Help! A worm just came out of my clownfish

[renenijman]

I replaced a clownfish in my tank last week (the previous one had a swimming bladder problem.) and it seemd to be doing fine and eating well. It sometimes shook its body a litte, but usually after the bigger one poked it and I read that this is common behaviour for determining dominance.
Just an hour ago I noticed a long white string of "poop" coming out of him. I quickly googled it and read it could point to a parasite. Just as I was about to make a video of it, it broke off. Then, just a few seconds later as I looked again, I saw a big worm swimming next to him. I assume he pooped him out. I was able to quickly catch the worm and make a video of him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKhIlK7iZe8
He's about 1,5cm long.

I called the fish store and they told me that worms are relatively common among clownfish, but he hadn't heard of this kind of incident. He told me to keep a close watch on him and see if he would eat yet still loose weight.

Has anyone on here ever seen something like this or know what I should do?

Thanks in advance,
René

 

[syngraves]

put the clown in quarantine to avoid the possiblity of spreading.

 

[OrionN]

Unless you see the clown poop hot the worm, then you know for sure but I have worms like that swimming all the time especially at night.
IMO, it is most likely that the worm is not a parasite. It just happen to swim near the fish.

Parasite should not be able to swimm every effectively, and should have bare skin. Any hare on the worm, then it is not a parasite.

 

[tkeracer619]

I don't think that looks like any internal worms I have seen so I went to images. That was a mistake. My skin is crawling.

Anyways the symptoms are of worms. QT with prazi, you'll know soon enough.

 

[ThRoewer]

It looks like a nematode but with 15 mm it seems way to big, especially for a intestinal parasite in a small fish like a clownfish.
Usually these are small enough so that several easily fit inside the digestive tract of a fish.

The size would be right for Cestodes (tapeworm) but the worm in the video is for sure not a tapeworm.

 

[renenijman]

Thanks for all your responses. I guess it was just a coincidence that that worm was swimming next to it.
Anyway, both clowns had a worm problem, so I dipped them for 20mins in a tremazol bath and that seems to have cured them.