Wild Protomelas Spilonotus Tanzania--- Possible Blolat

[Snake42490]

Hey Pam,

One of the somewhat new fish, my P. Sp. Tanzania has had white stringy poop for the past week. I have been watching it ever since I first spotted it. I know that it can sometimes be normal to appear, but should soon go away. I have had this fish for a little over a month now. This is the one that was having major issues adjusting, it was hiding not eating and acting very scared, then I added a couple other fish in with it and it changed night and day different and started eating. I finished my QT period, all "seemed" well and I then moved it to the 90 gallon tank about 2 weeks ago. Once added to the new tank the fish seemed great, was eating fine, noticed nothing abnormal about it. Then for a day I noticed that it was kind of hiding and had clamped fins, but once again that stopped and the fish had no issues eating. As of last night I noticed a lot more of this white stringy poop and the fish was doing a lot of hiding, I hadn't fed the fish for two days so they should have been hungry, and the other ones jumped to the food, but this one stayed in the corner and had absolutely no interest. Maybe I am being a little paranoid, but it seems like if you don't catch stuff soon it gets ugly. I netted the fish out and put it in my QT tank along with 3 red empress just so I could hopefully keep it's stress levels down. I did a little research and figured that it could possibly be bloat, not sure what would have caused it... It seemed that stuff like this can be common in newly shipped fish.

As of right now the fish is in a 29 gallon QT tank, with 3 Red Empress. I added a dose of 1 tbls of epsom salt per ten gallons, I am slowly adding it up to 2 tbls. per ten gallons, but wanted to gradually add it. I also added a full dose of Tank Buddies Parasite Clear from Jungle Labs, as of right now it has been 14 hours, all fish seem fine in the tank, besides the one that is having issues. My question is, do you think this is in deed bloat, should I try and feed a pee to it? Should I just forget about trying to feed any of the fish in the tank?

Also, my other concern is about the other fish in the tank? all other fish seem absolutely fine in the 90 gallon. Should I be safe and feed them an anti parasitic food? I have NLS Thera A which i know is supposed to boost immune system and help clear anything without medication. I am going to go do a water change as I know that wont hurt anything. Do you think anything else needs to be done in that tank though?


From what I have read the Tank Buddies Parasite Clear from Jungle Labs is a good medicine for this, but is not as strong as something such as AP clout... If you think something as strong as that is needed then let me know.. I figure the Parasite Clear is not as harsh. I pretty much would like to know what you would do in a situation like this.

Thanks,

Seth

[Pam Chin]

Hi Seth,

First off bloat is really something that has about 20 different definitions. It could be a parasite, blockage or even bacterial. More then likely caused by stress, and unfortunately as soon as he was starting to do well, he was put back into another stressful situation. I don't worry about adult fish not eating, white feces is certainly questionable and a sign of being stressed. But, when you combine that with clamped fins, isolating itself, I thing you made the right move by send him back to quarantine tank. I don't think this type of behavior and or symtoms are contagious.

I think you are on the right track, he may have just gotten over whelmed in the new tank, and wasn't quite ready for the challenge.

Cichlid Power!
Pam