Has anyone used "Dimilin-X" for Anchor Worms?

[capewind]

Or I think it's an anchor worm.

Background ... about a month or so ago, in the 750, I saw what looked like a small fine thread on the side of one of the ebay babies. Kept trying to get a good look at it as the fish swam as we could not catch the little guy .. Gave up, and just kept watching to see if it was "something" or not. It was so tiny, I wasnt sure if I was seeing anything real or not. Well, a week or so ago, I spotted the same small fine thread-like THING again on another fish. Okay, so clearly I am not "seeing things" ..

Did a websearch and came up with this picture...


This looks nearly identical, with the exception that there is no blister/welt where this "thread" is attached (unless it is too small to see). It is soooo tiny. Looks more like a human hair to me, with a split end.

I guess if there is any good news, after staring, staring and staring, I've only spotted one each on two fish (out of 103 fish) and these fish have been kept isolated from our other fish. Now to get rid of them. I read "Dimilin" was the best product to use, but cant find it. Bought a product called Dimilin-X which appears similar, but you use so little, I am skeptical of it working ... Dosage rate is one teaspoon per 500 gallons of water.

This will sound mean, but we let most of the reamining fish in the 600 go outside, except for a few fish (culls that didnt grow). The Dimilim-X claims to be safe at 10x suggested dosaging, so those remaining in the 600, just got hit with a double dosage. No parasites in the 600, but treating them as guina pigs, as I dont want to kill 100 fish I like with a product I am not familar with ...

 

[anitapond]

Funny you should bring this up. I recently thought I might have anchor worms too, so I've been watching the 2 fish that looked suspicious. After doing some investigating, I, too, ran across Dimilin as the treatment with little success on where to by it and not trusting it. Well, being a Microbe-Lift fan and an Amazon customer, I found that ML makes an anchor worm treatment! If you go to Amazon and search for those key words, you should find it. It wasn't that expensive, IMO. I have not treated my pond with it yet as I am in the "watching and waiting" stage right now. Good luck! Hope this helps.

 

[capewind]

I found the ML product as well, but found several comments where people claimed it not to work, so got the Dmilin-X ... I dont know which is worse. A known BRAND with bad reviews, or an unknown product with a similar ingredient to the preferred product ... So far, the experimental fish are doing well, dont appear to be stressing any. I was hoping to hear someone was familar with the Dimilin-X. These fish will be moved outside to their own pond soon, so still no risks to our other fish, but I want these "things" gone ASAP.

 

[Dave 54]

Good shout capewind anchor worm it is,I cant help you with the dimlin powder as its banned here in the UK so I cant use it, unless I go down the generic route, which I never have done.
I would worry about anchor worm as I've seen a photo of a godfish with hundereds of them all over is body.
It's latin name is LernaeaIt attacks all over the body of a hoste fish releases its eggs they hatch and grow to adult size and infect the hoste and so on .
They like scales, around the mouth, around the eyes, gills on fins and on the joints of the fish they are also harmful in large infestations/numbers.
There is also a possibility of a fungal or bacterial infection through the attachment sites.
If your going to treat you'll have to do it in two phases the first phase will be to physically remove the adult achor worm from infected fish which means you will have to anethatize each fish in your pond and remove any adults found not once but everyday for 10 whole days sometimes more so you would have to QT them all in other words.
Paint whe wound from where you've removed the worm with either malachite green and propolis or just plain old propolis to ensure against fungal or bacterial infection
Then to treat against the baby and Juvenile anchor worm you'll need to treat the pond with an Organophosphate based treatment a number of times to be sure you have destroyed all the eggs and juveniles free swimming in the water.
It looks like youve become infected by introducing it by a new fish that got through your QT proceedures.
Remember to check them all thoroughly miss one and the whole cycle will start again.
Having never suffured with it I've read about it many times in the past.
This is from various Author's under various Titles,so if anyone can come up with a more modern treatment for anchor worm go with that and its one I'll add to my chemicals list so we'd be both learning

rgrds


Dave

 

[HTH]

Hate anchor worms. They suck!

This is a quote I found in a post taken from koiphen's ER documen

from the ER sticky

Dimilin(diflubenzuron 25% wettable powder):
Actually this is an insecticide for greenhouse use. This powder works well in eradicating anchor worm(Lernea)and fish lice(Argulus). One gram will treat 3000 gallons. It is quite forgiving and an overdose usually will not cause irrepairable harm. The parasites should be removed by soaking them in iodine or potassium permanganate paste and pulling them carefully with a tweezers. Sedating(described below)the fish will prevent uncontrolled thrashing and further damage to the fish during this process. No ill effect is noted from sedation.

There are liquid forms of Dimilin on the market. Follow the label directions.

I have never had them in the pond but seen a few come in on goldfish when we had aquariums in pre web days.

 

[capewind]

I am really glad these fish have been in QT this whole time. I was driving myself crazy trying to figure out where they came from, as the other fish dont have them. I read the females go dormant at lower temps (below 58 degrees), and since the 750 is in the basement, they have only been above 60 degrees for about a month or so now. I guess I should be grateful hubby has been so busy and hasnt been able to get their pond done yet (he actually got the liner in place last night). I can only imagine the infestation that we would have had it they were moved outside two months ago when I wanted to get them outside! God only knows how long it would have taken for me to spot these nasty things on them out there. I am a tad bit pissed off right now, as I wanted to sell some of the group, and only keep some of them to grow on. No chance of offering them to anyone til I am SURE they are free of these things. I guess I'll be treating their new outside pond:-( Ideally, I would just keep them in the 750 for a couple of months to be sure the cycle is broken, but with their growth, we are starting to reach the tipping point in the 750. Starting to get ammonia readings in the 750:-( It isnt "bad" yet, but it's taking 25% weekly water changes to keep us between point 25 to point 50.

The Dimilin-X says to repeat treatment in 3-5 days, but not to exceed 3 treatments per month. It does NOT say anything about water changes?

My thoughts is to hit them 2x inside, and then as we move them outside, pick off anything we can find, and treat the outside pond they are moving into. They will still be isolated. The Dimilin-X is cheap, An 8 oz bottle treats 25,000 gallons. Wait a month, and either hit them with the Dimilin-X again, or maybe try the MicroLift product?

The only other thing I am worried about is the plants that have to get moved to the new pond as well. It was built to take hubby's lilies. Can these things get into plants? I suspose I can treat this pond monthly ... will likely do so anyways to make sure the fish are free of them once and for all before winter hits.

 

[HTH]

How many fish are there in the 750? I would pull them out one by one now and remove the anchor worms with the "tweezers loaded with PP trick" then dump them into a tub(s) till you have them all treated then return then to the 750. Then hit it with the first Dimilin treatment. That gives you a chance to inspect them again when you move them into the new pond.

 

[fishin4cars]

I have used Dimilin in the past with great results, unfortunately, Dimilin is no longer available for pond use. Dimilin-X is now being used as it's been stabilized. As Dave pointed out, Dimilin has been banned in many countries. I have talked to a few pond keepers that have tried Micro-lift and gotten the same reviews, It doesn't seem to be very effective. Personally I use Potassium permanganate as a dip or pond treatment if I have to treat the pond. There is a product called Clout made by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals that works very well too but it needs to be used in a small pond, would be far to expensive to use in a large pond. I usually try and remove all the worms I can physically see with tweezers before treating. I don't know how true it is but I have heard that the adults fall off just before releasing their larvae. By removing and treating the spot where the adult was located this will help it not only reducing the chance for secondary infections IMO it also lessens the chance they will come back once the fish is pond is treated.
I started using another product this year called Bio-Bandage by Aquarium Solutions. I have had tremendous success with this product on sores, open cuts, and ulcers. It comes in a powder form and liquid form, I prefer the liquid. Once the worm is removed apply one drop on the sore and allow it to penetrate for aprox 15 seconds then release the fish, I personally treated a Large ulcer on a Shusui at work. the sore was about the size of a half dollar when I started treating, within three weeks the sore was completely healed and new scales and skin was forming. within 6 weeks the fish was released back into the original pond and you can only see a small scar where the Ulcer was. I treated 25 fish from that one pond. all but two survived. IMO, that's not to shabby for a pond of fish that were in as bad of shape as I found when I first started trying to help, since then we cleaned the pond thoroughly, started it over recycled it and now the customer and the fish are happy. Myself, I bought a extra bottle to have on hand due to the fact of how well this product worked!

BTW, to answer a couple of questions, CW, no the worms do not get into the plants, they get into snails, snails are eaten by birds and are moved from location to location by birds. the birds waste contains the initial larvae that start the cycle. Once the adults and larvae are eradicated in a pond they usually don't come back unless a new infection is started by another bird. the good news about anchor worms, they themselves are usually not fatal to the fish, Secondary infections from infections in the sore itself are more likely to kill a fish than an attack of anchor worms themselves.

 

[capewind]

How many fish are there in the 750? I would pull them out one by one now and remove the anchor worms with the "tweezers loaded with PP trick" then dump them into a tub(s) till you have them all treated then return then to the 750. Then hit it with the first Dimilin treatment. That gives you a chance to inspect them again when you move them into the new pond.

There's 103 fish in the 750. I figure it will take a couple of days to pull each and inspect. I need to move them outside, as I said, we've reached the tipping point as to what the fitration can handle with their growth. Without doing huge water changes, I cant get the ammonia below point 25. Normally, this pond doesnt need official water changes past what is drained off to back flush the filters or top off for evaporation. We've already cut their feedings way back. They were being fed AM and PM, and now ALL they are getting is half of their AM feeding, and still cant get back to a zero reading. I have spent hours staring, and can only find one worm each on two fish, but of course I could be missing some:-(

 

[capewind]

Thanks Larkin, I'll check out these other products. I was also thinking of when the fish are moved, adding a double dose of Stress Coat Plus ... It's what we use for dechlorinator, but it says to double to help with the fish's slime coat ...

Do you know if we are supposed to do water changes between dosages of the Dimilin-X? It doesnt say, but claims 10x the dose is safe.

I still need to run the numbers on the size of the new pond, but it isnt all that big. It's just a 20 x 25' liner being used to capacity .. my guess is about 4500 gallons, so if I have to go to a more expensive product, it shouldnt be too bad.

 

[HTH]

I have been a bit paranoid about birds crapping in the pond because of anchor worms. I expect if it happens it happens and not much one can do about it.

 

[fishin4cars]

No, really there is only limited things you can do to prevent birds in a outdoor pond. Most will come in to bath, get water, or feed. Being outdoors, netting or covering is only going to supply so much help.

CW, One product I used required a water change, with Dimilin-x being able to be over dosed with no harm I would do one dose as recommended and then do the second dose and do a water change syphoning as much from the bottom as possible. I'm not 100% confident that the adults can't drop or produce larvae when they drop of the host. I try and follow instructions as close as possible, if they don't say water change, I would think the added medication would have more effect, but that being said I also know some medications get used up out of the water (Know there is term for this but can't think of what it is right off hand) So adding another dose may or may not actually increase the dosage being absorbed by the parasite. Anchor worms though are like fleas, just treating them once may not eradicate them, You have to kill them in stages and if memory serves me right It's the larvae that your actually killing.

 

[capewind]

I dont have any birds getting into my basement Not to pick on birds, but I think they present such a small risk in the grand scheme of ponding, I think if we all continue to stick to the basics and be observant, there isnt too much to worry about. I know I can be a bit paranoid with the outside fish, and I do assume one of these years, we may aquire a parasite from a birdie, but the lesson in this one for me is while these fish have been in QT right along, we never brought up their temp til now, and it is just the environment bringing up the temp. SOOOO if we ever QT during low temps again, I need to add a heater. I really would have preferred to have dealt with this while they were smaller, and less of a load on the filtration, then now, when I am nolonger comfortable with the filtrations ability to maintain the load.

 

[capewind]

I have to go back and research again. There was one site that gave a lot of detailed info. The products are supposed to interupt the life cycle. I THINK it said it would kill the female, but NOT cause her to drop off, so still need to get the tweezers out ... Water changes, or location change, would remove the risks from the young who are free swimming ...

Another question I do have about the Dimilin X tho is this ... if it is so safe at 10x the dosage, why do they say no more than 3 treatments per 30 days? I am thinking the individual dosages may get used up in the water, and maybe long term exposure to the drug has risks???

 

[fishin4cars]

CW, Come to think about it, I need to do some researching, If memory serves me right, anchor worms are more likely in warm water than cool water. But I think it they do stay dormant until they warm up enough to grow out as adults. I do remember that anchor worms have a complex life cycle. Also as stated, birds are a minimal risk as far as passing on parasites in our ponds, although this is how the parasites are moved around and birds can carry a few other parasites as well. It's the ones that actually eat fish that are by far the bigger threat to our finned friends.