Cherry Barb Help, Worms?

[supremelylazzy]

Set up a 12 gallon tank for my mom, tank ran with just plants for 2 weeks, introduced 3 cherry barbs a week ago, used filter media from my tank to cycle, water conditions are fine, 2 barbs are fine.

One fish hides nearly all the time, is gasping all the time but never at the surface, has clamped fins, and im pretty sure he was lying on the bottom about 2 hours ago. I just removed him from the tank into a small container for observation and noticed a small white thing hanging down from just in front of the anal fin, and what looked like a real fine hair about a inch and a half long also hanging that has since detached and fallen off.

Is this worms or did my fish eat a piece hair that got in the tank?

 

[WILDER]

What test kit are you using.
Can you post water stats please.

Hair like growths can be columnaris which will look like strands of cotton hanging off the fin.
Or anchor worm which will look hair like and sometimes has a y shaped tail.

Immediate water change and increase aeration.

Were the live plants steralised before adding to the tank.

Anchor Worm (a.k.a. Lernaea)



Symptoms:

Infected fish can be seen with whitish red worm-like threads, about � inch long. Trailing at the rear of female parasites are two long, tube-like egg sacs. The parasites can be found anywhere on the body of the fish, including the eyes, gills and fins. Raised ulcers may appear at the site of attachment. Consequently, secondary bacterial infections may occur. The tale-tale sign that your fish is infected will be if you notice it rubbing or scraping against objects in the aquarium. It does this in an effort to remove the parasite.



Cause:

The parasitic crustacean Lernaea. Lernaea burrow into the muscle and gill tissue of fish, often times reaching as deeply as the internal organs, causing severe damage. Heavy infestations can cause significant weight loss and death.



Treatment:

You should kill all visible worms by dabbing them with a cotton swab, dipped in Potassium Permanganate or an anti-parasitic medication. Then you should carefully remove them from the fish with tweezers. You should kill the parasites before removing them because if they have burrowed deeply, removing them alive could cause the fish pain and significant physical damage. Once you�ve removed the parasite, you should then dab the wounds with Methylene Blue to prevent secondary bacterial infections from occurring. It is highly recommended that you feed the fish with medicated food. The tank will also need to be treated to kill any unseen, free-swimming juvenile parasites. You can use Fluke Tabs, Clout, Paragon or Trifon for this.

 

[supremelylazzy]

Quick dip test strips the manufacturer is Jungle labratories corp. One multi test & one for ammonia only, water quality as follows'

Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-<10ppm
Chlorine-0
Ph-7.8

Have since done partial water change & added airstone.

The longer thing hanging off the fish that has since fell off, really looked like a real fine human or animal hair, it was VERY thin, i could barely see it in the water. we have dogs that live in the house, is it a possibility the fish ingested hair?

 

[supremelylazzy]

and No I dont believe the plants were steralized.For future reference how would one do this?

and thank you for the quick reply much appreciated.

 

[WILDER]

The dog hair could of stuck on the fins.
Just keep a close eye on anchor worm symtoms, or columnaris.

Ask in the plant section of the forum on how to steralise plants, before adding them to the tank.

Also keep a look out for flicking and rubbing, scraping off objects.
Red sores or red pin prick marks on the fish.