Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Health => Topic started by: Anne on May 01, 2015, 09:07:51 PM
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Hi
I have noticed over the last couple of days one of my females Platies has white poo, normally is is brownish depending on what she has eaten and I was concerned it may be a sign of a health problem.
Having read several past postings about fish poo (it did seem like a favourite topic for a while) I realise it may be a sign of worms, constipation or bacterial infection - HELP!
Firstly my water conditions, ammonia=0, nitrites=0, nitrates=20, which is about the same as the tap water.
Secondly my platy, I have had her for about 3 months, she is feeding normally in fact is always first for food and once she has eaten the flakes will steal the cories pellets, has a bit of a pot belly even when not pregnant (5 days ago she had her 2nd lot of fry). She is probably a bit stressed as the male Platy only has eyes for her and ignores the other female, I sometimes see her hiding from him. She can be aggressive to the other female Platy.
She is feed on flakes normally and gets veggies once a week peas, courgette or cucumber as well as live or frozen food once a week, though she isn't a great veggies eater.
Thirdly the poo (I can't beleive I am writing this), it is white and breaks off in lengths of about 2 mm doesn't seem to get to any length, before she could have inches trailing after her.
So apart from the dodgie short white poo, she is her usual bossy, greedy, frequently pregnant self.
Any suggestions?
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Hello Anne,
That final description sounds vaguely familiar ........... :yikes:
Skittler
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LOL .... You've been mixing with some strange fish ... :fishy1:
Anne
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First of all, don't panic :)
The usual worms that affect livebearers are camallanus worms. This is quite easy to spot, they look like the bristles of a child's paintbrush, only red, protruding from the anus when the fish is motionless. If you can catch her when she's motionless. They retract back inside when the fish swims. If you can't see these red paintbrush bristles, she is unlikely to have worms.
If it was a bacterial infection I would expect her to be off her food and possibly behaving differently.
That leaves constipation, and you do say she is a bit of a pig. When you feed live/frozen food, does that include daphnia? I read somewhere that these also work to flush out a fish's intestines. What I would try for starters is feed them some frozen/live daphnia then nothing for 2 days. The fish you have will come to no harm with this. If it is constipation, this should get rid of it. Then when you feed them again, give them something red or brown coloured. If her poo is still white, we'll have to think of something else.
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Thanks Sue.
I have had a look and other than poo she has nothing hanging out when she is still or moving.
Her behaviour definitely hasn't changed so hopefully it is constipation.
The froozen food I have is tubifex so I will get some daphnia from the LFS, I have used them before and the whole tank enjoyed them, so should be OK.
Will keep you updated.
Anne
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Pleased to report poo is back to its normal colour.
I couldn't get to the LFS till Monday so I gave them all peas on Sunday, hoping a little fibre might help.
They were fed the daphnia on Monday and not fed for the next 2 days. Today I fed them flakes. I must have too much time on my hands as I carefully picked out dark red flakes only so their poo would be dark.
She has managed to produce dark poo twice now but not in the usual quantity but also not bitty or stringy, so hopefully all will be OK now.
Thanks for the help.
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Glad to hear that. She will be doing less if she's not had as much food.
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I don't think her lack of food has had too much of an affect on her as she is still her curvatious self.
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Thank God for that!