Weird Worm parasite thing

[Guest]

Hey guys,

My rummynoses had a weird parasite thing on their fins randomly appair a while ago. I treated the tank with salt and it kind of helped but one still has a biggish parasite and a couple of bubble things on it's top fin and tonight I found a white thread like worm parasite on my Black Widows top fin. Should I keep dosing with sal or what should I do???? The fish seem fine but I don't like them having random white parasites on them. Does anone hae any idea what this could be and how to treat it?

Thanks

Cam

[DennisP]

Don't keep dosing with salt, as it doesn't disappear, give them salt baths instead.

But tbh, I don't know. I guess the salt would help.

[Guest]

I do water changes before I redose the salt. Saltbaths would involve catching the fish which isn't too easy.

[Matto]

cant you add Epsom salts or methylene blue or something?

[Guest]

Isn't meth blue more for fungal things? What about tonic?

[Jennifer]

There are many external parasites. I prefer using proper antiparasitics like praziquantel but Seachem Paraguard also works to dislodge parasites that are only on the outside of the body. If you can't find either of those drugs/chemicals, try a concentrated salt bath (15 grams to 20 litres of tank water, gradually introduced over 2 minutes and remove the fish after a total of 5 minutes or sooner if it looks really stressed). Malachite green also can be helpful.

[alanmin4304]

Most tetras are sensitive to malachite green so you need to increase it gradually if you use that.

[Sophia]

check out the photos through this thread

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=40813

if it looks like that they aren't external parasites and you need to treat for internal worms with fenbendazole (called Droncit or {Panacur at the vet)

I still have some worm killer but it won't post unfortunately!!

[ryanjury]

Fenbendazole is panacure, praziquental is droncit, either seem to work for internal parasites but from my readings the prazi is alot nicer..

[Jennifer]

Remember, fenbendazole has some efficacy against flatworms (flukes and tapeworms) but it is primarily effective against nematodes (roundworms) like levamisole. In contrast, praziquantel is just effective against flatworms.

[Joe]

Isn't meth blue more for fungal things? What about tonic?

Yes tonic is a good idea. My fish had a disease called columnaris a while ago, and at the time I didn't know what it was. I managed to save a few in a concentrated bath of tonic. So it might work with yours too.

[tetra_nz]

One of my rummy nose tetras also has white worm-like organisms living in its fins. The organism look like the ones in Sophia's thread and http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum/sh ... hp?t=55925.

I've put the fish into its own quarantine tank.

How do I choose between the various worm medications like levamisole, praziquantel etc?

[Sophia]

where in NZ are you?

[tetra_nz]

I'm in Auckland, sorry just joined this site haven't entered my location details

[Sophia]

I got some panacur from North Shore Veterinary hospital in Taharoto Rd in Takapuna. They were hesitant to provide at first as they don't know about fish much but if you explain a bit about the thread they will probably sell you some. At the time I was emailing back and forth with the vet/clinic and he was reading the thread.

You only need a little bit, probably 50ml at the most unless you have billions of fish. If you get stuck you might be able to come and get some of mine that is left over. I don't know if that's the done thing to do with medicine so Jen please correct me if not.

[tetra_nz]

Hey Sophia thanks for the help! I had 15 cardinals wiped out by a similar/the same disease a few years ago but never found out the exact diagnosis and didn't know how to treat. I just watched them die one by one...

Is the medication quite difficult to find? There's a local vet here who seems to deal mainly with dogs and cats, do you think they will have the medication?

By the way I've managed to snap some shots of my poor tetra. Maybe the pictures will help with diagnosis !

[Sophia]

those are good photos

my first fish had something like that and formalin didn't kill it so I ended up culling the fish. Then the second was like the ones in the photos and the drugs killed them (well so we think). I didn't get any more appearance of the worm after that but then I had treated the whole tank and all the cardinals had eaten some of the medicine.

See what the others on here say but I think you should ring around and ask specifically for panacur and see what they say. If you aren't too far from Takapuna give those guys I mentioned above a call. If you get no joy send me a PM.