emergency question -- worm in gill

[tenayaisapunkrocker]

my fish has a worm sticking out of his gill he didnt eat today should i try again or wait till tomarrow when hes hungry and feed him his meds that i dont have yet but will wake up early to get or is he pretty much done and theres nothing i can do

 

[jestes]

I got a fish from a chain store once that had some worms. Jungle Parasite Clear took care of it. If he's already not eating though, then you may have an issue.

 

[dkpate]

You need to get an interal parasite med that he eats I believe. Puffers are more suseptible to parasites and other problems than other fish.

 

[jsoong]

Actually Jungle Anti-Parasite food is the one I would try to feed to the fish. It has Praziquental, Levamazol & metronidazole, should take care of most worms & internal parasites. <Parasite Clear is one you add to the water, good for external stuff like ich, not too good for worms.>

I don't know enough about puffers to say for sure. Certainly in goldies, if you see a worm sticking out, I would be sedating the fish & remove the worm with tweezers. Also, removing the worm & looking at it will aid in diagnosis, as some worms (like anchor worm) need different treatment. <Anchor worms are actually crustaceans so won't be killed by the anti-parasite meds --- which are targeted towards true worms (helmeths).>

 

[BigJim]

It's probably an anchor worm. Isolate the fish immediately. I had a rainbow with an anchor worm that infected my other fish and killed a few of them. API General Cure finally took care of the worms.