Anchor Worms

[beanie.law]

I have a problem with anchor worms again. 2-3 weeks ago I bought a goldfish which a day later had an anchor worm, it wasn't apparent in the shop. I removed the worm and showed it to the lfs where I bought the fish and asked for some treatment to get rid of them. He told me not to treat the tank and leave it as there won't be any more. Today I noticed 2 goldfish now have about 6 worms attached. I removed the larger worms but some are very tiny and I'm worried of damaging the fishs' skins too much. What should I do, the shops are now shut for Christmas and I don't want to lose my 2 fish. I have also treated the tank for fungus and finrot as I have read that that can be a secondary problem and is more likely to kill the fish after the worms have damaged them.

I will never go back to that shop again

 

[black angel]

if you have iodine or hydrogen peroxide then this can be dabbed onto the wounds but be very careful if around the gills and eyes.
To get rid of the flukes you will need to either get the meds or to get aquarium salt. As you dont have the meds do you have any aquarium salt? You can remove the adults as you see them with tweezers but if you dont have anything to put on the spot left behind then theres a good chnce of bacteria etc getting in.

 

[Paul_MTS]

When I had anchor worms on my arowana i did the following..

Remove the adults with twizzers, when removing them you have to pull them out at the angle they entered at, this ensures you remove the complete parasite and not just the body.

I then dabbed the wound with some anti bacteria treatment, i had BSB to hand but anything to the same affect will be fine.

I then treated with Interpets No. 12 Anti crustacean parasite, if you can't get hold of this use Waterlifes paragon.