Hello everyone,

Today I came home with 7 female guppies and 2 male guppies. They all live in a very spacious tank. I'm a bit concerned about one of the females, though.

(I hate going into detail.)

Her poop was translucent, though at one part it had a bit of brown in it. I understand that white poop can mean that the fish has parasites, but she doesn't seem bloated at all.

The flakes I had been feeding them were red.

Is this normal?

Nope, its not normal, its an indication of parasites, just like you thought. Not bloated means not too bad, but it would be a really good idea to treat the whole tank for parasites. Injuries and stuff I could see isolating, but parasites tend to spread, and the ones that don't show any signs just probably aren't as far along as this one. Better not to dance around the edges too much, better to just jump in with both feet and get it fixed.

Fish Fecal Disorders

This site has good info, and great customer service. This link will take you right to the page you need to diagnose your parasitic situation. You can also email them with questions & they will consult with you about it for free.

Good luck,
Chris OE

Thank you for the reply. I'll see to it as soon as I can.

Your local Petsmart should have a product made by tetra that is for parasites. They are fizz tabs. I use a Jungle Labs product called parasite clear. I've had decent success, but would still probably get the products on the page the Chris linked.

I never see bloating in my fish. It's always the opposite. Their body goes nearly paper thin and they will eventually die if I don't see it early enough.

I'm a poop watcher!!

Yeah, I see more wasting than bloating too. There's really only a couple that cause the bloating (or popping) most others the fish either look completely normal (because things haven't progressed too far) or the fish start to lose weight to where they get thin and bent and just die. Other signs can be flared and inflamed gills or googled out eyes - all signs of parasites, but poop cannot be ignored.

I used to always take things out of lakes, or use water from natural sources (streams, lakes) and the water was great, but I also got to experience so many of the natural wonders of the critter world (nothing like discovering a hydra eating one of your fry) and I'd get to see so many interesting diseases. I am now a complete convert to tap water. Alas you can always get these bugs from new fish, from plants, from used equipment, all kinds of places they can hitch on, even freeze dried tubifex I hear. Just part of the fun, I guess.

Jrman83- I picked up some of that "Parasite Clear". It also seems a few of the females have parasites in their gills (which I've definitely had experience- most of my bettas came with parasites like those and I've had to treat them) so I've added a bit of aquarium salt to the tank. I'm going to try soaking their food in garlic juice and see if that helps too. I will pick up some Paracide-D in the next few days.

Chris_oe, these females are a bit thin compared to the other females, though they're still eating, and the other females might be pregnant.
I've had a few experiences with diesease, etc. from stream water, and they are very interesting.

OK, now you've got me wondering. I recently had both of my powder blue dwarf gouramis die with no obvious explanation to me. They died within a week f each other with no obvious symptoms. Just found them dead in the morning sitting on the bottom. Checked the tank water parameters and they are fine (ammonia and nitraites = 0 and nitrates ~40-60 ppm). The only thing new to the tank was an apple snail about a week before (which also dies a few days later). Everything else in the tank (gold barbs and cory cats) has been fine.

I figured something was up when they both died so close in time to each other, and now that you bring it up, they had always had long white stringy poop. They had it since I had bought them over 6 months ago so I always assumed that was normal. Now you make me wonder if they had an infestation/infection the whole time. So what does normal gourami poop look like?

Is this something that could spread to my other fish or do you think it will be fine now?

I just look for a solid dark, to sort of dark color. Parasites will transfer to other fish in your tank.

Yes, I agree, the gouramis probably had parasites that killed them.

It was unrelated to the apple snail death, though. Fish and apple snails have no parasites in common (at least none I've been able to find documentation of). More than likely the apple snail wasn't getting enough to eat - that's the most common reason they die in the home aquarium.

Thanks for the feedback guys. At least I will better know what to look for in the future. For now, nothing else in my tank seems to be affected. I will keep a close eye on them for a while and not plan on adding any new fish for a couple months just to make sure everything is stable.

As for the snail, I was wondering about that. There is some algae in the tank it was working on, but I will add algae wafers for the next one I get. I'm actually considering one of the nerite snails to do a little better cleanup job for me.

yeah, apple snails aren't the best algae eaters, they're great for general extra food and dead leaves and so on clean up, and they do polish the glass, but they need 1/3 to 1/2 an algae tablet each a day (depending on size of snail/size of tablet) or cooked vegetables (P. bridgesi won't eat fresh, or your plants, which is good, and why 99% of what you'll find in pet stores will be brigs.) I love them for their looks and interesting behavior, but I keep plecos and mts for the heavy lifting, algae-wise.

Update-

So three of the females have died- it's wierd. All of the ones who have are black. I just don't know why...! I've finally persuaded my dad into ordering some Paracide-D for me today.

I have 3 guppy fry, as well.

They may have all started out in the same tank and been infected at the same time, been further along illness wise than the others. It is a good idea to treat the tank to make sure that even the babies are clear of it.

Yes, that's what I'm doing. This illness is very stubborn...

Sorry to hear that. Good luck.

The Parasite-D may not be good for very young fry. I believe there is a warning on the label for such.

Just make sure when you get more fish that they are properly acclimated using a drip acclimation. Ph shock can take a little while before it kills the fish. The best success I have had with new fish is when I put them in my quaratine tank and treat with parasite meds and a couple of days of quick cure and they stay in there for 10 days. This will usually get rid of any ailments they may have had prior to me getting them. Not recommending this, as most will say it is better to treat once symptons show, not before. In my luck, once symptons show it's too late.