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4 Common Guppy Poop Questions Answered!

With guppies being a very commonly kept fish in general while also having seen a recent surge in their popularity due to a number of photographs of the new metallic gold guppies going viral on social media we have seen a spike in the number of questions that we see the community asking about.

Although we have already answered a number of the more common ones, we have noticed a number of questions about guppy poop being asked every month.

Due to seeing so many people asking various questions about guppie poop as well as some of the questions being related to symptoms for serious yet easy to fix health problems, we wanted to publish this dedicated article to answer some of the questions.

With any luck, we will be able to help as many of our readers who keep pet guppies as possible but some of these issues can affect other types of livebearers too so it is able to help other people too.

We have added a table of contents to make it as easy as possible for you to skip to the specific sections of the article that you may specifically be looking for too.

Each title for the various subsections we will cover are easy enough to match up with the symptoms for your own guppies poop to skip directly to that section.

Why Do My Guppies Have Long Poop?

The three main reasons that your guppy may have long stringy poop is due to constipation, hexamita, and old age.

After around 18 to 24 months, it can be common for a guppy to have stringy poop with no other issues. Constipation is usually a dietary issue but hexamita will require specialist treatments.

Constipation in guppies is surprisingly common with many people feeding their guppies an unsuitable fish food that is not nutritionally complete for their needs while also commonly being deficient in fibre too.

Switching over to feeding your pet guppy a suitable guppy food should be able to quickly treat the constipation problems in your guppy.

Hexamita tend to be easy to treat but you do have to take action as soon as you notice it in your guppy.

MetroPlex is the cheapest and easiest treatment for hexamita and if you notice that your guppy is losing weight rapidly, not eating much, lethargic or laying on its side then the stringy poop is probably due to hexamita and treatment should begin as soon as possible.

Do Guppies Poop Red?

The most common reason that a guppies poop will turn red is due to feeding your guppy a tropical fish food that has red flakes in it. Your guppies digestive track is short and it is difficult for your guppy to digest the red flakes so their poop ends up turning red.

This is generally a relief to guppy owners as they see red poop and instantly think blood but it is very commonly just the food that you are feeding your guppy.

If you are feeding them a flake based food that has red flakes you can try taking the red flakes out or switching them to a suitable guppy food to see if their poop stays red.

If you are not feeding your guppy a flake food with red flakes or your guppies poop stays red after switching to a different food type then there is probably a parasitic infection in your guppy.

The most common parasitic infection that can cause this is camallanus worms and ParaGuard will usually treat the issue as well as most other types of parasite that may result in red guppy poop.

Why Do Guppies Poop Black?

What people usually think is “black guppy poop” is usually not poop but is either dead parasitic worms being evacuated from the guppies digestive system or guppy fry being born.

Due to pregnant guppies usually being obvious to identify, it is easy to identify the correct cause of the suspected black guppy poop.

We often see people think that neither of these are the cause of the black guppy poop that they saw due to their guppy not being pregnant and not having treat their guppies for worms.

In this case, it can still be likely that the black guppy poop is dead parasites being evacuated from your guppies digestive system as the parasites may have died without you having to treat your guppy for them.

Although it is rare, if your guppy eats a large amount of guppy fry then its poop may turn black but this is very rare.

The majority of your guppies diet will have had to be fry for this to occur so it is rare that all your guppy will eat is fry in quantities high enough to cause its poop to turn black.

Why Do Guppies Poop White?

The two most common causes of white guppy poop is either poor nutrition due to being fed an unsuitable food or due to a parasitic infection in the fish. Both are easy to treat in most cases but identifying the correct cause of the white poop can be hard in some situations.

The problem with a poor diet in a guppy is that you may feel that you are feeding your guppy a high-quality food and plenty of it.

This is due to people trying to feed guppies tropical fish foods that cost more but don’t have the correct ratios of nutrients for your guppy.

Some cheap fish food products really don’t have the correct quantities of some vitamins and minerals either so this could lead your guppy to be nutritionally deficient but switching over to a suitable guppy food is usually enough to correct the issue.

If your guppies poop is white due to its diet then it may be losing its color too due to not getting the vitamins and minerals that it requires from its diet.

If your guppies poop is white due to a parasitic infection it will usually be lethargic and start to lose weight rapidly. If you suspect that the white poop is due to a parasitic infection then ParaGuard can often help treat the parasite.

Conclusion

That brings our article going over the most frequently asked guppy poop questions that we see to an end. We hope that we are able to help you not only identify the potential problem with your guppies poop but also help you successfully treat it. The majority of the time, if you catch the issue early enough you shouldn’t have any serious issues with your guppy so with any luck, your guppy will be able to return to normal health quickly.