27 December 2015

parasite?

I think one of my male cherry barb has a parasite. I see a small white thing sticking to his back, just front right side of the dorsal fin. It looks to be pink near the base. He's so quick and it's so small can't see well, but I think it's an anchorworm.
I gave him a salt bath day before yesterday. Full thirty minutes in a gallon of water with 2 dissolved tablespoons AQ salt (fish tolerated it very well). I hoped the parasite would drop off from the salt bath, but no.
I fed garlic-soaked food the next day, then we were gone all day. Came back and the fish looked the same. This morning I checked on him, and it isn't sticking out as much. Now looks like a flat white mark on the body. I need a closer look tried to catch the fish in a small clear box and hold against the front glass,
but every time the fish paused enough for a close picture, he was facing the wrong way! I couldn't do that too long, stressful.

I'm trying to figure out how he caught a parasite (if that's what it is). I haven't introduced any new fish or snails to this tank in a while, but I did feed them extra trumpet snails a few days ago. And it's possible I forgot to wash my hands between tanks and transferred something from the QT or the tenner... Not sure. Have to get a better look at it tomorrow when the full tank lights are on, decide if it needs manual removal (tweezers) or meds to kill the thing.

1 comment:

Jeane said...

It seems to be gone. I think the salt or garlic caused it to fall off or die- the fish just has a small mark now like a scar.