Fish Poo - What's Normal And What's Not

The usual advice is that white stringy poo is a sign of something not right. But I have to confess that I've never really known what is meant by stringy poo    A lot of my fish have poo that could be described as stringy but they've been like this for a while and have no other symptoms.
Stringy poo is supposed to indicate internal infections or parasites. But fish like endlers eat constantly, and poo constantly. If there is not food left, they'll nibble algae - females are the worst for that.

What does their poo look like now? Usually, it is the colour of whatever they've been eating. With fish fed on flake food it is usually red, as it is when they've had bloodworm. When they've had peas, it's green.

Sometimes, dry food like flakes and pellets can get a bit compacted and cause long trailing poo. The way to get rid of that is feed peas, then nothing for a day or two. The peas flush them out so when they have food again it should work its way through more easily.


Sorry I can't be more help.

Yep my fish are constantly eating / looking to be fed! If I don't feed them they'll be nibbling on the heater, pre-filter, etc etc nuzzling around for something! Their poo has always been like it, and I can't see any other symptoms in the fish - they're all eating as usual / coming to the top of the tank waiting for food.

Since their starvation day the other day I haven't actually noticed any other poo. It's always white / clear though and in little strings, I've never seen it any other colour (or at least never noticed it).

I'm giving them some pea today, and then starving them tomorrow so hopefully will see if that makes any difference.

Haha sorry for the Google results Colin! I guess it's like this one from Google:

http://www.discusnada.org/images/discus/diseases1.jpg

I haven't noticed any since Madge's death though

OK so last night I caught my fish Cat with a normal looking poo, but Holly still had a longish slightly darker than white poo that fell off a couple of minutes after I spotted it. I'm going to feed about one flake and see if I can spot any more, but unfortunately I'm in work for 24 hours after 3 today so I won't be able to keep a close eye on my fish. They all seem to be behaving happily though. Do you think I should buy something to treat parasites just in case? Or would that do more harm than good if they don't have anything like that?

They never really sit still, but at night time tend to float almost like they're sleeping - I've never seen anything like what you're describing though. None look emaciated either and all appear to be eating normally. It's so tricky isn't it, especially with smaller fish?! I just really don't want to lose any more fish :-(

Why is fish poo spotting not one of your hobbies? :-D :-p

Now that's funny!

My guppies definitely do this 'guppy dance' and it seems to be a display for pecking order purposes.

My endlers do it too - curling themselves into a semicircle with their fins extended in front of another fish and sort of twitching or jerking. If you had females, they'd be doing it in front of the females rather than each other. Mine also do it in front of the green neon tetras, the only other endler sized fish in the tank.

Long string white poo is normally a symptom of over production of mucus in the intestines. The mucus is produced as a response to intestinal iritation caused by flagellatte parasites. If untreated or if it continues this can lead to parasites entering the organs and eventualy death. The parasites occure naturally and are jormaly kept in check by the fishes immune system. They start to become a problem when the fish get stressed for what ever reason. The best way i have found of dealing with this is a course of octazin.

Thanks for that Don, my fish have got er.. normal poo again now..is it possible for these things to cure themselves? :s I haven't noticed any problems since