What is wrong with my fish? Internal Parasites? Flukes?

[techigirl78]

A week ago my midas blenny turned up dead. The night before, nothing was wrong with it and it ate just fine. Its stomach was somewhat bloated looking when I found it dead. I have had the fish for probably about 2 years with no issues.

I checked all the parameters and everything checked out ok- dKH 10, pH 8.2, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, sg 1.023.

Since that time, my convict tang has been acting funny - added about 6 wks ago after 4 wk QT (no issues in QT). It still is active and eating very well. I have noticed occassionally stringy poop - sometimes clear, sometimes brownish red - in the past week. Other times, its poop appears fine. It also scratches occassionally on the sand and rock, primarily when the lights are out. When the lights are on, it seems to always be attacking the glass and swimming with balance issues - tilted sideways to the right. It has been attacking the glass since I installed some new lights about 2 weeks ago, but the balance issue has only come up in the last week.

Then, I have 3 other fish - a coris wrasse, melanarus wrasse, and a dwarf lionfish. Certain scales and/or small areas look discolored/muted. Also, they all seem to scratch or look bothered maybe 1-2 times per hour, but they all continue to eat very well and are active. All the fish, including the tang, have clear eyes.

I was going to QT the tang and treat it for internal parasites and/or flukes. Does this sound right?

 

[techigirl78]

Last night I was watching my fish and saw my tang eat some cheato that came from the sump. After reading around, it seems this can make them constipated. I also noticed on the back powerhead, the poo has gotten caught up in the output screen. I assume normally stringy poo would get blown to pieces but not this stuff, which I'm now thinking is the reminents of the cheato. Sound right?

In the tangs excitement, it bumped into my coris wrasse a few times (swimming buddies). Maybe this has caused the few marks I see on the wrasse. The other wrasse and lionfish on closer inspection, look normal.

Last night I gave the tang some peas just to see if this would help out. Hopefully it does the trick. If not, I setup a 20 gal QT tank and have a 50 gal rubbermaid container ready just in case all of them need treatment.

 

[Hattie B]

Hi Tech,

White stringy poop can be a good indication of internal parasites. you can always deworm them as it is possible that they have internal parasites.

The fighting with the glass; could just be 'normal' reaction to his reflection. Some of my fish, like my puffer, will fight with himself over food and just becuase when he sees his reflection. Sometimes he will be quite um, active about the situation, biting and swimming as fast as he can at the glass.

If your concerned about possible flukes you could do a dip but do you notice any red spots/streaks or anything abnormal?