Anchor Worm Agony

omplmpa3

omplmpa3

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Sep 1, 2008
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Wisconsin
I have a 30g breeder stocked with 5 small fancy goldfish, 2 golden topminnows and 2 bluefin killifish. I have been battling anchor worm for over a month and I cant seem to get rid of them. All the fish are infected to some degree. I've treated with Coppersafe and two courses of Maracyn-Two for the secondary afflictions. After the Maracyn-Two failed to alleviate the secondary symptoms I treated the tank with two courses of T.C. Tetracycline. I have followed the directions for both medications verbatim, making the water changes when directed and adding the correct amounts of Coppersafe to the replacement water. I have added an airstone for extra oxygen which results in a foamy mess. I have netted several of the fish and have been successful in manually removing the anchor worms. I know it's not advisable to do this but when you see your dear pets covered with 20-30 of these horrible things you feel compelled to do whatever it takes. I have also been using aquarium salt and it does seem to ease some of their discomfort. The anchor worms appear to be getting smaller in size but new ones are still appearing daily. The older anchor worms are turning grey at their ends but remain attached to the fish. If anyone has any suggestions/advise it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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Diflubenzuron is the agent of choice for Lernia. It very specifically interrupts the process of exoskeleton formation in arthropods, and Anchor Worms are indeed arthropods and not really worms. It used to be available for aquarium use as Dimilin, but there's legal issues involved with it being labeled for aquatic use. It's available for agricultural use as an insecticide at farm supply houses. If you can't land any that way, then I would recommend Clout. Clout is also basically an insecticide, but it's an organophosphate, or to put it generally it acts like nerve gas and is toxic to a wide range of species including fish and people. Read and follow the directions carefully!
 
Wow. How awful. :( I had to deal with anchor worms years ago. A friend of mine had 2 big old goldfish that belonged to his sons. One day the sons caught a couple baby bluegill. He let the kids put them in the tank and soon the goldfish had anchor worms. I removed them all by hand when I saw them. I didn't know this was a bad thing... Unfortunately I don't remember if I used any medicine or what I would have used.

I would definitely increase the water changes. The cleaner the water is, the less secondary infection you will have to deal with. I wish you luck. Those things are disgusting. :(

wren
 
How awful! I hope you can get the right meds to put those poor fish out of their misery. It's so nice to see you working so hard to help them.
 
Thank you all for your kind words! I was able to order some Clout tablets from Drs.F&S and they should be arriving tomorrow. Everyone is hanging in there and I'm cautiously optimistic that they will all pull through.
I will keep you posted.

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Monty and Domino (the little one) in better days

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Well, the anchor worms have cleared up but new problems have arisen. One goldfish has dropsy, he looks like a white pine-cone. I know dropsy is pretty much the death knell for tropical fish, is it the same for goldfish? Another goldfish has some sort of problem with his mouth, he is unable to close it. He doesn't have a rock lodged in there. He did have a couple dozen anchor worms in there. The other day I sedated him with MS-222, and removed as many as I could using forceps. His mouth has been like this for over a week and he cannot eat. I have tried feeding him with a syringe but it just floats back out. He looks as though he's panting but his gills appear to be in fine shape. The poor guy looks like Edvard Munch's the Scream. Is there anything I can do for these two?

Thank you
 
Force feeding a fish requires a thin tube be inserted down the fish's throat. I did it once to get a slurry of food and medication into a 10" long SW Angelfish, and it worked, but doing it on a smaller fish would be very difficult. I used airline tubing on a syringe, but you'd need something way thinner for fish of the size you're dealing with.
 
Thank you SubRosa, I was afraid of that. Do you happen to know if the gaping mouth is something that will go away on its own or could it be a permanent affliction? I feel like I'm entering into a "quality of life area" with these two.
 
omplmpa3 said:
Thank you SubRosa, I was afraid of that. Do you happen to know if the gaping mouth is something that will go away on its own or could it be a permanent affliction? I feel like I'm entering into a "quality of life area" with these two.
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Not that I can think of. Gasping with no other external symptoms would often indicate gill flukes, but they're much easier to kill than Anchor Worms and the Clout would have done so.
 
Oh no, I was so hoping things would get better. I have no advice. :( How's the other one doing?
 
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