new to site with problem (anchor worms on clown knives)

Hello. New to site. I've never registered with any of these sites before but I have read a lot of conversations on many of them. Some people have been helpful to each other and some have just been hateful trying to make others feel and appear stupid. For this reason I have been reluctant to be a member. I feel that people should try to get along with and try to help each other if possible. A little background on myself---I'm 58 years old. I've had aquariums since I was a child. Back then,(around here anyway) few people knew much about proper fish and aquarium care so a lot of what I learned when I was young was trial and error. there were few resources (tires were still square and made from stone and all that) no internet, and very few chemicals and medicines were available. Now we all have internet with endless resources and fish and aquarium supplies available. But what is the proper thing to use. One person says use this and another says use that and another says how stupid they both are and says that they should already know everything if they are going to be a fish hobbyist. Well I'm one who is still far from knowing it all. I have saved a lot of sick fish over the years but I have to admit that I have lost a lot as well.I had quite a few aquariums until 6 or 7 years ago when my house burnt and I lost them all along with most everything else I owned. I finally started the hobby back last year and I am now facing a problem that is new to me. Anchor worms. I bought several fish which were imported from somewhere in Asia. They were evidently wild caught or raised with improper care because while they looked fine when I received them a couple of months after I got them something new started showing up on them. Anchor worms!! And yes I'm positive that is what they have. I believe it is a rare problem in an aquarium setting as it is usually seen in an outside setting such as backyard ponds containing goldfish or whatever. I have searched and researched the problem for probably in excess of 30 hours on the internet as well as calling and emailing api jungle and other such companies that produce medicines for parasites on fish and have still not found a medicine that I feel comfortable using on my fish. (clown knives). I contacted the vender which I bought the fish from and he was no help at all. Most medications don't state whether or not they are safe for scaleless fish. Some people assume that unless it states that it is unsafe for scaleless fish it's safe to use. I imagine those people have lost many fish if they continue with that outlook because many products only give you enough information to get you to buy it. Not telling the down side of the products. Many people have recommended many products saying they were safe but when researching the products I found that they were instead unsafe. I have been treating the tank with Microb-lift lice and anchor worm which is supposed to cure the disease caused from anchor worms by killing all the eggs larva and juvenile stages of the disease. Supposedly, the life span of an adult female anchor worm is 30-33 days and it is supposed to kill everything else. It doesn't. New worms (I do realize that they are not actually worms) are breaking through the skin more and more each day. The recommended treatment time is 3 weeks and I have gone past that time frame as of a few days ago and even raised the recommended dosage. I have also been treating with salt as well slowly raising the salt level to around 5 tbs per 5 gal but at that level the fish became uncharacteristically aggressive and started fighting so I did a partial water change without adding more salt and this behavior ceased.I hadn't intended to write this much but I guess I am making up for the time I wasn't on this site by writing this book. Another problem which has made treatments in my tanks a problem is that I have hard water and powders won't dissolve properly in my tanks for some reason. They just cloud up the water so badly that you can't see into the tank and the powders just build up on the filter cartridges like paste and needless to say prevent the medicine from working properly. I can run my aquarium water through a water softener but since that removes all the beneficial natural nutrients from the water and all my fish in all my aquariums are healthy (with the exception of this problem) I am reluctant to do this. But that is an option I could consider as well. So there is my problem. I need to know a medicine to kill anchor worms on Clown Knives, and as all of you no doubt know not only are they unable to handle many medicines because they are a scaleless fish but they are also unable to tolerate copper which is an ingredient in many meds which have been recommended. So now I bring this book to an end. Any of you can help determine whether this book has a happy ending or a tragic one. If any of you (if anyone actually took time to read all this)can help me solve this problem I will be forever in your debt. I dedicate this book to all the good people who are about to help me. (lol) Thanks Duane (which is my actual name. I was pretty unimaginative choosing a name to go by on this site)

reply to anchor worm help reply

Thanks for reply. I realize that many people think that should be done but they have so many that I'm afraid that taking them from the water and physically removing them would be even more stressful than what they are already going through and then the disease would still be there and I would be facing the same problem. I did check out the site you mentioned (and I thank you for that) but I have already researched all the meds mentioned there and they were either not for scaleless fish or contained copper or were very dangerous to use for one reason or another. I saw on that site that someone had a fish lice problem in a tank which contained clown knives and was going to or had already used a jungle product. the medicines for treating lice are pretty much the same as for anchor worms. I have already contacted jungle labs consultation department and told them my problem and they said that they did not have anything that was a safe anchor worm treatment for clown knives. I wish that person lots of luck. I'm afraid he is going to run into the same problem that I am. It would be very easy to give the wrong thing and kill his fish. A really big problem I have run into is that many meds contain copper which is toxic to clown knives and it doesn't usually tell that on the med. description. You only find that out with much research on each med unless a person is very knowledgeable in medicines which I am really not. Thanks again. As of today I finally saw some small dead anchor worms in the aquarium water so it is killing some of them (treating with microb lift lice and anchor worm) Problem is I see a few new spots showing up on some of them that wasn't there yesterday. One of the knives does appear (at the present) to be parasite free though. I guess for the present anyway I will continue with extended treatment and see what happens unless I hear of something which I haven't already researched and I have researched many many meds. Thanks again