Parasite ID

[Vale!]

Generally, I've been able to count myself really very lucky when it comes to fishy diseases and parasites over the years.  However, my luck has just run out (temporarily, I hope)!


I have two nano tanks, both around 30 litres, housing Parasphromenus alfredi (Liquorice Gourami). One of them is causing concern - more specifically, one of the males in it is causing concern.


He, like others of his breed and sex, prefers to spend 23 hours, 59 minutes and 55 seconds of every day in his cave.  The other five seconds are reserved for grabbing food - usually whiteworms. Okay, that's an exaggeration ; but it's true at the moment because he's in breeding colours and it's just possible that his priority may be guarding eggs.


Last week I witnessed one of his fleeting appearances and its after-image suggested something wasn't quite right.  Two days ago, without an interim sighting, I gave the tank  microworms ; this forces him to spend more time gathering mouthfuls and enables better inspection.


Now the parasites are far more obvious. I have an idea what they are but would like further opinions from anyone more experienced in identifying these things before I start adding medication, or taking other action to eradicate them.


[youtube]LMBWSs4WOa0[/youtube]


I tried again with a camera last night but the fishes' dinner had been served almost immediately following a water-change and they were too wary to appear within my attention span!  I'll try again tonight to see if I can get an improved view. I've temporarily removed the floating plants (and cleaned the front glass!) so the lighting should be better.



If successful I'll post an update. Meantime, if anyone can positively ID these things from the above poor footage I'd be much obliged.

[black ghost]

Do you mean parasites on the fish or in the water? Can’t see anything from the video. What do they look like?

[Vale!]

On the male : elongated white objects on/near the gills, both sides.

No luck with better pics this evening.

[black ghost]

Anchor worm? How big?

Edit, sorry Vale!, didn’t see that it was you. You can ID anchor worm.

[DoubleDutch]

Nematods ?

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/Julie ... s-69787778

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[plankton]

Gill flukes maybe?

[Vale!]

Thanks for the replies - I've been busy in the interim.


P : I'm sure they're not gill flukes.

DD : I'm more or less certain that they're not Nematodes.

BG : That was my instinctive reaction (they're about 2-3mm long, btw). Then I worried that they seem shorter and thicker than Lernaea that I've seen in illustrations.  But then they could be a different species than yer bog standard anchor worm.


I spent yesterday morning trying to find nauplii or later life-cycle stages in the water, but no joy. Maybe they haven't yet produced any, or maybe I was looking in the wrong places.

#1 LFS thought anchor worm.  #2LFS thought anchor worm.

I found some pics of crustacean parasites of much more like our chaps' proportions, though they weren't Lernaea.

I took some stills from a video and enlarged them. The more I loooked the more I convinced myself that they must be anchor worms of some kind. So, in the absence of any real alternative, that's what I decided they are. It crossed my mind that I really should have deconstructed the tank and taken the fish out for inspection ; but on balance I thought the likely stress wasn't worth it. 


#1LFS had Interpet Anti-Crustacean Parasite.  Its active ingredient is sodium chlorite. It warns that the aquarium's pH should be above 6.5 when using it. A Google explained that in acidic conditions sodium chlorite produces chlorine dioxide gas, which doesn't sound all that marvellous. 


Dilemma #1 : it'd be a huge pH hike for the fish - and I'd also be adding buffer which would make the conductivity rocket.  Should I shop around and see if I could find a treatment that doesn't require such a high pH (I'm not a potassium permanganate fan) or is time an imperative? 

Dilemma #2 : are there little ones in the tank? - it's very possible judging from the male's colour and behaviour. So do I put in medication as quick as poss, in the hope of clobbering  a potential explosion of parasitic nauplii before they find any fry ; or will any medication and/or the change in water parameters kill any eggs or fry anyway?

I bought the Interpet stuff.

Dilemma #3 : when treating anabantoids, received advice is to half-dose whenever possble. Liquorice Gourami do have labyrinth organs but they don't seem to use them much, if at all. At least mine don't, at all.  So should I half-dose or not? I rang Interpet. When the relevant techie had returned from lunch, they phoned back to  advise "full dose".


I gave myself 24 hours to change the water parameters, so within that period the poor fish have had to put up with lots of water changes in addition to a pH jump from 5 to 7 and a conductivity jump from 44 to around 140uS (notes are downstairs).  Hardly ideal.


Anyway, the treatment has just gone in (4.5mls). In ten days' time I'll deconstruct the tank and have a good look at the fish ; it's at that point that a second dose can be given if necessary.

The Interpet box warns : "Likely to cause adverse side effects to plants and biological media".  That's not too much of a bother for me - there's a bit of Java fern in there and an Anubias thing.  I took a photo as a reference.





There's a very slow air-driven filter in the tank which normally doesn't do a lot, but with pH now greatly increased and any nitrifying microblighters threatened with devastation, I'll have to monitor pH and ammonia.  Otherwise, it's cross-fingers time!

[black ghost]

They could always be young Lernaea? I would use Waterlife Parazin myself, as I only ever use Waterlife treatments.

[plankton]

Fingers crossed for them V!.

[Vale!]

Just an update ...

Ammonia- munchers seem so far to be unaffected ; but I'm getting a reading of 0.024mg/l nitrite as of a few moments ago. I'll keep my eye on it.

pH is still OK - I have a glassful of buffer solution ready just in case!