need to see if anyone can tell me

if you look close you can see what ever is on this fish for me it has me puzzled

Looks like a fish leech (piscicola), an aquatic worm. Are they attached at both ends and kind of twist and turn across the surface of the fish? One end will also have a larger sucker type thing. Also check the underside of rocks, as if it is piscicola, you should be able to find the egg cocoons. They are brown and oval shaped.

well how in the world did that fish get them this was one of my first fish and I havent put anything new in there with them in over three months. could that be brought in by food mabey and how do I get rid of them.

I would suggest that you are absolutely sure that this is indeed what you have before attempting any sort of treatment as treating parasites involves working against their life cycle. Answering the questions I asked would help with with sorting out what you have. Piscicola has a life cycle of about 6 weeks so treatment will be long term. Parasites can be brought in on live plants, new fish and with live foods.

I cant figure out how in the world it would get something like this I dont feed them any live food I give them frozen blood worms once a week then the rest of the time they get flakes or shrimp pellets and it has been three months since I have added new fish. none of the rest of the fish has these things on them just this one and I just noticed it today,when I saw this on him I triple checked the rest of the fish to see if they were anything on them and they wasnt a mark on them anywhere.I moved him out of the tank and put him in my 5 gallon hospital tank until I can figure oiut what this is. Thanks for the info Mogo if they are anyone else can help me I would be very greatful

Not a problem. They could have been in your tank the entire time and you just never noticed. I say this because they don't stay attached to your fish the entire time, just for a couple days, and then they take off and go and lay the egg cocoons on plants or under rocks. So at any given time, maybe there was only one adult attached to one fish. The population has been increasing, and that is why they have become very visible. I would probably start by removing the critters with tweezers (granted that the fish is in reasonably good health and could withstand the stress of being handled) only doing one or two a day. You'll need to keep a very close eye on the injuries as they will be open to bacterial and fungal attack. You'll also need to check all your plants and rocks for the eggs and remove them, and continue to do this every day or every other day. You can use airline tubing to do this. If you have multiple tanks, I would suggest you keep a close eye on them, as you may have transferred some via tubing/buckets.

Hi Fish keeper, Mogo's very experienced in fishies so I think u'll want to take her advice in removing the worms n looking for eggs. Good luck!!

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Hi Mogo! So there r different kinds of fish leech? Will they feed on fish blood? But if they r so small, how will the eggs look like? Can gravel vacuuming remove those eggs? *sori 4asking so many questions at once ) just getting excited to see new parasites )

Hi Feline,

You know I don't mind all the questions Still didn't get around to the slides

There are several different species that can infect fish, piscicola being the most common. They feed on the poor fishies blood and mucous The eggs are visible because they lay clumps of them encased in nice protective cocoons (that is why they are visible with the naked eye, but would probably be easier with a magnifying glass). That's why I'm hesistant to recommend using a anti-parasitic med as most will only kill off the adult ones. It would take multiple dosings to rid the problem. Would rather try the physical removal method first and if the infestation is not large this should do the trick. If the freshly hatched little buggers don't find a host fast enough to feed on, they will just die off. I hope I'm making sense here That is why it is so important to get rid of the eggs, less eggs equals less adults, less adults equals less eggs....and so on...What came first? The chicken or the egg? sorry....

Sori I double posted )

Hey Mogo! The first thing comes up my mind is: will bottom feeders see those cocoons as food?

That's a good question...I don't know. Perhaps the fish may try to eat them. I guess you would have to do a controlled experiment to figure this out. Maybe because the fish find them unfamiliar and not one of their regular food sources they wouldn't give them a taste. Something to ponder I guess

I sure didnt see not one cocoon I guess the pleco got them I moved the fish over to the hospital tank and I am treating him today makes two days and they are still on there I am using what you told me to mabey it just takes a while for it to work I hope I dont lose her she is one of my favorites. And also one of the firsts one that I bought when I first started the fishkeeping hobby

Aww I do hope she won't be stressed out so much n will b alrite soon!

Too bad there's no eggs for the experiment sori j/k