Are these anchor worms?

[Reefer1991]

Trichlorfon is the ingredient that is scary. There have been several public aquariums that wiped out entire tanks from misdosing the med (trichlorfon, which is a insecticide but works for many things found in the saltwater hobby. Many use a Bayer insecticide for their corals as a dip). If you follow the directions and have the water volume correct you have nothing to worry about.

Yep that public aquarium thing is a little scary. I use bayer for my dips and have never had a problem so hopefully its the same story with clout. After thinking about it, its probably a waste of time treating the hippo seperate because ill be paranoid about the other fish having it since its so hard to see. Just a little hesitant because Ive always wanted a powder blue and now that i have a suitable tank ive got a very healthy one and id hate to stress it. Hopefully they all take it well. I know i have around 32 -35 gallons in the tank and the directions are 1 tablet per 10 gallons. So 3 should be perfect hopefully.

 

[Reefer1991]

Is this what bacterial infections look like? Definitely getting worse. Are bacterial infections contagious?

 

[JustinM]

Bacterial infections are not contagious per se. The bacteria is living in the water so all fish are equally exposed to it, some just react differently depending on their immune system and entry points into the blood stream, like anchor worms or ich, etc.

It looks like the beginning of a bacterial infection so I would personally treat this first then worry about the anchor worms. You will probably need to treat for a bacterial infection again though.

 

[Reefer1991]

Bacterial infections are not contagious per se. The bacteria is living in the water so all fish are equally exposed to it, some just react differently depending on their immune system and entry points into the blood stream, like anchor worms or ich, etc.

It looks like the beginning of a bacterial infection so I would personally treat this first then worry about the anchor worms. You will probably need to treat for a bacterial infection again though.

Thats good to know. Im just having a hard time deciding if the fish has both anchor worms and an infection or just a bacterial infection. Im hoping its just bacterial so i can just dose furan and be good. I guess we'll see after i dose.

I just picked up furan 2. The store didnt have kanaplex.
Thanks again for the info. Ill update after i dose this.

 

[JustinM]

As hobbyists, we never know exactly what kind of bacteria we are dealing with so we treat with many. Hopefully the furan 2 helps but I would definitely order some kanaplex. We have what we call the trifecta(kanaplex, bifuran, and metroplex) That usually works. I am just letting you know if you don’t see improvement, you might need the kanaplex.

 

[Reefer1991]

The tang might look a little better with the furan 2 but not enough to tell. Its definitely overrun with some sort of parasite. Im going to do a huge water change tomrw night and dose clout. Tomorrow is the 21st day of cupramine and id like to do 30. The regals still eating great but probably wont last that long.. Clout states its effective against ich so hopefully it makes up for that missed time.

 

[Dmorty217]

IT says its effective against ich but I have never used it for that, FWIW

 

[Reefer1991]

IT says its effective against ich but I have never used it for that, FWIW

The tangs are probably clear of ich at this point id just feel more comfortable with 4 weeks. Im doing a wc and dosing clout once i get home.

 

[Reefer1991]

I was busy last night so i ended up dosing clout this morning. Its been in the water for roughly 10 hours and the tang looks(again, dont wanna jinx myself here) decently better. Hes still got parasites here and there but his skin is a lot more clear. Hopefully the rest will get killed off in the next few hours. Im doing a big water change tomorrow morning and redosing clout saturday morning.

 

[Reefer1991]

On the second clout treatment and no improvement. Any ideas?

 

[Reefer1991]

It looks like there might be a couple on the orange shoulder and yellow tang now. Whatever this is has survived cupramine, prazi, metro, furan2 and clout.

 

[JustinM]

Did you ever FW dip them and try to manually pull them off?

 

[Reefer1991]

Did you ever FW dip them and try to manually pull them off?

I did a 4 minute dip and there wasnt much effect. I didnt attempt to pull any off because they are so small. I probably wouldve done more damage to the fish if anything. Im thinking about trying prazi at double the dose.

 

[Reefer1991]

This is very frustrating. Ive done everything right with these fish and of course i get stuck with some parasite thats practically bullet proof.

 

[Reefer1991]

The powder blue has a 1/4" white string hanging from his rear fin now. Everytime i find a thread where somebody is dealing with these, there are no responses. So i guess nobody knows what these are and im sol.

 

[JustinM]

A white sting hanging from his rear fin or anus?

 

[Reefer1991]

The fin. Not internal parasites unfortunately

 

[JustinM]

Do you have any pets or anything? I have never heard of a white string hanging on a fin. I wish I could help more but I am stumped. Have you tried reaching out to Humblefish at all?

 

[Reefer1991]

Do you have any pets or anything? I have never heard of a white string hanging on a fin. I wish I could help more but I am stumped. Have you tried reaching out to Humblefish at all?

Im assuming its an anchor worm just like whats on the hippo. Its definitely not hair. Ill try and snag a pic when lights are on in a bit. I just dont get it. If they are anchor worms or prazi resistant flukes, clout wouldve done the job. Anything else probably wouldve been taken out by the cupramine. Ive got kanaplex and furan 2 in the water currently. I think im going to dose the prazi at double concentration tomorrow. The hippo i bought at a seperate store than the rest. I wish i waited on the hippo because all of the other tangs would be good for the 300 now. No i haven't reached out to Humblefish, ill look into it. Hopefully I figure something out because im kind of at a stalemate at this point. Thanks for your help

 

[JustinM]

One thing i can recommend is to move them into a new qt. As the female anchors herself, she starts laying eggs within 24 hours and when they hatch, they become free swimming looking for a host. As you see now, other fish are being affected too! I know you don't want to pull them off but the best treatment option is pulling them off with tweezers.