5 replies to this topic

[chilligirl]

What IS this?

"Stella" is a telescope/oranda cross I've had since January. When I bought him (thought he was a girl back then, since developed breeding stars), he was very ill with fin rot. Treated him with salt, prazi, and furan, over the course of a few weeks. His fins grew back and he became one of my favourite fish. I moved him out to the pond once it was set up and the first batch of fish I'd put in there had passed QT.

He's been fine, no issues. Then, about a week ago, my pump tubing got kinked, so filtration was down. Water still tested fine, but was less clear. I noticed at the same time that Stella appeared to have velvet, but was still active and eating. Did a 10% water change, fixed the pump/filtration system and kept an eye on him. Two days ago, he seemed to be getting worse instead of better, so I began bringing him in for a one hour acriflavine dip (18% solution). He tolerated the dips well, visible velvet symptoms (gold "dust", peeling slime coat) disappeared. Today he seemed a bit worse in comportment, so I pulled him out in a container to have a look at him. I was horrified to see that he has some sort of visible parasite I can't identify. It's all over him, but easiest to see on his black areas, particularly his tail.

The parasites are TINY. To most they'd look like slime coat or dust, however if you've got good eyes (I do) and look closely (I did), you can see they're tiny parasites that are actually moving. These things are about 1/4 - 1/2 of a millimeter long, and worm-shaped.

His symptoms are lethargy, apparent pain in one pectoral fin, shredding fins (you can see the tiny holes being eaten into his dorsal fin in one pic), surface hanging, and heavy breathing.

I've brought him in and put him in an established 20G QT by himself. It's currently at about 0.4% salt. I'm going to treat with Prazi.

However, what IS this? I've looked through both my books, and can't identify it. It is NOT fish lice, anchor worm, or gill maggots, which are the only visible to the naked eye ones listed. If I had to guess, I'd say flukes, but I thought they were supposed to be too small to see?

Gotta love the camera's macro feature - it makes them quite visible in pics. This is blown up considerably - these buggers are tiny. And I know having him in a glass like that is terrible - it was the only way to get good, clear pics, and he was only in there for less than 5 minutes

[DrDave]

Treat him for no more than 10 minutes in this:
2% salt bath, the solution is 73 grams salt per gallon of water.
Then go back into your hospital tank that needs to be .3% or less for a week, then reduce it gradually to .1%.
The 10 minute dip might take care of the parasites. If your fish bellies up before the 10 minutes are up, remove him and go into the .3% immediatley.

[chilligirl]

DrDave - do you know what the parasite is? Are you sure salt will kill it?

How likely is it that this is through the rest of my pond. Ugh. Treating the whole pond is crazy expensive. Plus I can't salt the pond because of my plants.

How did I get this in my pond? I haven't added any fish without QT first!

[DrDave]

chilligirl said:

DrDave - do you know what the parasite is?
No I don't, if you had a microscope and a sample, you could maybe find a match on the Internet
Are you sure salt will kill it?
Salt works on a lot of parasites, go to my web page and check the link to the Univ of Florida
How likely is it that this is through the rest of my pond. Ugh. Treating the whole pond is crazy expensive. Plus I can't salt the pond because of my plants.
Salt is not expensive, your plants can be removed and washed outside the pond
How did I get this in my pond? I haven't added any fish without QT first!

Only you know what has been added and where it came from. It might be as simple as a bird dropping that caused it. Maybe your quarantine was not long enough.
When someone comes over for plants or fish, I use my containers to get water for theirs to avoid contamination from the outside.

[chilligirl]

well, whatever it is, the prazi has knocked it out. Almost all the parasites are gone off of him, and can now be seen in the water, dying.

Problem is, he's taken a turn for the worse. He's hanging, head up, tail down - that indicates gill damage doesn't it?

Is there anything I can do for him?

[poodles-ponds and gardens]

I can't give you any advice but that is a beautiful fish. I hope all goes well!