Anchor worms

[ShawnInfirmity]

SO, it seems like my possible spawning injury on the little grey/blue shubunkin has turned into something else. The fish in the previous post is fine after my interventions but as I was doing my well check on all the fish this afternoon I noticed a similar looking white bump on another fish. Upon closer inspection it looked like something sticking out of the fish and the first thing I thought of was anchor worms. Sure enough after I caught the fish I was able to pull the worm off with tweezers and dab the site with hydrogen peroxide to help it heal. I then proceeded to catch the rest of my fish which was not an easy task and luckily I only found worms (two of them) on one other fish. It was one of my newest and biggest fish that I purchased about a month ago and it seems now that the weather has finally warmed up it's prime time for parasites to start showing up. I removed the worms from the second fish and dabbed the spots with peroxide as well. I also added some Crystal Clear Knockout Plus that I previously purchased when I thought my fish was sick with possible anchor worms, but it turned out to be fish pox. I didn't take any pictures before removing the worms, but it was definitely anchor worms. Is there anything else I should do in addition to treating with the Knockout Plus and removing any worms that I see until they're gone??

 

[Mmathis]

Curious and interesting that you found worms on a new fish. Did you by any chance quarantine your new fish before adding them to your pond?

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

@Mmathis, I unfortunately didn’t quarantine them first. I usually do but didn’t do it this time. I guess I got lazy because I’ve never had a problem before.. but this is exactly why you should always quarantine because your luck might run out at some point.

 

[chris quinn]

SO, it seems like my possible spawning injury on the little grey/blue shubunkin has turned into something else. The fish in the previous post is fine after my interventions but as I was doing my well check on all the fish this afternoon I noticed a similar looking white bump on another fish. Upon closer inspection it looked like something sticking out of the fish and the first thing I thought of was anchor worms. Sure enough after I caught the fish I was able to pull the worm off with tweezers and dab the site with hydrogen peroxide to help it heal. I then proceeded to catch the rest of my fish which was not an easy task and luckily I only found worms (two of them) on one other fish. It was one of my newest and biggest fish that I purchased about a month ago and it seems now that the weather has finally warmed up it's prime time for parasites to start showing up. I removed the worms from the second fish and dabbed the spots with peroxide as well. I also added some Crystal Clear Knockout Plus that I previously purchased when I thought my fish was sick with possible anchor worms, but it turned out to be fish pox. I didn't take any pictures before removing the worms, but it was definitely anchor worms. Is there anything else I should do in addition to treating with the Knockout Plus and removing any worms that I see until they're gone??

Good luck, hope it's going well

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

Thanks @chris quinn , I dosed again this afternoon with the KnockOut Plus and I have been checking the fish every day since and I haven't seen any new worms. I am hoping I caught it early enough, but 'll keep checking the fish every day and the KnockOut Plus recommends doing a 7 day treatment course so I'll keep it up and hope for the best.

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

I did another check today and realized that I hadn’t been paying attention to the handful of minnows that I have in the pond. There were a few that had an anchor worm on them but I was able to remove them and dab the site with peroxide (I don’t think one of them will make it though). I also removed some from a couple of my goldfish that didn’t have them before. Hopefully I can stay on top of it and keep removing them before they have a chance to keeping multiplying but it’s been quite the chore!

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

The saga continues, I've been checking the fish every single day (except for my long days at the hospital) since finding the first anchor worms and each day I pull 1-2 worms off random fish. I have noticed that the last several that I've pulled off were very thin and translucent instead of thick and green/grey. Hopefully that means that the KnockOut Plus is working and the really thin/translucent ones were dead before I pulled them off!? Is there anyone with experience that can confirm my thoughts??

I almost hope there's no one that can confirm this because I wouldn't even wish this on my worst enemy! However, it could be worse because the outbreak has been pretty minimal and I have only lost one fish (a small minnow) but all the others seem to be healing up pretty nicely with their hydrogen peroxide spot treatments.

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

So, I did something today that I probably should have been doing from the beginning. I purchased a 50 gallon tote and caught ALL the fish including all the minnows and put them in the tote. One by one I inspected them and removed any anchor worms dead or alive that I found. Any anchor worms on the goldfish were thin/translucent (what I assume is dead?) and we’re easily removed. The minnows were another story, they had a greater number of anchor worms And the anchor worms were healthier looking and more difficult to remove. In fact, I found not one but two dead minnows in my search to make sure all fish were moved for inspection. Both of them were pretty infested. I’m not sure why the anchor worms on the minnows didn’t seem to respond to the treatment as well as the ones on the goldfish but I’ve decided to keep the minnows in the tub for now so I can closely observe them for reinfestation. I’ll continue my inspections of ALL the fish as usual but I’m hoping that I’m finally getting ahead of the curve and this will all be over sooner than later.

 

[Panzer13]

Sorry to here you are having such a rough time of it.

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

Thanks @Panzer13 , I appreciate it. I feel like I'm getting a handle on it and each day that I check I find less of the anchor worms and the ones I do find are the thin/translucent ones so I'm hoping that means the problem is gonna be over soon.

 

[Mmathis]

Alerted by this thread, I panicked the other day as I saw something “thread-like” on the side of one of my GF, close to the gill. But turns out it was just part of the color pattern for that particular fish. It’s funny though, how you can see things you’ve never noticed before — but it’s a good lesson on observation!

 

[EricV]

How big is your pond? I wonder if a treatment with Dimilin X might not be a better tactic. It will kill every crustacean and probably insect in the pond, though.

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

@Mmathis it is odd/funny how something like this will make you hypervigilant when it comes to looking at our fish. I've been a "fish inspector" every day now for almost two weeks and my wife probably thinks I'm nuts but I want these pests GONE.

@EricV My pond is approximately 450-475 gallons total volume including the bog box and I actually came across something that mentioned using Dimilin X. However, I was leary because it said it killed snails and while I don't mind it killing the annoying little pond snails that might be munching on my plants I don't really wanna wipe out all my ramshorn snails in the process. If my current routine doesn't work in the long run I might have to take drastic measures at some point and get something that will wipe everything out except the plants and fish.

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

So.. I restarted the KnockOut Plus yesterday since I've still been finding the occasional anchor worm just to make sure I get rid of all of them. I only found one yesterday and I didn't find any on my fish today when I checked. I'll continue checking the fish daily AND dosing for at least a few more days assuming I don't find any additional worms. I'm sad to say that my minnows have paid the biggest price of all my fish and I'm down to ONE minnow from the eight that I started with. However, when I was checking my fish yesterday and today I noticed some baby minnows swimming around so maybe they'll make it and I won't have to add many back in!?

 

[Panzer13]

Sounds like you are winning the fight. That is good news.