Bichir covered with worms?

[crabby]

I looked at my bichir up close last night and discovered tiny worms anchor to its entire body. see the hair like worms at the fin and the belly.
sized like planaria, but have black dots on them (see belly) and they're anchored to the body and moving.

I try to find out they are and possibly find treatment before it's too late. but not exactly sure, here are some info i dig up.

Fish Disease and Treatment
Parasites Associated with Polypterids - Aquatic Predators

The other bichir died already (story http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f17/my-bichir-polypterus-senegalus-is-dead-117847.html )

What I've done so far :

1) 20% water change daily for a week with gravel vac
2) salt the water 3 teaspoon 55 gallon.
3) reduce the amount of food

please help, i really want to save this little guy. thanks

 

[FiShDuDe9]

looks like some type of parasite i would research it and find out how to treat it.

 

[mom2reds]

is this the only fish in the tank, If it isn't then I would QT it then maybe someone with more knowledge than I can tell you what to treat it with. You might want to post this in the sick fish forum. Good luck with the treatment.

 

[crabby]

it's not the only fish. two other jack dempsey and a small bichir (new member). they don't have any on them.


I will QT the sick one in a 10 gallon and use Jungle Laboratories Corporation unless someone has a better idea...

 

[crabby]

I think I'm dealing with "Macrogyrodactylus polypteri" (first pic : ♠ 폴립테루스 - 폴립테루스의 질병 (1))

Treatments :

1) Jungle Labs Parasite Guard
2) Flubenazol according to uwe from Ick Clear - MonsterFishKeepers.com

 

[meegosh]

I just did some digging around on google and I second your opinion. The only bad thing is that Flubenazol appears to be hard to come by. You could try the Jungle Labs I suppose. It seems that this parasite is more common in Germany than the US. May want to treat the other bichir if it was in the same tank, just to be sure.

It was kind of interesting reading up on this parasite. They say in the wild, an infected bichir will only have 6-9 of these worms on them, per fish. In the aquarium they have seen 690-7340 worms per fish!

 

[crabby]

They say in the wild, an infected bichir will only have 6-9 of these worms on them, per fish. In the aquarium they have seen 690-7340 worms per fish!

thanks for looking into it for me. the affected one at least 100s on it! it gives me goose bumps just thinking about it.

i just got bottle of the jungle labs for $4.99, will start the treatment tonight.

 

[crabby]

holy cow! all the worms are gone now !!!!

how long am I supposed to keep them in the QT tank?

 

[FiShDuDe9]

congrat!! i would say whenever but im not sure. i would get a better opinon

 

[meegosh]

I would keep him in QT for a while just to be sure. I would also monitor him closely after you add him to the main tank again. I did read up yesterday that some fish had spontaneous recoveries from these parasites once they had them for two weeks. They basically develop an immunity to them over time. I'm not sure if this is what happened to you or not but its something to be aware of.

 

[gzeiger]

I would be just a little more drastic to be sure. My recommendation, assuming this is a bare-bottoomed QT tank, would be to remove him to a bucket for a few minutes while you do a 100% water change on the tank and scrub it with bleach to make sure there are no eggs or free-swimming parasites left to reinfect. Make sure you rinse well and use a lot of Prime after bleaching, but bleach is a good disinfectant to use since you already have a dechlorinator handy to chemically remove any residues. Reacclimate to the new water, but try not to introduce any of the old water into the new.

Optional of course, but all parasites have a life stage where they live independent of the host so they can infect a new one.

Then I would keep him in QT for a couple more days to be sure you're not putting an infected fish back in the other tank. This also has the advantage that if the other bichir is infected at a low level and/or is in the first stages of infection, you'll be able to tell if he had it already or if the treatment wasn't fully effective.

 

[mandown123]

you want to keep him well fed to make sure his immune system has the best chance of healing him. Don't cut feeding, he needs more food than ever because the parasites are stealing sustenance from him. Use garlic on your food as well. Garlic extract drops boost immune function.

I don't know freshwater meds, but I think this is time for a med as well. I'll leave that up to the more experienced freshwater guys.

 

[gzeiger]

I think he said he already medicated with the Jungle?

 

[crabby]

thanks all for their suggestions.


meegoosh where can I find the article about pontaneous recoveries?

gzeiger brings up a good point. If the QT'd bichir was infected in the big tank, there could be eggs or swimming parasite left in there right, does that mean i need to do a 100% water change with the big tank?

I was thinking of moving the other baby bichir to the QT tank with the one being treated right now, in case the small one is infected also. then put them back in the big tank after 1-2 weeks if all goes well.

should i also QT the 2 jack dempesy as well? i don't see visual worms on them.

mandown123, do i have to get something like SeaChem Garlic Boost Plus 6 oz or would adding garlic juice to the food be ok? (sounds like I'm cooking here)

i never knew keeping a few fishes get this complicated

 

[meegosh]

The life cycle:
Parasitic worms of fish - Google Books
This is where it was talking about the number of worms and the spontaneous recovery. I've never heard of such a thing but I guess it is fairly well documented.

The number of worms and immunity:
Parasites, infections and diseases of fishes in Africa: An update
Its a tough read as he talks about a bunch of parasites but the Immunity section is worth the read.

Another good read:
skin and gill flukes - MonsterFishKeepers.com
This mentions the Jungle Labs as a known cure as it contains Praziquantel.

Hope it helps!

 

[gzeiger]

It isn't practical to do a 100% water change on your big tank since it's more important to keep the filter intact, and you can't really scrub the substrate the way you can a bare-bottomed QT. I would recommend just keeping an eye on the other three fish for a few days. Hopefully they stay healthy, but if not I think the issue is a little less urgent than it seemed at the start of the thread since you have on hand a medication that you know works. The worst case scenario is those fish show signs of infection, get moved to quarantine and treated.

 

[beblondie]

Looks like skin or gill flukes.Hakari rpazi pro,Jungle labs parasite guard should clear it up.Just follow the directions on the package-Anne

 

[crabby]

Update :

The bichirs has been QT in a 10gal with 1 treatment of jungle labs.
the parasites were gone 2 days after adding the meds.
I keep them in the QT tank for 6 days and notice the a few parasite has returned on the bichirs stomach (the one pictured).
I did a 25% water change and add the med as instructed, worms were gone again.

So, it seems like the meds doesn't really completely terminate the parasite as they regenerate in about a week.

what shall I do here?

 

[gzeiger]

Have you done water changes on the QT? Some parasites have larval stages or encysted eggs that are not vulnerable to the same medications that kill the adults. If you see no parasites now, I would try to do a 100% water change (stick fish in a bucket while emptying and sterilizing the tank as suggested above, then net them out into the tank), then medicate the tank again so that as any young still attached to the fish develop they will also die.