Worms In My Filter System?

[mark4785]

I don't like leaving meds in the water column too long - from my experience it'll kill all the worms in 48 hours - add another day for luck then water change.

Do the same 1 week later - just to be sure - I don't imagine you'll see any evidence of worms after the initial treatment.

Do a really good gravel vac.

Ok I see, I'll follow your advice.

I have just spotted what appears to be two worms on the Rams fin. I've made a recording and I'm uploading it to YouTube now. I would appreciate it if someone could try to verify what, if anything, is on it's fin. From what I can see, the Ram has something on it's right handside fin and whenever it wants to itch itself it will itch it's right handside.

Ok here is the video URL, feedback appreciated: http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=50pemXRhFd4

 

[WILDER]

I don't like leaving meds in the water column too long - from my experience it'll kill all the worms in 48 hours - add another day for luck then water change.

Do the same 1 week later - just to be sure - I don't imagine you'll see any evidence of worms after the initial treatment.

Do a really good gravel vac.

Ok I see, I'll follow your advice.

I have just spotted what appears to be two worms on the Rams fin. I've made a recording and I'm uploading it to YouTube now. I would appreciate it if someone could try to verify what, if anything, is on it's fin. From what I can see, the Ram has something on it's right handside fin and whenever it wants to itch itself it will itch it's right handside.

Ok here is the video URL, feedback appreciated: http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=50pemXRhFd4

i'm blind as a bat and the video abit blury, so can't make much out i'm afraid.
Can you describe the worm in more detail please.
Check if it has a y shaped tail.
Anchor worm attaches itself to the fins.



What does the med instructions say.
The first dose should kill of the adults. Then you have to keep treating to kill the eggs as they hatch with some parasites.

The red dot on the fish sounds like it could be due to the worms.

 

[mark4785]

I don't like leaving meds in the water column too long - from my experience it'll kill all the worms in 48 hours - add another day for luck then water change.

Do the same 1 week later - just to be sure - I don't imagine you'll see any evidence of worms after the initial treatment.

Do a really good gravel vac.

Ok I see, I'll follow your advice.

I have just spotted what appears to be two worms on the Rams fin. I've made a recording and I'm uploading it to YouTube now. I would appreciate it if someone could try to verify what, if anything, is on it's fin. From what I can see, the Ram has something on it's right handside fin and whenever it wants to itch itself it will itch it's right handside.

Ok here is the video URL, feedback appreciated: http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=50pemXRhFd4

i'm blind as a bat and the video abit blury, so can't make much out i'm afraid.
Can you describe the worm in more detail please.
Check if it has a y shaped tail.
Anchor worm attaches itself to the fins.



What does the med instructions say.
The first dose should kill of the adults. Then you have to keep treating to kill the eggs as they hatch with some parasites.

The red dot on the fish sounds like it could be due to the worms.

The worm appears to be brown and has a length seemingly smaller than the tip of a pencil. It can move quite quickly, looks as though it is just riggling from what I can see. There is no 'Y' shape tail, the whole body just looks like an ordinary brown line.

I'm using a Triplet 20X-21MM magnifying glass and I still can't depict much of the details of the worm.

If there are some worms stuck in the fin of the fish could I possibly remove them or will that do more harm than good?

By the way, you can see something blackish/brown stuck to the pectoral fin at 0:33 seconds in 480p detail within that latest video I uploaded. The blackish/brown strands are horizontal across the middle of the fin. I know it's not possible to see it's bodly features but if there are any GBR keepers out there they should hopefully be able to tell whether it's a colouration mark or an external thing stuck to the fin.

Here is the same Ram, same fin (pectoral), about 2 months ago:

 

[WILDER]

With not quite knowing which type of worm it is I wouldn't manually remove it just yet.
Let the med kill them off, then if it's still stuck to the fish remove it.

How to remove worms.
Sterilise some tweezers in boiling water.
Wrap the fish in a clean cloth soaked in tank water.
Ask someone to gently hold the fish down for you.
Pinch the worm with the tweezers to see if it moves. if the worm moves add the fish back to the tank. If the worms dos'nt move remove it with the tweezers.
Then dab the wound with methylene blue or melafix.

 

[mark4785]

With not quite knowing which type of worm it is I wouldn't manually remove it just yet.
Let the med kill them off, then if it's still stuck to the fish remove it.

How to remove worms.
Sterilise some tweezers in boiling water.
Wrap the fish in a clean cloth soaked in tank water.
Ask someone to gently hold the fish down for you.
Pinch the worm with the tweezers to see if it moves. if the worm moves add the fish back to the tank. If the worms dos'nt move remove it with the tweezers.
Then dab the wound with methylene blue or melafix.

There are worms stuck in both pectoral thins now (about two on each fin). It's got to have hucks on it somewhere for it to be stuck to the fin.

The Parazin medication doesn't seem to be killing the worms.

What to do?!

 

[WILDER]

Give the med abit longer. If it dosn't work will have to get another med.

There tough things then.

Going to leave a pic of anchor worm but they can come in white, brown, green.

Adult anchor worm.

Adulat anchor worm.

 

[mark4785]

Give the med abit longer. If it dosn't work will have to get another med.

There tough things then.

Going to leave a pic of anchor worm but they can come in white, brown, green.

Adult anchor worm.

Adulat anchor worm.

I can't quite see the worm in that picture. It looks as though there is some sort of splinter sticking out of the fish in front of it's right handside pectoral fin. If that 'splinter' is an adult anchor worm, either the worms in my tank are not anchor worms or they are just really small.

I think I'm going to need to change the treatment I'm using as the Parazin has caused my ammonia level to increase to 0.25. Just conducted a 40% water change and got the level back down to 0. Ammonia level has been at zero for 3 months solid up until putting Parazin in.

I'd honestly prefer anchor worm infestation over the presence of ammonia.

 

[WILDER]

Srong external parasite meds do cause ammonia and nitrites to raise.

How long does the med have to stay in the tank before you preform a water change?

You don't want the worms on the fish they can cause septicemia and bacterial infections.
If the worms are on the fish they have to be gotten rid of.

 

[WILDER]

Another pic.

 

[mark4785]

Srong external parasite meds do cause ammonia and nitrites to raise.

How long does the med have to stay in the tank before you preform a water change?

You don't want the worms on the fish they can cause septicemia and bacterial infections.
If the worms are on the fish they have to be gotten rid of.

It doesn't actually say how long the med should stay in for. It just states that it takes 2-3 weeks to kill off all the stages of the parasites life cycle, i.e. eggs, parasite itself etc.

I decided to remove the ammonia over keeping some of the medication in as ammonia is a major irritant to fish skin and causes immune deficiencies. Couple this with the fact that GBR's will only survive in perfect water conditions.

The ingredient difubenzuron in the product has caused the ammonia spike so I guess I need to find a product which doesn't contain that stuff.

 

[WILDER]

Contact the manufacture by phone or email. As they haven't made the instructions very clear.

You do need to kill the worms off i'm afraid.

 

[mark4785]

Well there's still plenty of these worms attached to my heater but the fish are not responding too much by flicking etc.

Now that I'm away from college for a week (half term) I have time to start another course of crustacean parasite treatment with the aim of getting rid of 100% of what appears to be worms. I'd like to think they are anchor-worms but I haven't actually seen any attached to the fish when they occasionally flick and rub themselves on objects. In a previous posting I stated I could see some worms stuck to the fins of my Ram but I just can't be sure if it is a colouration or a worm.

Today (22/10/10) I've dosed the tank with Waterlife Parazin treatment. It states on this particular bottle that it may take '10 to 15 days to eradicate all stages of the worms cycle'. Should I try to ensure that the treatment stays in the water for this long, even if it involves re-dosing after a water change?

Reason I ask is the treatment is quite lethal towards beneficial bacteria so I need to be able to treat the water sufficiently to kill all of the worms as well as not kill of my colony of filter bacteria. Any opinions how I can tackle this dilemma without creating any water quality issues and kill of the worm infestation?

Mark.

 

[Mikaila31]

ugh..... IMO you all are paranoid.

First off the things on your heater are of little concern. Though I can't ID from the video I would say they are either nematodes, tubiflex(if they are red) or some other "worm", I can only guess without a scope. They are not planaria IMO. Free living things are of little concern in the aquarium. They are always there and will always be there.

As far as your fish, since they are not flicking much I personally would just stick with water changes. I have some wild caught fish that came in with a similar parasite. Little things attached to the fins only, with straight tail. I think they were a fluke of some sort. Either way not very aggressive things, I never treated for them. There was some flicking, but good water and good food got rid of them eventually.

especially when you get into planted tanks you get lots of neat critters. Nematodes, tubiflex, and planaria I all had/probably still have. Had some funny seed shrimp till they all got eaten. All make tasty fish snacks =P. BTW if it wiggles it can not be planaria, cuz planaria lacks ability to do side to side movement of body. It can get shorter/longer. They move much like slugs or snails do, using cilia, in kinda a moonwalk fashion.
Heres a planaria from one of my tanks.

 

[WILDER]

Keep doing gravel vacs and water changes.

It's up to you if you use the med again.

Get the worms out with a net also.

 

[mark4785]

Keep doing gravel vacs and water changes.

It's up to you if you use the med again.

Get the worms out with a net also.

The gravel vacs are not improving the situation. The flicking and rubbing only became infrequent after using Parazin P which I applied about a month ago. As for water changes, I doubt that is removing the worms as they don't appear to swim in the water.

Absolutely impossible to get them out with a net. They are only just visible to the naked eye.

Ideally, I'd like to know what I should do to ensure my ammonia level doesn't increase as I've opted to use the Parazin again.