Yellow tang has long stringy poop stuck to it

[bcunningham]

Can anyone tell me what causes this? Here's a picture:

I am leaning towards some sort of parasite, but the LFS where I got it does keep chaeto in the sump so perhaps it's just due to eating chaeto? My first time seeing this and I'm worried - the tang is lethargic, hanging out in the corner of the tank and almost lays on its side at times. Today is only its second day in the tank, any advice?

 

[HumbleFish]

White stringy poop is a symptom of both flukes (treat with Prazipro) or intestinal parasites (treat with metronidazole). You can perform a 5 min FW dip to determine whether or not the fish has flukes.

Long stringy poop (not white) can just mean the fish is constipated, or something else (non disease related) is bothering the intestines.

 

[cngreg]

Humblefish: A fresh water dip would tell you if you had external flatworms (neobenedenia) but I don't know if those cause stringy feces. Are you saying that a fresh water dip would clear and indicate internal (gastro-intestinal) flukes? If so would they come out quickly or would you see them as a bunch coming out later as the fresh water hit the intestines? I haven't heard of using fresh water dip to diagnose string poop flukes and am wondering if that's what you meant?

 

[HumbleFish]

My bad (got a lot going on right now). I didn't mean to imply that gill flukes would have white stringy poo as a symptom. I also didn't mean to imply that a FW dip would clear intestinal parasites. FW dip only works for gill flukes (to my knowledge); and even then, it's probably mostly useful to confirm gill flukes & provide temporary relief.

 

[sabo]

It may well be worms, but you could also be right with the algae. My yellow is a poop machine and algae seems to go right through him. Its getting to the point my lawnmower blenny likes to eat his poop than fresh algae!

 

[pjos11]

Did you get to the bottom of this as my tang has the same thing?

 

[Zer0.]

FWIW, my sailfin had the same thing. I gave him 2 rounds of prazipro in QT tank and it was gone.

Hope this helps.