Anchor Worms

[Clbrtwewill]

I've posted here a few times before.

I currently have a 2.5 gallon aquarium with a Betta in it, and a 10 gallon aquarium with two powder blue dwarf gouramis in it. I clean the betta tank often and the gourami aquarium had cycled this summer (nice surprise when I had come home from a trip, actually).

I had a flame gourami earlier this summer and it had started exhibiting signs of having an internal parasite from what I had read - it was lurking at the bottom, less active than it had been, white/stringy poo.

It died and was disposed of, unfortunately. The two remaining dwarves & tank was treated with Parasite Clear, I did a water change, and treated with one more tablet. It's been two months and there had been no symptoms in either fish.

I move my aquarium when I return/leave college each semester, so it is moved twice a year. I leave the gravel and filter attached to the aquarium and a minimal amount of water to be able to transport it; the fish go in a separate container and all of the water goes in a variety of jugs/bottles that I've saved. Last night after getting everything here, I saw something floating that I thought was just some fish-matter and then noticed it was moving.

In fact, there were a lot of moving objects in the water. It sank and burrowed into the gravel. I pulled some gravel up, and there were a LOT of red worms in it. Looked it up on the internet - they appear to be anchor worms. I'm guessing this is probably from the fish that died earlier this year. Neither of the other two gouramis has been affected though from what it looks like - no behavior changes, no visible marks from where worms would have hurt them.

I've unfortunately disposed all of the gravel now, there were too many worms to deal with. I fished all of the worms out that I could find and thrown them out with the gravel.

I set up the filter and it is running... put a new bed of gravel down. Treated the tank with another Parasite Clear tablet. Filled the tank. I ended up putting the two gouramis back in this aquarium, too.

Everything I've read about anchor worms online involves physically removing the worms and a lot of general information. From your experiences, is Parasite Clear really effective at removing these? Is there are a chance my fish have been affected, although not visibly? Are there other methods and precautions I should be taking now to get rid of this problem? I am afraid there are more eggs in the tank that are going to hatch into larvae again.

 

[Clbrtwewill]

I'm not reading that anchor worms are typically white - just to clarify, these were red worms such as in this photograph: <a href="http/www.wetwebmedia.com/WormPIX/2005081302-redworm.jpg" target="_blank">http/www.wetwebmedia.com/WormPIX/2005081302-redworm.jpg</a>

edit - still looking - these might be blood worms? The betta was living in this aquarium back in March and a family member fed my fish freeze-dried blood worms on occasion. They were identical in appearance to the worm picture I sent and blood worms look to be slightly ribbed though.

 

[black angel]

looks like mosquito larva to me..harmless. if they were anchor worm they would have attached to the fish.

 

[Gilli]

Yep looks like mosquito larva to me too - I feed my fish frozen ones and they are identiacal to that pic. Dont think you have anything to worry about other than if your fish dont eat them when they turn into adults when you open up your tank they will fly out!

 

[Clbrtwewill]

I looked for a Google image of mosquito larva and they don't appear to be red - is there a reason these ones were?

 

[black angel]

bloodworms are mosquito larvae = red. occasionally white to a really deep red.

 

[Colin_T]

anchor worm are white or cream in colour and are Y shaped. They will be seen hanging off the fish and don't live in the gravel.

Mozzie larvae are black and normally hang out just under the surface. When they are disturbed they swim down to the bottom for a moment before coming back up to the surface.

The red thing in the picture looks like a Chirominid midge larvae, commonly sold as bloodworms. They live in the substrate and feed on rotting plant matter. Most fish will eat them.

Your dwarf gourami that had the stringy white poo before it died probably had an internal bacterial infection. Dwarf gouramis are prone to Tuberculosis and they also carry a virus that knocks them about. If you have a couple of healthy ones then don't introduce any new dwarf gouramis without quarantining the new ones for a month or so. The virus doesn’t normally affect other fish but TB can affect any fish.