Well, i was looking at my 125 gallon today, and noticed a couple strange thing. A peacock and a hap both had a weird, small, stringy thing hanging of their body. It is kind of a clearish color. One has it at the bottom of his head, and the other has it right by his dorsal fin in the middle of his body. And i noticed also that my phenochilus looks like it lost a scale, so im wondering if something will show up on him soon too. ATM there is only 7 fish in there total, and i last performed a water change on saturday. After research, im thinking its an anchor worm, but does anyone else have any ideas?? They are all acting fine.
African cichlid parasite help!
- Thread starter bmarine
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pip walters
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Yeah, sounds like anchor worm Lernea spp.. They lay eggs, so you will be best to treat the whole tank with a crustacean killing treatment.
jlk
Aquarium Advice Addict
Anchor worms (females) have a distinct 'Y' shape. Males are not visible to the naked eye. It is common to see a fish missing a scale(s) or to have an odd spot/bump or sore where the worm will burrow out from.
As they are not actually worms but crustaceous copepods, they need to be treated with a med that is an insecticide. Older DTHP based treatments (such as Clout) or malathion can be extremely toxic and very difficult to remove from a tank fully. Cyromazine is a much safer, newer alternative that can be found in Hikari's Cyropro. It's sold by most online aquatic suppliers and pond stores. Just make sure the instructions are followed exactly.
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