# Jack Dempsey - white stringy poop



## jbourke367 (Dec 31, 2019)

Hi All,
I noticed tonight that my jack dempsey appears to have stringy poop. He has been hanging out on the bottom for about a month now with no change in his energy level.He is very excited before feeding time and he always eats. I began feeding the entire tank green peas about 3 weeks ago. How should I go about treating the tank from here? I am unsure if he has internal parasites and if he does which one he has. Is there any medication/treatment that will work for all internal parasites?

I have attached a video of him swimming:















https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p5PmRa ... sp=sharing


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## Oscar6 (Aug 4, 2017)

Peas offer little for nutrition, they act as more of a laxitive. Fish appears to have labored breathing and isnt swimming properly. Color is off as well, stress from being ill. First treatment of any kind is always pristine water. Zero ammonia and nitrite, nitrate close to 10ppm at all times. Beyond that, I would go simple to begin with. In 1/2 cup of distilled water, dissolve 3/4 tblsp of pure epsom salt. Saturate a normal meal in that solution, few pellets in a big spoon maybe, and feed that exclusively for 5 consecutive days. Other fish will benefit from it as well, call it a preventitive measure


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## Ichthys (Apr 21, 2016)

White stringy poop is the classic sign of Capillaria, intestinal worms. I use Sterazin but other anthelminthics are available. 
Epsom salt is good for osmotic issues, but that doesn't seem to be the issue here (the fish is in hard water, yes?)


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