Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Health => Topic started by: Wild Rover on October 17, 2015, 07:24:40 PM
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Hi
Despite not changing their diet (mixture of flake and frozen) every one of my Dwarf Neon Rainbows has started having long stringy poo. None of my other fish are affected.
It seems to have started around the time I introduced a bristlenose plec but I've not seen any of them eating her algae tablets. Any ideas? :-\
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A few questions if you don't mind.
How long have you had the rainbows?
Did they all start stringy poo at the same time?
What colour is the poo? (yes I know :sick: )
It would be unusual for a whole shoal of fish to come down with some infection/infestation at the same time if you have had them a while. If it's only been a few weeks to a couple of months then it could take that long for something to show up. Longer than that it shouldn't be anything they had when they arrived in your tank. And an infection brought in by a more recent fish shouldn't affect all the rainbows simultaneously.
If you've had them more than a couple of months and the stringy poo affected them all at the same time, diet seems the most likely cause.
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Thanks Sue.
They are about two years old and have always been on the same diet. They appear healthy otherwise and did all seem to start being stringy about the same time. The colour is light, almost clear, a bit like sausage skin.
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In that case, I don't suspect any disease unless the bristlenose or any other fish are also showing symptoms.
And just because you haven't seen it, it doesn't mean they are not eating the BN's algae tablets.
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Just out of curiosity, why would eating the plecs food give them stringy poo? My celebes rainbows nibble on the pellets I put in for my cories, would doing so be a bad thing?
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I wouldn't have thought plec pellets would do this but I'm at a loss for any other ideas.
WR has had the rainbows for 2 years so it is very unlikely to be anything they came with in terms of internal infections or parasites. The only other thing I can think of is that a more recent addition (ie within the last 2 or 3 months) has brought something into the tank, but that fish would also be showing symptoms. But he doesn't report anything but the rainbows being affected. And all the rainbows became afflicted with stringy poo at the same time.
The only thing WR reports that has changed is that he's bought a BN plec and has started feeding algae wafers for the plec.
Most commercial fish food is roughly the same regarding nutrients. Some pellets designed for cichlids are on the meaty side, and some other food is more veg orientated but that's all. The main difference between foods is how it behaves in water - flakes float, pellets sink. Your rainbows will be fine eating the cories pellets - as long as the cories don't starve!
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No chance of that happening Sue :) Our biggest cory is starting to reach whale dimensions! I never realised they got that big.