Parasite Or Worm?

[Coys55]

Yesterday I noticed that one of my 15 cardinals looked skinny comnpared to the others. When I fed them I noticed that it had a small white thing sticking out of the bottom of the gill (I think), but later on it had vanished.
 
Hopefully you can see it on the slightly blurry photo.
 
Could it be a parasite or worm and if so a) can I cure the infected fish and b) how infectious is it and what do I need to do to prevent it spreading to the other fish?

 

[Akasha72]

looks like a gill fluke. Highly contagious too so I'd treat the whole tank for gill flukes. They can be difficult to get rid of so be prepared for needing to treat more than once

 

[Coys55]

looks like a gill fluke. Highly contagious too so I'd treat the whole tank for gill flukes. They can be difficult to get rid of so be prepared for needing to treat more than once

I thought that may be the case...

 

[Akasha72]

the only other thing it could possibly be is some food that's got stuck but that shouldn't cause the fish to lose weight. 

 

[Coys55]

the only other thing it could possibly be is some food that's got stuck but that shouldn't cause the fish to lose weight. 

Yes I thought that too. The only thing that makes me think that it may not be a fluke is that this fish has appeared thin for some time and that if it was a fluke I would have expected many more fish to have been infected by now, or at least more than one on that particular fish.

 

[Akasha72]

one option would be to watch and wait. I don't like to medicate - or advise medication - without good reason. You could try giving the fish a salt dip - ie: adding some tap water to a jug and little table salt, netting the fish and letting it swim in the salty water for 10 mins or so before netting it back to the tank. It might help kill what ever is attached to it's gill and it won't do the fish any harm. I wouldn't add salt to the tank though ... I just use it as a dip. I've used it this way for external things before I add medicines. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't
 
Alternately, you could wait it out and see what the other guys on here think. Another eye and mind over this might be helpful. It does look suspiciously like a gill fluke but I could well be wrong and I'm always willing to accept I could be wrong

 

[Ltygress]

I agree that it looks like a gill fluke. Any parasite medication should work. I personally avoid copper as much as possible because I have freshwater shrimp and assassin snails. But if you have no invertebrates, copper-based treatments usually kill parasites quickly.

 

[Coys55]

Thanks to you both for your advice. I've got some assassins too so I'll get a suitable treatment tomorrow.

 

[Akasha72]

do you have a good lfs? Sometimes the small independents will help and take your snails in for a 'holiday' while you treat your tank. My lovely friendly lfs took my nerites in for a week when I had to treat my tank. They just put a 'snails not for sale' label on the tank 

 

[Ltygress]

Or if you do have snails, try Paraguard. It's safe at full strength for invertebrates (hasn't killed my cherry shrimp or assassin snails), baby fish (used it on an entire brood of baby bettas fresh out of the nest), and loaches (8 Kuhli's did fine with it). And Paraguard is also the only medication meant to treat bacteria, fungus, parasite, AND aid in the symptoms of viral infections too.