Gill Worms?

[Steven Pro]

Anyone ever seen anything like this before?

I recently took over a maintenance account. One of the tanks at this place is full of these parrot cichlids. For anyone unfamiliar they are what results when someone has too much time on their hands and creates an ugly hybrid by allegedly crossing a red devil with a gold severum. Anyhow, there are about a dozen of these parrots in this tank and everyone is polluted with these worms. I am not a fan of these fish, so my initial reaction was to put all the fish down and sterilize the tank. But, since this is in a convalescent home, they are sensitive to euthanasia issues. I already gave them praziquantel orally without any apparent effect.

 

[Mish]

Wild! I heard fish could live with worms, but I never thought that would be possible.

 

[leebca]

These are most likely blood worms (Philometra sp). Praziquantel is the medication of choice, but not in the food, in the water, as a water treatment.

 

[Steven Pro]

Thanks Lee!

 

[billsreef]

Sure they are worms? Looks like it could be malformed gill covers and malformed gill filiments. The genetics invovled in such mutated fish often causes such problems. If the gill chamber was indeed infected by a mass of worms that large, I would expect the gills to have suffered too much damage for sufficient gas exchange to allow the fish to still be alive.

 

[TerryB]

I agree with Bill. Have you looked at a sample under a microscope? It may not be worms at all.

Terry B

 

[leebca]

When I first saw the pictures, my first thought was that they were mutated gill structures. But then, Steven said they were worms. Hence the only worms I'd known to do that were the blood worms.

 

[TerryB]

Check the water source for possible toxins.

Terry B

 

[Steven Pro]

I recently treated these guys with Hikari's Prazi-Pro (Praziquantel in the water) just to see and nothing happened. I am leaning more and more towards these guys just being freaks.

On the upside, I was nervous using the Prazi-Pro in this display because it also houses a few plecos, Chinese algae eaters, corys, clown loaches, and an African underwater frog. But, the Hikari rep assured me it was safe and I have to say none of the animals appeared to react adversely to the treatment.