Dead Arowana, other fish possibly going. Gill worm?

Evilhead

Small Fish
Aug 22, 2004
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Kanzaki-cho, Japan
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#1
Woke up to find my wild-caught Silver Arowana dead this morning. Not the first thing you want to see on your birthday. Anyway, wondering if you guys could help me save the other two fish in the tank.

First I noticed my Dat was looking pretty shabby and seemed stressed out a couple days ago. His eyes were a white on the outside, which worried me but had happened before when he grew a lot and ended up being fine (the old lens-covers fell off). But this time he seemed more stressed out and his fins were (and still are) a bit ratty. I noticed a slight haze on towards the back of my Aro's eyes the next day as well, which started to worry me. I also noticed a SMALL WHITE WORM swimming in the water yesterday. Thick as a hair and about a centimeter long. Last night the Aro seemed stressed out and kept gasping at the surface of the water. He gets jumpy sometimes, so at the time I thought he was just stressed out from the Dat being stressed and not gasping (he was a very sensative Aro) and went to bed. Turns out he's died that night.

I did a big water change and tank cleaning this morning. Now my other two fish, the Dat and a pleco, and seem air hungry, with the Dat hanging out at the surface and sometimes sticking his mouth out of the water, and my pleco is often breathing the blubbler and from the surface of the water which is pretty odd behavior for him.

I've got great aeration by the way, which a 140cm long bubbler tube connected to a strong air pump. I cycle it on about half of the day usually. I do weekly ~30% water changes and tank cleanings, feed them a good diet, etc. They are also in a fairly large tank (5ftX2ftX2ft).

I suspect they have an internal paracite, namely gillworm. I checked out the gills of the dead Aro, and I didn't see any worms in there but they did seem a bit enflamed. Plus I spotted that nasty worm swimming in the tank. So, what should I do? My LSF has been closed the past two days, so I'm going to head there in the morning, but if you guys have any advice, please let me know. I really don't want to lose my Dat and pleco too. Anything would help, please.