White stringy feces...GC works but Prazi doesn't. What is it?

Sylvester

New Member
Update.. dosed tank 2 days ago with 7.6 mg/gallon fenbendazole. This is almost impossible to believe but after losing a half a dozen clowns and 4 cardinals my fish over 8 months and medications ranging from copper, CP, prazi, metro.... could a prazi resistant worm been the culprit all along?

Thank you Humble Fish!

My tank has been fallow 6 weeks. Is that enough? How long do i keep my fish in fendendazole?
 

Humblefish

Active Member
My tank has been fallow 6 weeks. Is that enough? How long do i keep my fish in fendendazole?

Yes, that is a sufficient fallow period for flukes.

I would keep dosing fenbendazole every 48 hours for 1 week, and then you should be good to go.
 

Sylvester

New Member
Thank you again HumbleFish. I think one of the worst things about sick fish posts is that rarely do people post their outcome so i wanted to thank you again and also provide an update. After dosing the tank with Fenbendazole the fish begain eating within a couple of days. I then began dosing the food with fendendazole and followed that for 2 weeks in QT. I re-introduced fish to they display after 2 weeks. They have been in the display for 3 weeks and they are amazingly healthy. I joke now and tell everyone they have tapeworms because they eat like crazy.

Looking back i lost about 6 fish to this disease. Metro did fight it and kept it at bay but eventually that stopped working. Prazi was ineffective. Months later one treatment of fenbendazole and everything is great. I still can't wrap my head around what type of parasite this was and how unfortunate this happened to me because i just got into this hobby. I was treating all my fish in QT with meds from CP, prazi, metro, kanoplex, etc... and i still had sick fish. I feel like i have gotten years of experience in just 6 months...
 

Humblefish

Active Member
@Sylvester Thank you for the update. If Fenbendazole did indeed fix the problem, it has to be worms of some sort. Either external or internal.

I've been using Fenbendazole more lately to deworm, and I am finding it is superior to praziquantel.
 

Sylvester

New Member
So the worms are back. Same clown over a month later has white stringy poo and eating very little. I immediately started feeding fenbendazole medicated food for 5 days. The medication seems to help (fish eats very little in the morning and then afternoon eats much more). I assume that is because the medication if fighting back some of the parasites. Regardless, its persistent even with feeding. I transferred the fish to a 5 gallon buck and dosed with 7.6m/gallon fendbendazole. I will continue to feed medicated food while they are in QT.

some questions.... I must have cross contaminated something in QT. Do the eggs of these parasites live outside of the fish? If so... shouldn't new hatchlings be killed in fenbendazole dosed water as soon as they hatch? How long do they stay in egg form and will drying out things like buckets and nets be enough to kill them or do i need bleach?
 

Humblefish

Active Member
some questions.... I must have cross contaminated something in QT. Do the eggs of these parasites live outside of the fish? If so... shouldn't new hatchlings be killed in fenbendazole dosed water as soon as they hatch? How long do they stay in egg form and will drying out things like buckets and nets be enough to kill them or do i need bleach?

The eggs are primarily found on the white poop, but it's not unheard of for some to get "blown off" in the flow. When this happens they scatter (and eventually hatch) anywhere inside the aquarium. This is why it can be so difficult to completely eliminate intestinal worms via food soaking medication(s). And why you have to do it for so long (2-3 weeks).

It is also possible that what you are dealing with is actually internal flagellates instead of worms. Both produce the same white stringy poo symptom. Fenbendazole will knock flagellates back, but only food soaking metronidazole will completely eliminate these. I have been experimenting with both food soaking and dosing Chloroquine to treat internal flagellates, but results are still inconclusive.
 

Sylvester

New Member
I kept the fish in fenbendazole water in a bucket (7.6mg/gallon) for 48 hours and then transferred back to display tank. As you suggest it must have knocked back the infection because they fish are eating voraciously again despite some white stringy poo present. I made up a new food mix according to your instructions for fenbendazole but also added a scoop of metronidazole. I will report back when i have more data.

On the brighter side i have some pieces of coral that are outgrowing this tank. I need to move them out to my larger tank but i am afraid of bringing this parasite into the new tank with healthy fish. Would a dip kill the eggs or flagellates? Or do i need a 30 day QT?
 

Humblefish

Active Member
On the brighter side i have some pieces of coral that are outgrowing this tank. I need to move them out to my larger tank but i am afraid of bringing this parasite into the new tank with healthy fish. Would a dip kill the eggs or flagellates? Or do i need a 30 day QT?

A coral dip + good rinsing ought to do it. Eggs from internal parasites do not encyst (stick) the way external parasite tomonts do.
 

Sylvester

New Member
So the saga continues. I treated these guys in a medicated QT with fenbendazole and metro in the water. I attempted also feeding medicated food but they mostly rejected it. After a month of on and off eating and white stringy poo i put them back into the display just accepting the fact they may die. The both still have white stringy poo and are somewhat lethargic.. I feed medicated metro/fendbendazole food 2x per day which they mostly reject so i give a 3rd feeding of some pellets to sustain them. They have been in the display for 10 days. I was wondering if i should try levamisole in the food?
 

Humblefish

Active Member
Levamisole is another dewormer medication. Might be worth a shot. The clowns may find Levamisole more palatable.
 

Sylvester

New Member
So finally received levamisole in the mail. It was too late for the smaller clown who died last week. I started to feed the remaining clown some food with the medication but he wasn't too interested in eating even unmedicated food. I did a WC on the display and placed him in the wastewater in a 5 gallon bucket with air stone and heater. I dosed the water with 30mg/gallon levamisole. I hope in 24 hours he is eating again and i will transfer him back to the display where i will keep feeding him medicated food. Any recommendations are appreciated.
 

Humblefish

Active Member
It sounds like you are doing all you can do. Hopefully the in-take of Levamisole (via drinking the water) will kill whatever pathogens are still living in his GI tract.
 

Sylvester

New Member
So good news to report but very skeptical. After giving my clown a 48 hour bath in levamisole i put him back in the display this morning. He no longer hides under the rock and swims back and forth at the surface waiting for food so things are back to normal. I gave him some frozen foods today with no medication and he ate well today. should i start levamisole in the food tomorrow? In 7 days should i give him another 48 hour bath to break the cycle?

20191024_165416.jpg
 
Top