Harlequin has white thing sticking out of side

[HeatherW]

My harlequin rasbora has this white thing sticking out from his side. Just noticed this today. I just removed him from the tank. My qt tank is not ready for him yet.
Can someone identify and and advise treatment?

 

[jlk]

Can you post a pic? Does it look like a white thread/worm sticking out?

 

[HeatherW]

Ok I was having computer problems, but got it fixed now.

 

[HeatherW]

tried to get a better side pic... not sure it is any better. it looks like a hard piece of rice

 

[jlk]

You are truly having one heck of time with your fish! It looks like it may be an anchor worm. Google pics & see if they match what is on your fish. They can be removed (carefully) with tweezers. Heres a pic with some info.

Anchor Worm

 

[HeatherW]

i am not sure. I am looking at pics of anchor worms - those look longer and stringier than what I am seeing. this really looks like a dry piece of rice sticking out of his body. is that still anchor worms? is there anything else I can look at to see if it matches?

for anchor worm - try and remove with tweezers, add some salt to the tank - how much? and what else? I will keep him in this little QT tank I have for now.

 

[Bearchumjs]

I'm curious how one would make the fish stay still enough to delicately remove a worm from it.

Good luck with your fish! I hope you get him healed up soon.

 

[jlk]

Well, your fish came down with this with prazi in the tank so treatment with prazi is out. This leaves manually removing them as they appear or treating with the big gun treatments- either a DTHP product or potassium permagnate. Both can be quite toxic and need to be used with care. Heres a link for DTHP products- all of the products listed (except the quick cure) have the same active ingredient. Look under their catalog under meds/parasitic. I would opt for the Life Bearer product.

Aquatic Creations Ltd - Marine / Freshwater Supplies & Pond Products Catalog

 

[HeatherW]

so i tried my best to remove the worm - probably that was what it was. I added some salt - 1/2 tsp per gallon water

think I am tired of adding meds into my tank. can I try adding the prazi into the smaller tank? or will just removing them as I see them work?

oh and I tried to rig up a sponge filter. not sure I did it right tho - do bubbles come up out of the sponge?

 

[jlk]

Go ahead & add some prazi to the small tank along with the salt. Keep a close eye on everybody for anymore. The sponge filter sounds right- bubbles should be coming out of the sponge. I am so sorry you are having so many problems!

 

[HeatherW]

ok, did some calling around... I was advised to add cyropro by one person (they said that the life bearer meds was bought out and is not made anymore)
called the company that you gave me the link for and he suggested I use coppermine - but of course I can't use copper in my tank with the loaches. he suggested I move the loaches out and treat the tank for 3 weeks with copper.

so now I am really confused! what should I do?

 

[jlk]

I am actually learning something here! I did check out the cyropro & it looks like its effective against anchor worms & other parasites & is safe for both fish & inverts & biological filter. Ill do some more research on the active ingredient & see what else I can discover, too. It looks like your best bet- I would not use copper because you can never truly remove it from an aquarium without adding other chemicals to chelate it out.

CyroPro

 

[HeatherW]

ok, went ahead with the cyropro - treating the little QT tank that I have the guy in and I am going to wait until the am to start treating the big tank. I am running carbon in there right now to remove the kanamycin that I had in there. how long should I run the carbon? I had to remove some of my filter media to get the carbon in there. only running carbon in one filter - the other one is the same as it was before (except cleaned up some) - did some good swishying of the media and emptied out the nasty water in the filter

 

[jlk]

Run the carbon until tommorrow because you only have it in one filter. I would do a big water change before starting the next batch of meds. Your poor fish!!!

 

[HeatherW]

did a huge water change today - over 50%. did I mention I found a fry in the filter!! little guys are amazing! tank must not be too bad - I still have my baby fry in there. 2 survivors as of now. unless the one I put back in wanted to be safe in the filter lol.

I sure hope this is the last round of meds for my tank. getting tired of always treating this tank with something. also hoping my BB kick in with the kanamycin out of there.

so here is a question. if i have to keep doing daily WC for the ammonia how do I treat the cyropro? just add the 50% dose back in that I remove daily? so if I do a 50% WC then do I add 50% of med dose back to the tank? theoretically this med will not mess with the BB so maybe it will kick back in really soon.

and should I keep up with the salt? or let it go with water changes?

 

[jlk]

Hmm... I am not familiar with this stuff but my best guess would be to add back what you remove with water changes. Hopefully, your bb will kick back in quickly because I know it says you have to do 3 consecutive treatments. I wouldnt worry too much about the salt (except for your guy you pulled the worm off-it will limit infection) & it be will gradually reduced with water changes. Good luck, Heather!!

 

[HeatherW]

well, had to do another water change on the large tank again. I think the BB are trying but it is just not enough. I am thinking of moving my lone little rasbora back into the main tank. since I am treating the main tank for the same thing there is no harm in this right? and i am not having success in having the ammonia stay low in the little QT I set up for him anyway. I would need to do a wc in that one as well. let me know if I should still keep him in qt or is he fine moving in him back in.
thanks!

 

[jlk]

Go ahead & move him back. Just keep an eye on him for any signs of infection where the worm was. How is everyone doing?

 

[HeatherW]

So far so good - hope I can finally get a healthy tank one of these days. Sure have learned my lesson about quarantining my fish! Even knowing this I am sure I would have done the same thing - have to start from somewhere! Just my bad luck that I started out with some sick fish

 

[jlk]

Just think about the crash course you have now received in treating some of the most common fishy ailments! You can put quite a few notches on your belt! Glad everyone is doing well (so far- cross my fingers!)!!