# Problems with one of my glassfish - PLEASE HELP!



## Windmills (May 22, 2006)

Problems with one of my glassfish - PLEASE HELP! 

The main problem is this:
One of my glassfish is upside down at the bottom of the tank with a very long (4-5 inch) white string coming out of its anus. ...and my glassfish is only a little 2 inch fish.

Possible additional information:

I have had some evil snails in the tank since I brought in some plants. I only ever see about 1-2 a week, and when I see them (they are small - just a couple of millimeters!), they are up against the glass so I squish them dead and let their squished remains fall to the tank bottom. Is that a bad idea? (By the way, I tried the cucumber/zuchinni trap trick but these snails don't seem to be interested in the veggies, so it didn't work)

I have had an ongoing issue with low kH/pH and high nitrites. This has been ongoing for about 2 weeks now and nothing I do fixes the nitrite problem, despite water changes, Amquel, etc. As far as the kH/pH problem, I've been fixing it with regular additions of baking soda.

Here are the specs on the tank at the moment:
ammonia - 0
nitrates - 60 ppm
nitrites - 10 ppm or higher
gH - 120 ppm
kh - 80 ppm
pH - 6.8

To treat the high nitrite problem until the nitrites go away through cycling, I'm assuming, I have been adding (freshwater) aquarium salt to compete with nitrite toxicity. I have read that this is actually good for my fish since I have glassfish (brackish) and guppies, I do not have any other fish, and no plecos in this tank - only glassfish and guppies.

It should also be worth mentioning that the other glassfish in the tank are swimming around and eating just fine. The guppies, too, are swimming around and eating fine, but the skin of 3 of my guppies has gotten darker.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to help me? Is that long white thing a parasite? What should I do?? HELP!!
__________________
I have a 20 Gallon tank:
7 glass fish (1 very sick...PLEASE HELP!!)
3 fancy guppies


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## Scy64 (Apr 23, 2006)

Is the white stuff actual fecal matter? If so, could be an ineternal parasite (there are different medications you can get to treat it). If the white thing itself is a parasite, it could be an anchor worm, (remove with tweezers, then treat the tank for any other parasites).


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## Windmills (May 22, 2006)

My glassfish usually doesn't poop white...but I don't know if it's fecal matter or a parasite. What do you suggest to treat for parasites?


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## Scy64 (Apr 23, 2006)

Poop that is white and stringy is an indication that the fish has internal paraistes (usually it's the color of the food they eat). When my fish had it, I used Ultra Cure PX by Gel Tek. It works well, but it's a medication that fish eat, so it can be hard to get them to eat it. I ended up holding each fish and putting the dropper in its mouth, and it would swallow the medication. Cleared up the internal parasites within the 3 day treatment period though.


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## Windmills (May 22, 2006)

The one fish that had it died.  

Do I assume the others might have it too, even though they look and are acting normal? Do I feed them all the gel?


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