goldfish with long, stringy, clear poop

[vo1umeone]

Hello! I'm back with more questions.
I have a medium ryukin, medium black moor, small red oranda, small calico telescope, and a small pleco. They are in a 29 gal.
Recently, though, my black moor has developed some tail rot so I have been treating him with Pimafix (Antifungal Fish Remedy) in a sick tank (10 gal) and he seems to be getting better.

I just noticed today that now my ryukin (named Beautiful Tank) has long, clear, stringy poop. It was abobut 4-5 inches long and I've been giving him some peas to see it this could help at all.

I believe that this is from some internal parasite and I'm worried about how long he has. He generally sits on the bottom of the tank but when he's swimming, he's active. He is eating properly, but I've also noticed that he gapes for air in the water.

I am wondering if the Pimafix I bought would work for this. Otherwise, I own some Kordon brand Rid-Ich. I would prefer not to have to use the Rid-Ich, as it's messier and I don't want it to bother the other, healthy fish in the tank (the sick tank is being used). Or would this be okay (in case the other fish are infected too?) ?

Please let me know of any other medicines that could work. I've found the Mardel brand medicines worthless. I know the water quality isn't at its best (there is a tiny trace of either nitrate or nitrite (the one more associated with ammmonia))...The woman at the store just told me to try vaccuuming the gravel with my siphon thing. But helloooo she was wrong. I don't really know what to do. Someone help me out?

 

[Newman]

LOL she was actually half-right. the best medicine in most non-serious cases is keeping the water clean. Goldfish are friggin cows by nature. They produce tons of waste, and are very messy eaters. I've kept them for about 11 years now. by clean water i mean no ammonia, nitrites and low nitrates.

The stringy, airfilled waste can mean constipation problems due to diet.

That type of waste is common in goldfish that do not get a goodenough diet. My oranda has been fed flakes, peas, romaine lettuce and zuccini and it still sometimes gets that stringy waste. it happens rarely, and only when i forget to feed it veggies, and it just eats flakes for a day or two.

Another common problem that you may run into is red-colored waste. thats just as bad, and indicates that its not digesting properly. Normal goldfish waste should be light-green to dark-green in color.

Peas should theoretically help digetion.

The fin rot is an over crouding issue. thats 99% certain. before i used to hold around 5 goldfish of small-to medium size in my 40 gal. they would always get fin rot. Now i have 1 oranda, the one in my sig, and it has flawless fins, and has recovered from fin rot since it had it when the tank was overcrouded.

Get a bigger tank for the goldies if you are able to. feed a mixed diet, with the flake being a staple. just dont overuse it. Actually i recommend using a flake such as Spirulina 20 as opposed to most commercial brands.

i dont think you should use meds everytime you see something go wrong with your fish. only resort to meds when something is really serious. goldies are sensitive to the copper in meds so watch your copper level.

 

[vo1umeone]

Haha, hey Newman. You've helped me out before Thank you for replying so quickly!

I feed them Hikari gold, peas, carrots, and corn. I also occasionally feed them TetraColor tropical granules, but only a little. Mr. Pleco gets a piece of spinach every week and he eats the whole thing.

And yes, I have also noticed reddish poo, but I thought this was from the tropical granules (they're a red color). I can't tell if the oranda and telescope have red poo, because they're so tiny. Mr. Pleco seems to be just fine.
...Right now, Beautiful Tank is poopin some pea-green colored business.

Ohh I'm sad if he has digestive problems. I thought I fed them really well. I know that the tank is a little over crowded, but normally, everything is in pretty good shape and I do vaccuming/water changes every 1-2 weeks (and it's filtered of course). It's only been recently that the chemicals in the water have been off. It smells a little swampy if I stick my nose near the water.

I've heard that using something like Coppersafe regularly can help to prevent them from getting sick...does this work?

In any case, what is the best way to get the water cleaned up? Should I syphon 25% every couple of days until this gets better? I'm afraid I'll clean it too much and stir up gunk that will make the water quality get worse.

 

[Newman]

Ack, gunk! lol. it shouldnt really be there in excess amounts, but yea since theyre goldfish =/

Yes try to do 25% water changes every other day or few days for a week or two until water conditions improve.

You seem to be feeding them all to the best of your ability, so if they develop digestive problems, its mostly their own fault xD

But temperature could affect this too. they'd like water around 70F. lower wouldnt hurt.
although I must admit ive seen goldfish live in warmer water temps (my oranda is living in her tank thats about 77F. This is NOT recommended. Its just that im prepairing the tank for tropicals.

Hmm, idk about the coppersafe. you should always treat tap water with conditioner like Seachem Prime to eliminate any metals including copper. Active carbon i believe helps remove copper too. normaly, if youre not using meds, you shouldnt really worry about the copper unless your tap naturally contains more than 1ppm of it.

have you been adding salt? im kinda reluctant to advise this as people tend to overdose with this (which is why im so paranoid, and always add much less than advised.) Salt is good in small amount is what i will say. I add two or three teaspoon fulls when i do my weekly water change of 50% in my 40 Gal. (the reason for such drastic water changes i my plant fert dosing.)

Back to waste though: the red color MIGHT be partly because of the materials in the pellets/flakes that were not digested...still things not being digested are a common sense sign that something's wrong there lol. I did not mean that if your fishes ahve red waste, they MUST have a serious problem. they might not. but often times it could mean that they do.

hope i answered some of your questions

 

[sombunya]

If that hospital tank isn't cycled be sure to watch the ammonia levels and change some or most of the water daily.

I had a Bluegill in a 10 gallon sick tank and did 100% water changes every day because the ammonia level rose to .5 ppm, every day. High quality water keeps a fish healthy.

I was treating it for a wound with Melafix. The fish is now fine.

 

[Newman]

Wild Fish like bluegill and largemouth bass are Obnoxiuosly tolerant to ammonia and nitrites. I've held a 3" largemouth in a 10gal for two months (when i was 13 yo) and it did just fine with only one large water change that i remember. had baby bluegills in the same tank later.

It's really not accurate to compare tropicals/ tank goldfish with wild fish. Thats just from my experience.

BUT Sombunya's overall advice really stands. the more water changes, the cleaner the water, the better your fish will be.