Neocaridina shrimp worm

[Little-Nipper]

Hi guys,
So I have just been enjoying looking at my little 35L shrimp tank and I noticed that 1 of the blue dreams has got a worm attached to it's head, I have heard of this before and the common answer would be "Scutariella japonica" but it doesn't look like any of the pictures I've seen online it's a single worm and it's about 4mm long attached to the shrimps head at 1 end and the other end seems 2 be feeling around and picking at the decor (looks like a detritus worm) I tried to get a picture but my camera isn't good enough. The only thing that is new are 3 amano shrimp that have been in there about 3 weeks so I can only assume it has stowed away with them. I am obviously going to monitor the situation before I treat the tank (last resort).
Please let me know what you think and if you think I'm wrong I'll attach a picture of the tank just for your enjoyment not for the the identification.

 

[Colin_T]

can you make a 1 minute video of the worm on the shrimp?
video sometimes picks up things better than still pictures and video can sometimes pick up smaller items better than pics.

you can upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.

 

[Lynnzer]

Nice looking tank. I wonder if it's not some sort of leach. Only a picture or video will help sort things out.
I believe that if it's a worm then the tank inhabitants would grab at it and eat it. If you have some larger fish in another tank you could maybe transfer one or more into the tank to do the job as CPD's are a bit shy.

 

[Little-Nipper]

Thanks for getting back to me on this, I tried to find the little blue goobs today but she is being elusive but I noticed that 1 of the amano's definitely has "Scutariella japonica" so I'm wondering if it was that and it was just attaching itself I don't see the amano's very often as they are new and quite shy so I'm sure they have brought it to the tank.
So treatment wise I don't think salt baths will work as there's probably 100 shrimp in there and lots of hiding places, I don't want to destroy the tank or kill the plants either so I was thinking about a half dose of seachem paraguard but it's hard to get hold of here in the uk what would work without killing the plants or nerites (and obviously the shrimp and fish)

 

[Colin_T]

You don't do salt baths when treating fish or shrimp. You add salt to the main tank and leave it in there for a couple of weeks. The salt kills the pathogens/ parasites on the fish and shrimp and in the tank.

If you do a salt bath and then put the fish, shrimp back in the main tank, it usually picks up more disease organisms/ parasites from the main tank.

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.