Stringy poo and murky water in bristlenose tank

[pointpleco]

Hi, one of my tanks that has albino longfin, standard and peppermint bristlenose plecos is having some trouble. Most of the fish have long stringy white and clear poo. I have treated for worms and the tank has also been really murky. I have made it a bit clearer with 25% water changes every 3 days 3 times. But the poo is still the same after nearly a week. I have about 50 albino longfin fry in there and they are still alive so i think its not too bad but any advice to clear the water and the poo would be good. Oh and the ammonia had risen to 0.50 but i have that under control now. That was maybe because about 10 guppies died in there so i took out the rest of them that did survive. But luckily my bristlenose are all still ok so far.

Please help Thanks

[bekateen]

What are you feeding them?

[pointpleco]

Hi mate, thought you might reply. Always here to help thanks for that.
Just aqua one wafers, zucchini and cucumber and i'm sure they eat some flakes that settle.

[Fundulopanchax76]

vegetables make water murky if stay long time in the tank. thats the reason.

[pointpleco]

Thanks for the reply, when this started they hadn't had vegetables for a few weeks as i was away and a family member was looking after them. I was told the cloudy water could be due to the ammonia being 5.0. The water is a little clearer now, i'm just more worried about the long poo that hangs out of them. I bought a powder medication yesterday called Medimax and that i hope will help with and stomach issues like parasites or bacteria infections.

[MarcW]

I hope when you mentioned the ammonia reading being 5.0 it is a typo?! Hopefully its back to 0 now as you mentioned in your first post.

I just wanted to leave a quick note to say if there is still any ammonia present, keep performing water changes to get it down, 50% at first then monitor if still high 24hours later, another 50%, and so on ensuring its dechlorinated, etc.

Good luck, hopefully it was just a typo .

[pointpleco]

It was 2 steps up from zero on the test chart. Oh sorry yes probably typo, must have been 0.50 i meant. I did 30% changes 3 times every 3 days and got it back to zero.

Thanks for your help, just hope the meds help there stomachs and get them back healthy and happy so they will continue breeding.

[MarcW]

Good to hear the ammonia is under control.

Hopefully the frequent water changes will help them get their appetite back, I'm not familiar with the medication you mentioned so can't comment on that. But I would hope with clean water and a good variety of foods on offer they will get their appetite back.