (probably not fed a lot at the fish store).

It is otherwise active and healthy looking, not the slightest other warning sign.

Is this stringy poo a definite sign of bloat?

thanks,

FFB

100g planted 21 demasoni, 6 yellow labs, 6 acei, 3 clown loaches


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## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Dec 26, 2005)

No. it occasionally appears on some of my fish, and they are all fine.

only had bloat twice (effected 2 fish) and in both cases I never noticed it before either.


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## FishFishBoy (Feb 4, 2009)

so do you always isolate the one or two with bloat? If you dont isolate will it always spread to the rest of the tank?

thanks!

FFB


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## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

If you have one fish with bloat then you should treat the entire tank but it's unclear how quickly or why Bloat does or doesn't spread.

People often remove a fish who has bloat so that they can treat it separately. A fish with bloat will stop eating and therefore must be treated with something in the water. Fish that are at risk for bloat because they've been exposed to the disease can be fed medicated food, (usually food soaked in metronidazole). It's believed that medications are more effective when a fish ingests them.

If you don't have a hospital tank or your main tank is so large/heavily decorated that catching a sick fish is just not practical then you can choose to treat all fish, both those showing symptoms and those who are not, in the main tank but then of course you'll need to treat the water.

Whichever way you choose try to fit in a few extra partial water changes. There may be a free-swimming stage of the flagellates in a bloat outbreak so removing water will cut down on their numbers. It's not a cure all by itself but it will definitely help.

Robin


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## FishFishBoy (Feb 4, 2009)

if I treated a whole tank then could I do it through the food?

and how do you dose with food? Soak it in the prescribed amount for water? Does the food suck it all up?

Thanks, your info is really helpful...

FFB


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## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

Yes you could dose via the food as long as all fish are eating. And I'll just add here that if you have a fish whom you think actually has bloat but is eating normally then it's NOT bloat.

There are a number of ways to dose with food. You can buy food that's got the med already in it which is pretty convenient. The down side to that is that one, you're suddenly introducing a new food to your fish which is something that should ideally be done a little bit at a time--fish stress with sudden changes, and two: not all fish will like the new food so then you won't be getting much/any of the med into them.

The other way is to buy metronidazole powder--Seachem makes it-- and do it your self with the food you're currently feeding. The advantage here is that you're not introducing a new food. The challenge/disadvantage is to get enough of the metronidazole into the food.
You're also better off using pellets rather than flake food.

Here's how I've always done it using the Seachem Metronidazole:
dissolve 1-2 scoops of Met powder in about a half teaspoon or so of warm water. Add the pellets and let them soak up the water/met solution. Feed to fish 1-2 times a day for ten days. And it's okay to dump all the met-water into the tank with the food. In fact you might even want to dose the water with the Metronidazole in addition to the food. If you find the met doesn't stay in the pellets you can buy another product by Seachem that will help 'glue' the met and pellets together. I think it's called Entice but check their website to make sure.

Robin


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## FishFishBoy (Feb 4, 2009)

Thanks that helps alot!

except for one thing I am confused about. If you soak meds for bloat into food how does it help with bloat, since you say that if the fish eats it that means it does not have bloat in the first place?


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## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

What typically happens with bloat is that you'll have one or two fish showing symptoms. Starts off with the fish spitting out food, then not eating, long stringy white or clear feces, the fish becomes lethargic and may sit and gasp or hide and towards the end it may or may not have a bloated or sunken belly. It usually takes approximately one week for these symptoms to play out and without medication it is almost always fatal.

After that fish dies or shortly before you'll notice one or more of your other fish starting in with the same symptoms. For some reason bloat seems to 'go after' one or two fish at a time with the rest of the tank seemingly healthy however what we see with bloat over and over again is that all fish who have been exposed to the illness are at high risk of getting it.

So what we advice is to treat the fish who is showing symptoms, ie, not eating, with something like Clout or Jungle Parasite Clear--both meds that you put in the water, and then treat all the fish who have been exposed to the illness but are not showing symptoms, ie, still eating, with a medicated food.

Hope that clears it up for you  
Robin


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## zazz (Apr 5, 2008)

for me its a random roll of the dice... it comes at random times and strikes random fish...


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