Your guppy fish has long, white or translucent, stringy poop? It refuses to eat? Eats well and it is active, but has that strange looking poop? White poop is always a sign of some sort of diseases or parasite.
In this article, I will help you figure out, what the problem could be with your guppy and how to treat it.
At the end, will also give you few tips on how to keep your guppies in good health conditions and avoid diseases and parasites.
Causes of White Stringy Poop
Stringy poop can be caused by various factors.
Old age can be a cause of stringy poop. Generally guppies live for 1-3 years in aquariums. If you have your guppy fish for more than two year and it produces white poop, it might be a sign of aging. In this case, there is not much you can do, just provider them with good food and good water parameters.
Though, it is rare to see guppies producing white poop at old age.
In most cases white stringy poop is a sign of a parasite (or internal worm) or bacterial infection.
Even though your guppy is infected, it can still be active and have good appetite. So, beginners will not always know that something is wrong if they see the white poop.
In most of the cases they identify the problem, when it is too late, and fish loses its appetite.
Identifying White Poop Diseases
When the only symptom of a disease is white poop, it is really hard to tell what the root of the problem is. Is it a parasite or bacteria that cause the white poop? Is it internal or external parasite?
Only from the white stringy poop, you can’t tell what diseases your guppy has.
There is not much you can do about, just treat with the right medication.
Treating White Poop Diseases
Most diseases can be cured with general purpose fish medicine.
I use and recommend Seachem ParaGuard from Amazon, to treat most guppy diseases. It can help cure disease which causes white poop.
But should you quarantine your guppy fish or treat the whole aquarium?
Diseases can spread and can infect other fish too. So if you have a fish that produces white poop, sooner or later, your other fish will experience the same symptoms. So, I recommend treating the entire fish tank with the medicine, in order to avoid any other infections.
When treating your tank with medicine, always read the label and use the product accordingly.
If the Seachem ParaGuard did not help cure white poop, it is a sign of internal parasite.
Internal parasites need copper medication.
I use and recommend Seachem Cupramine from Amazon to treat internal parasites in guppies and other fish.
Though, you need to be careful using this product in aquariums with snails and shrimps. As you may know, shrimp and snails are highly sensitive to copper. This medicine can kill all your invertebrates.
Also note, that you should not keep shrimp in aquariums, which were treated with copper before.
Tips to Avoid Guppy Diseases and Parasites
Not all guppy diseases can be avoided, but there are certain illnesses that you can skip with the following things:
- Regular tank maintenance and frequent water changes (30% weekly)
- Feeding a high variety and good quality food
- Avoid overfeeding or dumping too much food at once
- Good filtration with good bio filter media
- Always quarantine new fish and plants in separate tank
- Use an aquarium heater to keep water temperature stable
These are just very simple things, but it can help a lot in raising and keeping healthy guppies.
Wrapping Up
I hope, this article has helped you find out what causes white stringy poop in guppies and how to treat it.
If you have any questions, please read my other article, in which I give more details about most common guppy disease.
For any other question, please leave a comment below or send me an email.