Long parasite attached to mollies

[b49230]

Hi Folks,

Just joined this forum. I've been reading various threads and following the awesome advice from this forum for some time now so thank you!

Today my kids and I noticed that 2 of our mollies have what look like stringy long parasites hanging on to them. One has 2 (one on the side and one near the tail) and the other has one.

After hours of research, I "think" they may be anchorworms but I don't really know to be honest. One of the platies was also behaving a bit weirdly and looked like he had a swelling on the upper part of his body above his head but he seems to be better now so IDK if this was a real issue.

Otherwise the tank and the other occupants seem to be quite happy. The last time we added anything to the tank was when we added some plants and shrimp about 2 weeks ago so I suspect something came with that batch of stuff and is now infecting the fish.

Would love to get advice on the best way to deal with these issues.

Our tank:
20 gal tank
4 mollies,
4 platies,
3 salt-and-pepper corys,
a rabbit snail (and a baby rabbit snail!),
a mystery snail,
a nerite snail,
9 neocardinia shrimp
and a medium densely planted tank with about ~20 species of plants.

Thank you in advance for any advice!

[charliebankston]

Sounds like anchor worms. I have used Microbe-lift with good results

[charliebankston]

You need to remove your invertebrates before treating tho, it'll kill them as well

[charliebankston]

It is safe for fish and plants. I use it in my qt tank all the time, it's cheap which is even better, lol

[Ipalarez]

I use a trio of medicine.
API GENERAL CURE
API E.M ERYTHROMYCIN
HEALTH AID ICH-X
i use these to quarantine fish before adding them to my community tank. I also use them when i see a problem like this with one of my fish and ill treat the whole tank. Dose the tank and do not water change for about a week. One of my new guppies passed a worm maybe 10 minutes after medicating, i took the parasite out immediately, and hes doing great so far!


btw the trio is plant safe, and snail safe

[charliebankston]

Anchor worms can be introduced to your tank on new fish or plants. Be sure to qt and treat plants/ fish before adding them to your tank. If you use the api general cure add 1tbs aquarium salt per gallon to help kill the remaining larvae.

[charliebankston]

Also, watch for secondary bacterial infections at the site where the worms attach. You can also use melafix in conjunction with the salt and general cure. It's not really medicine, more of a topical antiseptic, but helps stop bacterial growth

[b49230]

Thank you so much for all the replies folks! This is really helpful.

So I am wondering if it's some kind of leech actually. 3 of them dropped off and we found them in the aquarium attached to a plant and just kind of floating and got rid of them. Super nasty. I'll try to attach pictures shortly.

Right now we don't have a qt tank (or actually a 2nd talk at all) so I'm going to quickly get one tomorrow or Saturday and begin this process.

I have the following aquarium meds:
Hikari Prazipro
Tetra Fungus Guard
API Melafix
Seachem Paraguard
API Pimafix
Tetra Lifeguard All-In-One
API Liquid Super Ick Cure
API Aquarium Salt

I don't have the API general cure or the others that you guys mentioned. Looking to see how fast I can get them and where they are available.

I was thinking of doing an initial cycle of Paraguard. Read lots of articles that seem to indicate that it's totally fine to use with Shrimp and Snails and basically clears out of the tank in about 24 hrs. What do you folks think about that?

Thanks again!