Anchor worms HELP!!!!!!!

[jordanmom13]

I have a 10 gallon tank that i inherited from relative . It holds all my Molly fry (7 left alive). The tank is infested with anchor worms, I can see them in the gravel. Some measure more than an inch. They fry have become infected.
Also in my 20gallon community tank, my three adult Mollies r infected and newborn fry r showing signs also. I cant see any anchor worms in the gravel. I think i tranfered infestation with vacuum hose or fish net. The 20 gallon has live plants.

What should I do?? i have given 1 treatment with a product called "anti-fluke" which contains triclormethyl, which i understand is very toxic. The fish dont seem to be scraping as much and thier fins r up again.

Please help me treat this problem, i dont want to loose my fish. Regarding the 10 gallon tank, their r so many worms visible in the gravel that i dont think any treatment would get them all. Should i rip this tank down and sart over?

my water parameters r a bit off, the nitrAtes r very high at 80 ppm and my ph is low at 6.8.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Patty

 

[emo]

Did a quick search on google and found this

But if anyone else has any ideas...


They sound pretty nasty

 

[black angel]

hi
just want to make sure that what you are seeing are anchor worms. could it be planaria? these are small worms too and can be seen in the gravel on the glass and crawling on fish. if its anchor worms then they burrow into the fish and the female has two egg sacs at the end. planaria look like little maggots.

 

[jordanmom13]

they r definately anchor worms. looked up pics and all symptoms match. The fish are flashing up against gravel and glass. there are bownish/orange spots on mollies where they have attached(my one female molly is white, the other is dalmation, and the fry r mostly white/dalmation. these worms have a hook looking nose to attach themselve to the fish. i have also noticed small worms hanging from the gills and sides of some of the fry in the 10gallon tank. the fish r swimming very fast as they flash against the gravel, thier fins r clamped. they r still freeding ok although i cut back on the food(i may have been overfeeding, as the gravel is very dirty in the 10 gallon(inherited from relative and used to have goldfish in, gold fish were taken and put into a frieds pond as they were quite large) I really think the tank was infested when i got it. Also it has an undergravel filter(i turned this off), and i'm sure if i could get underneath it would be full of these worms.
I am really concerned about my 20 gal community tank, i don't think the infestation is nearly as bad. Like i posted earlier, these worms(in 10 gal) are plainly visible and range in size up to a little over an inch, and there r ALOT of them.

Please can anyone help me. The 10 gallon is so badly infested that i don't think any medication would be able to penatrate under 2" of gravel (for plants that were removed) and then under to the under gravel filter.

I am at my witts end about this.

Any suggestions
Thanks Patty


p.s. these worms do not climb up the side of the glass, they do stick up (hook end up) out of the gravel.

 

[jordanmom13]

thank you EMO for the link. they r what i have . Nasty anchor worms.
And like i said in my last post there were goldfish in this tank when i got it.
If anyone has had this problem, please let me know how you delt with it.
Again thanks Patty

 

[The-Wolf]

I have had anchor worms in the past.

the best way to deal with this is remove the worms with tweezers and treat the whole tank with an organophosphate, such as Masoten (bayer UK) or Trichlorfon (USA)

The life cycle of argulus takes between 30 – 100 days depending on temperature. The eggs can "over-winter" and hatch in later as water improves. Adults can survive without a host for several days. Any treatment plan has to take account of emerging juveniles and therefore prevailing temperatures.

It is very improtant that you follow the medications guidelines to the letter.

There is always the possibility of a secondary bacterial infection. This happened to me and I lost 90% of the fish in my tank due to it. once you have cured the tank of Argulus them keep a close watch out for any other problems and take action immediatly.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[blue_ram]

Anchor worms are fairly common in ponds, so you might want to visit a store that specializes in ponds.

Trichloromethyl Phosphate tends to break down rapidly in warm water, so you need to keep temperature down to 70 degrees or so. But that will slow down the anchor worms' life cycle. Hence requiring prolonged treatment. It's rather effective, but it's fairly toxic as well. But, if your current treatment isn't harming the fish, then you should continue to use them, as anchor worm will eventually kill the host.

The most effective medication for anchor worm is supposed to be something called Dimilin. It will kill all but those that are attached to the fish. If the fish are still eating, raise the temperature to about 84-90 degrees and continue to feed the fish.
Use Melafix in conjunction with Dimilin to prevent secondary infection caused by the worm.

To get rid of the anchored worms, you can either touch the anchorworms with a potassium permanganate crystal, pulled them out with tweezers, or let them fall off naturally.