Anchor worms...questions? HELP!

[Djinn]

Has anyone ever used "Interpet anti-crustacean parasite treatment"??

I'm a tad confused. I'm a professional beginner if that makes sense, had fish for years but never knew how to keep them "properly", i.e. I have no idea about levels, never had any problems until now, had many fish who have lived long and happy lives under my amature care, learnt my lessons the hard way so I guess it's time to learn a new one! (And I think it's time I found out about levels and started paying attention)

OK, my questions -

One one bit it says "before re-dosing or using any other treatments...you should wait a period of 7 days then carry out a 30% water change" but further on in relation to the filter it says "Ammonia and nitrate levels will rise rapidly...daily 25% water changes to dilute levels."

So do I do daily changes or one after a week? There's more...

It says that the treatment will kill off the bacteria in the filter after the first treatment, but shouldn't be a problem if I change the water daily, and I need to change the top layer of the filter and the carbon layer anyway so I can do this after the treatment's been completed, and add a capsule of the enzyme stuff to boost the filter...am I right? Does this mean I will have to re-treat the tank more times? I don't really want to treat them more times then I really have to.

Do you think I should do a water change before I start treating or will this stress them out more?

My other question is about the worms themselves; the lady at the fish store said I should catch the fish affected and remove the parasite with a pair of tweezers...I'm a bit dubious about this, especially since one's a betta with a bug right on its fin...it doesn't mention this in the treatment book that came with the meds, do you think this is neccessary?

Bit annoyed at the moment that the fish affected are two that I bought from her last monday, and as I said before the tank was fine before, it's only after they were added that there's been any problem...serves me right for putting them straight into my community tank instead of isolating them for a while first. She's told me that it's fine to treat the whole community which is good because my mini tank has a crack in it!

Any suggestions? Advice? I want to get started asap obviously, coz it can't be nice having a bloomin great bug hanging out your bum, but I'm nervous to start as I dont quite get the instructions, when I asked fish lady how to do it her reply was "Carefully."

 

[svetlana]

I never used this med and from what i see it is not good at all for either for anchor worms or for anything else.
For anchor worms I would recommend Jungle Parasite clear which is extremely mild BUT I doubt in its potency toward the wrm, moreover it contains extrameds which you do not need.
Plucking worms from fish is not going to help if you won't bleach whole tank (there are free swimmers who wil gladly attach themselves on you fish once they are back). Plus, it is easy to miss the worm. Plus it is tremendous stress for you and for your fish.
Best solution for you would be buying on-line product called Dimilin. It works like a charm, it does not harm fish and it KILLS all parasitic (and non-parasitic) inverts relentlessly. And you won't need to do crazy water changes.

 

[Djinn]

Thanks for that, unfortunately Dimilin doesn't appear to be available in any local stores, nor online that I could see in the UK.

I called the shop that sold me the stuff I mentioned above, double and triple checked that it was the best they had, checked it was suitable for my community tank, reminded her again that I had a mollie fry in the tank, was told it would be fine and basically get on with it.

Followed the dosing instructions, well, actually I under dosed slighlty, put the stuff in yesterday evening, checked my babies tonight, less then 24 hours later, and found my fry virtually dead in the corner, and now there's a worm attached to one of my original fish that I had before adding the two which I suspect she sold me infected. I can't think of any other way it could have happened, she maintains that it was my tank infected, despite it being up and running for ages now with no problems.

Could my tank really have had dormant worms that only picked on the new fish? I can't find much information on anchor worms except what they look like.

I decided to go for broke with the mollie, I caught it and picked the worm out and it's now in a jar suspended in the tank, and the tank had a 25% water change as recommended. I don't know if that was a good plan or not, but it's still hanging in there, just about!

Gutted, I've grown really fond of that little guy, he was tiny when he came accidently in a bag of neons*SICK*

 

[svetlana]

Sorry for your troubles with the worms. The worms are really nasty nad tough to get rid of.
I doubt that it is your fault because I did huge research on the anchor worms and never once i saw that they can go dormant.
As far as i understand roughly their life cycle is as follows:
free swimming brats crawl under scales or attach themselves to the skin. There eating on fish's slime coat they are metamorphosing and eventually adult worm appears with its egglayers injecting the water column with 300-700 free swimmers who are repeat the process.
Almost year ago I bought severum who had similar worms but not anchors. They did not infect my other 2 fish but they sure depilitated the severum. I was struggling with them all this time - huge water changes, copper, Jungle parasite clear, pulling them out of the poor fish... Well I had no more cards in my pack. I bought the DImilin and are medicating my tank for over a month. The worms are gone, my severum is blooming and has grown up immensely since i started with the Dimilin. There is no sign of stress for any fish because Dimilin is virtually harmful for vetebrates - rats were fed 500 mg per day for months and no liver or kidney damage was detected. SO, it is great thing. It might be forbidden in some countries because it is stable and might kill aquatic invetebrates.
What strange with your med is that it affects bacteria: parasitic worms and bacterias are so far apart that sure meds have to exist which are killing one but not another...
They won't kill your fish instanteneously. Molly in a jar can be a little cold though...

 

[Djinn]

Yeah, mollie in a jar died while I was writing my post. Poor thing, it's waiting for a very ceremonious burial being planned by my daughters.

Going this afternoon to "speak" to the woman who sold me the fish, I've searched and searched and can find nothing at all to suggest the worms could possibly have come from my tank, they had to have come from the shop.

I'm not a very happy lady at the moment! My guppy is now on it's last metaphoric legs...my neons and harlequins are perfectly happy, as is the pl*co, they were mine to start with, I have double checked that I didn't over dose with the meds, it wasn't me!!!