BigJim
Aquarium Advice Addict
I think I've got a bad case of anchor worms! I brought home some dwarf neon rainbows from a trusted LFS and now I've got worms! I'd never seen anchor worms before, so I thought the fish had an injury. From now on, I'll be QTing all my fish. I upped the salt content in the water 1tsp per 4-5 gallons and turned up the temperature. The worm that I thought was an injury went away. Now it's come back on the rainbow as well as on a platy and a neon too! Any thoughts on medication? I'm limited as to what I can do because I have a pictus cat (scaleless), but I'd really like to treat the entire tank as a precaution.
I've found these methods online:
<LI class=promoBlock>Potassium permanganate dip at 100mg/2.5 gallons of water<LI class=promoBlock>Salt dip <LI class=promoBlock>Formalin dip at 2 to 4 ml Formalin/2.5 gallons of water for 30 minutes. The fish may lose equilibrium and must immediately be transferred to clean, fresh water <LI class=promoBlock>Modern antiparasitics (such as Disco-worm, Fluke tabs, and Clout) may help <LI class=promoBlock>Salt in the aquarium at 1 to 2 tablespoons may help prevent secondary infections
The best treatment is to remove them by hand and quarantine the tank. You may have to do the following a few times. Tweezers work well for removing the anchor worms, try to grip them as close to the wound as possible. Periodically dunk the fish into the bucket of water to let him get a few breaths before continuing. After removing as many as you can see, use stress coat and pray.
I've already added salt to the aquarium, and I'm not too wild about the potassium permanganate after reading about it some more. The fish don't seem to be bothered by the worms yet. They're all still swimming around like nothing's going on. Anyone have a suggestion/opinion as to how to deal with these worms?
I've found these methods online:
<LI class=promoBlock>Potassium permanganate dip at 100mg/2.5 gallons of water<LI class=promoBlock>Salt dip <LI class=promoBlock>Formalin dip at 2 to 4 ml Formalin/2.5 gallons of water for 30 minutes. The fish may lose equilibrium and must immediately be transferred to clean, fresh water <LI class=promoBlock>Modern antiparasitics (such as Disco-worm, Fluke tabs, and Clout) may help <LI class=promoBlock>Salt in the aquarium at 1 to 2 tablespoons may help prevent secondary infections
The best treatment is to remove them by hand and quarantine the tank. You may have to do the following a few times. Tweezers work well for removing the anchor worms, try to grip them as close to the wound as possible. Periodically dunk the fish into the bucket of water to let him get a few breaths before continuing. After removing as many as you can see, use stress coat and pray.
I've already added salt to the aquarium, and I'm not too wild about the potassium permanganate after reading about it some more. The fish don't seem to be bothered by the worms yet. They're all still swimming around like nothing's going on. Anyone have a suggestion/opinion as to how to deal with these worms?
