Please help - I think my SAE's may have parasites or worms...

Lukara

Lukara

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Jan 13, 2003
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Hi. I'm very upset :( . I haven't had any new additions to my main aquarium for over 2 months except for plants which I've dipped for 1 hour in a potassium permanginate solution and "quarantined" for 4 days. So whatever this is, it was either present and went unnoticed for over 2 months or it came with the plants.

I recently noticed that one of my SAE's was rubbing himself on the driftwood in my tank. I took a closer look and discovered two of my SAE's have a very fine, short (approx. 1mm in length), white thread-like growth on one of their ventral fins and anal fin. One thread-like thing on each of these fins. They are hard to see because the "thread" blends in with the fin rays. The affected fins otherwise look normal and are whole.

Their behaviour seems very healthy, they are active, going about their business together grazing on whatever algae they find on the plants and the substrate. None of the other fishes appear to be afflicted and none show any behaviour such as rubbing against objects and such.

Can anyone shed some light as to what this could be? Should I quarantine them or does the whole tank need to be treated?

Thanks in advance for your input.
 
Try looking at the diseases section of www.skepticalaquarist.com and see what you find there.

Also, you could try Googling "skin flukes" and see if those are what your fish have.

Sorry, but that would be the extent of my ability to help you, so I hope that you find your answer in one of these two tasks.
 
Are the threads in the same location on both fins and both fish? If they are not symmetrical, then you may have something there, but if they are symmetrcial, I wouldn't worry--it's most likely an overlooked part of their normal morphology.

Another thing to consider--could it be a tubercle? Many fish will grow these during certain..."sharing" times of year. They are the result of specific chemical stimulants, and prefectly normal. The itch a bit when growing in, but are not a disease. Tubercles are usually only seen on males. They may not be symmetrical in size, shape or placement, so can be alraming.

I am not saying this is definitely the problem, but it's something to consider. It doesn't seem likely to me that a parasite would have been introduced with the plants, and if both fish are established, and behaving in a healthy way, I'd look for other options.
 
OrionGirl, the threads don't appear to be symmetrical. One of them has this very fine, flowing 1mm thread only on it's anal fin. The other has it on one of it's ventral fins and one on it's anal fin.

I looked up information on tubercles, and I can't say for sure, but I don't believe this is what it is. From what I can see, it is not nodulalr, lumpy or hard in any way. It almost looks like a strand of fuzz algae, and the only thing in their behaviour which is "not normal" is the occasional twitch and rubbing on objects.
 
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