# Anchor worm? Ich? Please see pics...



## Niki7 (Aug 16, 2010)

Hi everyone,

I am a bit new here so I hope I am doing this right! Here is a picture of a veilfin danio that is sick. I have more pics in my gallery too. He has something hanging from his "chin" as well as a red area. He has been swimming with his mouth open since yesterday and it looks all red inside his mouth. He had something like this about a week ago and I treated him with Parasite Guard thinking he had anchor worms, he seemed great after that. But now he looks much worse but same problem. He is a newer fish and now I wonder what he brought to my tank! Any advice appreciated!! ~Niki


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Only thing I can say is isolate him before others are infected.


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## Niki7 (Aug 16, 2010)

Thanks Jarman, I did. I decided to treat with parasite guard again while in isolation. One of the things hanging from him fell off and I plan on getting it under my microscope late tonight to see what I can see...in the meantime though, his entire chin seems to be disintegrating. Every time I look at him there seems to be less of his face. I think over the next half hour I will decide to euthanize or not. It looks like he is suffering terribly.


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## Niki7 (Aug 16, 2010)

Just since I posted this, now he has gotten much worse. He is about to be euthanized because I cannot bear to watch him suffer anymore. But what has happened is his entire bottom jaw and disintegrated. He literally has a gaping hole where his bottom lip used to be. What the heck happened to him??? I only have 3 danios right now in a 45 gal tank because I moved my guppies out when he first got sick and I didn't know if it was only him or the whole tank and I didn't want to risk my gups. None of the guppies nor the other danios are showing anything like this.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Looks bad. I was reading on a guppy forum where someone had guppies that had lost their lower jaw and were living fine...key is whether or not they can manage to get food into the hole. If it were mine, I would probably euthanize.


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

To me it looks like mouth fungus. Columnaris (sp) is actually a bacteria and if it is this, it can be treated with Penicillin, Kanamycin, or Erythomycin (Marycin). I would look for them in that order with Pen or Kan being the better treatment option, if your fish is still alive.

He is also starting to get redness around his gills, a sign of infection and trouble breathing.


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## Niki7 (Aug 16, 2010)

Thank you both so much for your advice. I did euthanize him last night. Parts of him just kept falling off and I couldn't bear to watch it knowing he was probably in horrible pain. 

Once he was down I put the long worm-like thing under my microscope. It wasn't anchor worm, at least it didn;t look like any I've seen in pictures. It looked more like a tapeworm. It even had what vaguely looked like segments. Hard to tell but it sure looked that way. There was no mouth to be seen, although I know he was attached (you can see him in the first picture, it looks like a hair on the fish's chin) so maybe it started with a parasite then got infected by columnaris? I swear it looked like a fish ebola the way he was sloughing off.

I looked at some of the feces that the fish pooped before he was euthanized and there were what looked like eggs/segments in there. There were also very tiny sesame shaped things swimming around - they would only swim in one direction then have to turn their whole bodies around to go another direction, kind of like a Roomba (those automatic vacuum cleaners?). I saw one or two things that looked like mini cucumbers and they did not like the light - it kept moving to get back to the feces and hide. I heard that is the case with some parasite? And I should say that all of these creatures were swimming around unscathed in water that was dosed with Parasite Guard, so they are tough whatever they are. These were all seen with a 40x micro so not very powerful unfortunately. Anybody have a clue what they are?

Would a tapeworm attach to his chin like that or am I looking at a skin fluke infestation? And in the last picture his belly is huge and bloated. Would that be tapeworm? I couldn't do an autopsy because by the time I got to the microscope it was 2am. *ZZZZ

thanks,
Niki


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## sivakv (Aug 6, 2010)

Good to know what infected to prevent reassurance. As such you have provided enough information, perhaps some photographs if possible, would catch the eye of experts in our forum to understand more. 

Rgds
Siva


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I would do a really good vacuuming of your gravel.


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## Niki7 (Aug 16, 2010)

Thanks Jr, I plan on starting over. There is no way I am going through this again! I only have 2 danios in my 45 gal so now is the time to empty it. It's worth it for peace of mind. 

DMax et al, after looking on the internet, I think I've narrowed it down to either columnaris or nematodes, probably both. I actually found a video on Youtube that showed nematodes under a microscope and they looked just like what I saw. It also would explain a problem I had with a couple guppies a few months back where they died and looked like something ate out of their bellies. Gruesome! I didn't know what killed them then, but I think I do now. And the only way to get rid of the nematodes (if thats what they are) is to dump the tank. I'm just glad I took the healthy ones out and put them in my other tank. Both nematodes and columnaris cause flesh to slough off in chunks if not caught quick. That's what I read anyway. Like I said I never had anything like this before so I really don't know. But thank you (and everyone!) for the advice!!
Niki


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

Thanks for the follow up and info. It is great to see someone be able to take a closer look at their fish and disease. So, what is it you do?....because the average person does not typically own a microscope.

Check to see if you can use something to kill stuff on the gravel/filters like bleach or peroxide. Or perhaps cranking the water temp up is enough? Good luck setting it back up.


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## Niki7 (Aug 16, 2010)

Hey Dmax! I am a complete science nerd, full time student of Environmental Science. Went back to school when I became intolerant of the disinfectant chemicals used to clean dental operatories (I was an assistant for years). So I'm off to a second career! (well in a couple more semesters that is)

The microscope is a given here in my house, I am completely addicted to it and use it constantly! My son Max and I share it (he's 11). My hope is that I can sometime afford to get a stronger one and one that hooks up to my computer. THAT would rock! *h/b

I ended up only taking half of my tank water out but took out all the gravel. Then I washed it in a bucket with bleach/water solution. It was a real good thing I did as it was really a mess. I know I had too much gravel in my tank but resisted getting rid of some, not anymore! After rinsing it 6 or 8 times, I treated the gravel with a chlorine remover (just in case), then reset it up with only about half the gravel. Oh and I cleaned and inspected all the plants/decorations and replaced a few. I treated the tank with nutrafin but I am still getting ready for a cycle. It's inevitable after all that change. Just two little danios in there right now so they should be okay but watching it carefully.

thanks again for your help!
Niki :fish-in-bowl:


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

All your benefical bacteria was in the gravel, on the plants, and in the filter media. There is no real reason you need to keep the water. All it contains potentially is ammonia. It is definately a good idea to treat with a dechlorinator after using chlorine. I'm glad to hear you did that! In the future if you ever need wash your plants, you can use peroxide watered down a bit (not on the roots though). It is often used as a way to remove algae from plant leaves. It turns algae pink and they begin to bubble.

Max...what a great name.


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## Niki7 (Aug 16, 2010)

Kept the filter media as it was, just rinsed the sponge part in aquarium water...no real plants just plastic ones but maybe that solution you mentioned will clean them up as well. I kept some of the water because my tap well water is 8.2 (super high GH and KH)and I condition it with one of those water softening pillows (kind of a pain) and didn't want to change my ph too much if I could help it. All my water parameters were perfect, no ammonia/nitrates/nitrites/pH was 7.2. Probably will be different shortly though while it re-cycles. But glad to know a little more about where the bacteria are, that part always kind of confused me! so thanks!


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