How to treat this parasite? PLEASE HELP

[Brkern]

I recently got several nerite snails to try to control the algae in my tanks. I put them in my grow out tank because I don’t currently have a quarantine tank (my previous quarantine tank turned into a grow out tank). There are 4 platies and 6 White Cloud Mountain minnows. Today, I noticed that one of my white clouds has some kind of parasite hanging from between its pectoral fins (pictures below).

I have never before had any kind of visual parasitic infestation, so I’m at a complete loss as to what to do. Every snail I got looks perfectly healthy as well, no deaths, but since the worm showed up a couple weeks after I introduced them, I feel like they’re the likely culprit. I purchased all the rest of the fish in this tank a few months ago, but I don’t even know what this parasite is so I don’t know if it could’ve been from the original pet store. I should mention, however, I treated the white clouds and platies with general cure and whatever API’s version of anti bacterial medication during their initial quarantine.

How should I treat my fish to kill whatever parasite this is, and how do I treat the snails I have? I’m truly desperate for any advice, I used my python water changer in this tank and in the tank my beloved Shubunkin goldfish is in, and I couldn’t bear to lose him because of my own carelessness in not quarantining snails.

Medications I have on hand:
Metroplex (and Focus, Garlic Guard)
API General Cure
API Fin & Body Cure
Lifeguard All-in-One Treatment
Aquarium salt

 

[WarmAris]

(good luck to you and your fish. sorry I can't help much because I'm nowhere close to an aquarium fish expert)
They might be camallanus worms but I doubt that because it doesn't look red and isn't as long as the typical ones you'd see.

Since those parasites look worm-like, here's an article on the different types of worm parasites: https://fishtankmag.com/worms-in-fish-tank/

Obviously quarantine all this animals in different tanks. Plants can carry parasites. I'm not an expert so I'm not sure if you'll need to get new ones or need to quarantine them or leave them be. Do more research into that and try YouTube/Quora for my information. Deep clean the whole tank and quarantine it.

 

[Brkern]

(good luck to you and your fish. sorry I can't help much because I'm nowhere close to an aquarium fish expert)
They might be camallanus worms but I doubt that because it doesn't look red and isn't as long as the typical ones you'd see.

Since those parasites look worm-like, here's an article on the different types of worm parasites: https://fishtankmag.com/worms-in-fish-tank/

Obviously quarantine all this animals in different tanks. Plants can carry parasites. I'm not an expert so I'm not sure if you'll need to get new ones or need to quarantine them or leave them be. Do more research into that and try YouTube/Quora for my information. Deep clean the whole tank and quarantine it.

They look like camallanus worms to me too, but in all the pictures I’ve seen, the infestation seems to manifest as several worms coming out of/near the vent, and the one worm I have is no where near the fish’s vent. All of my other fish are completely fine, one of my platies just had its first fry about a week and a half ago. I took out all the snails and put them in a bucket until I can get another tank tomorrow and dosed everything with General Cure after a huge water change on my shubunkin tank since he’s the one I’m really worried about. Hopefully that does something, and I plan on treating with metroplex after the general cure unless someone else replies a better treatment plan. Thanks for your feedback!

 

[Colin_T]

Why did you treat the fish with Metronidazole?

Metroplex and General Cure have the same ingredient, Metronidazole, which is an anti-biotic
.
General Cure also has Praziquantel that is used to treat tapeworm (different to round worms), but Praziquantel can be bought on its own and it's preferable to not use anti-biotics unless absolutely necessary.

Anti-biotics should only be used on known bacterial infections that have not responded to normal treatments. Improper use and mis-use of anti-biotics has lead to drug resistant bacteria that kill people, animals, birds, fish and reptiles.

-----------------------
Is the worm sticking out of the fish's butt or near its stomach (it looks like the stomach)?

It's not a Camallanus worm but is a type of round worm, probably from a sheep, pig or cow. The worm eggs get washed into water ways and picked up by fish, aquatic insects, crustaceans or snails. The fish eats the infected organism and the worm hatches out and wanders around the fish. The worms get lost because they aren't in their normal host and chew a hole out the side of the fish's body and say "Hi everyone, I'm home".

Levamisole or Flubendazole are the medications of choice, (see directions below).

-----------------------
Before you treat the tank, do the following things.
Work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these so you get a more accurate water volume.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.
You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water change and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

-----------------------
DEWORMING FISH
Get some Levamisole or Flubendazole.

You treat the fish once a week for 4 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second, third and forth treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish.

Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time to prevent cross contamination. Treat the snails too because snails regularly carry parasitic worm larvae.

You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment. Clean the filter 24 hours after treatment too.

 

[Brkern]

Why did you treat the fish with Metronidazole?

Metroplex and General Cure have the same ingredient, Metronidazole, which is an anti-biotic
.
General Cure also has Praziquantel that is used to treat tapeworm (different to round worms), but Praziquantel can be bought on its own and it's preferable to not use anti-biotics unless absolutely necessary.

Anti-biotics should only be used on known bacterial infections that have not responded to normal treatments. Improper use and mis-use of anti-biotics has lead to drug resistant bacteria that kill people, animals, birds, fish and reptiles.

-----------------------
Is the worm sticking out of the fish's butt or near its stomach (it looks like the stomach)?

It's not a Camallanus worm but is a type of round worm, probably from a sheep, pig or cow. The worm eggs get washed into water ways and picked up by fish, aquatic insects, crustaceans or snails. The fish eats the infected organism and the worm hatches out and wanders around the fish. The worms get lost because they aren't in their normal host and chew a hole out the side of the fish's body and say "Hi everyone, I'm home".

Levamisole or Flubendazole are the medications of choice, (see directions below).

-----------------------
Before you treat the tank, do the following things.
Work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these so you get a more accurate water volume.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.
You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water change and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

-----------------------
DEWORMING FISH
Get some Levamisole or Flubendazole.

You treat the fish once a week for 4 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second, third and forth treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish.

Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time to prevent cross contamination. Treat the snails too because snails regularly carry parasitic worm larvae.

You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment. Clean the filter 24 hours after treatment too.

I treated them with General Cure only because I didn’t have any other idea what to do but I knew it had more parasite-killing ingredients than metroplex, and I wouldn’t be able to get at my tank until late the next day (today). My shubunkin had what was suspected to be internal parasites, and I was advised to use food that was medicated with General cure, but I couldn’t find any, so I used Metroplex (which is why I own both forms). I’ll be putting carbon in my filters to remove it as soon as I’m able to today.

Does it matter where/in what form Levamisole or Flubendazole I use? I know none of the pet stores near me will have it in fish med form, but Amazon seems to have these medications meant to be used on livestock. I’m not sure if there would be any additives in those that I should be cautious of.

Thank you SO much for all the help, I greatly appreciate knowing exactly what to do as I honestly have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to medicating fish- I’ve been lucky with my shubunkin over the years only getting sick once with whatever internal parasite that was.

 

[Colin_T]

Levamisole and Flubendazole are both designed for livestock but fish people used them too. You can use either, Flubendazole is better if you can get it because it treats more types of worms.

I'm not sure what the dose rates are though.

 

[Brkern]

Levamisole and Flubendazole are both designed for livestock but fish people used them too. You can use either, Flubendazole is better if you can get it because it treats more types of worms.

I'm not sure what the dose rates are though.

I can get Flubendazole on Amazon as Kusuri Wormer Plus, but the product description specifically says to not use it with snails, and that you can actually use it to get rid of pest snails. I don’t want to kill any of my snails, since I have almost 30 between all my tanks. What should I do about them?

 

[Brkern]

I can get Flubendazole on Amazon as Kusuri Wormer Plus, but the product description specifically says to not use it with snails, and that you can actually use it to get rid of pest snails. I don’t want to kill any of my snails, since I have almost 30 between all my tanks. What should I do about them?

Forgot to add: the worm is coming out of the fish between its pectoral fins, it’s nowhere near the vent. If you can imagine a fish’s “armpit,”that’s where the worm is coming from.
Also, will these medications kill live plants? Most of my tanks are pretty heavily planted.

 

[Colin_T]

If you want to keep the snails, move them into a spare tank or bucket while treating the tank.

Deworming medications will not affect the plants.

 

[Brkern]

Is there any way to treat the snails? I don’t want to put all this work and all the stress on my fish to treat them just to have the snails reintroduce the round worms to the tanks.

 

[Colin_T]

Levamisole and Praziquantel should be ok on snails but it means buying more medications.

Depending on what snails they are, you could breed them and move the eggs to a clean container. Then hatch and grow the baby snails up in a clean container and they should be free of any parasites.

 

[Brkern]

I’m okay with buying more medication, I’d rather have it on hand for emergencies anyway. They’re nerite snails, and everywhere I’ve read says it’s extremely hard to successfully breed them, although I may try.

 

[Kyle E.]

They require salt water to breed. Unless you can do that it might not be possible.

 

[Colin_T]

You will have to treat the nerites because they don't breed successfully in fresh water.

 

[Brkern]

Yeah, I knew the eggs will only hatch in salt water and the larvae have to develop in salt water, but I have no experience with anything salt water. My well water is also quite so I’m not sure there would be enough calcium for the larvae to make it. I ordered some prazi and will be treating the tank with all the snails at the same time as all the other tanks in the house. Thank you all so very much for all the help!