Please Help! - White Worms Filling Tank And Killing Large Cichlids

[RyanDDowd]

Hi,
I have a large aquarium with a Plecostomus and three adult cichlids. Three days ago, I noticed one of my cichlids hanging out at the top and bottom of the tank prepping to die, but I saw no parasites and water parameters were perfect. This morning I found that cichlid and another with about 40 small worms borrowed into the sides of them. There are also about 100 thin white worms ranging from half an inch to three inches in length swimming around in the aquarium that I hadn't seen before.. Both of the infected cichlids have now died and the other cichlid and pleco are still fine and showing no signs of distress. I do multiple water changes each week, and added no new fish so I have no idea where the worms came from. I treated the tank with sentry Coppersafe a couple of days ago and it did nothing. Worms are multiplying rapidly. They must be some sort of nematode because planeria wouldn't have killed the fish. What should I do to save the other cichlid and pleco? Removing them from the tank isn't an option because I have no others available. Somehow I need to kill these worms...

Thanks in advance!
Ryan

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I am far from sure, but you might want to look into Lernaea Elegans, aka anchor worms

 

[RyanDDowd]

Having done some more research, it looks like they could be anchor worms. A commonly recommended treatment is Potassium Permanganate contained in the product Clear Water by Jungle Labs or purchased as crystals from a hardware store, dissolved in water. and applied to the aquarium at 40 milligrams per gallon. Does it sound like they could in fact be hundreds of anchor worms swimming around in my aquarium and attacking my fish? Any suggestion on treatments, products, and dosage?

Thanks,
Ryan


Thanks TwoTankAmin. I just read your post and agree. Any suggestion on treatments, products, and dosage?

Ryan

 

[TwoTankAmin]

What I read was not good. You need to treat the whole tank for sure.
 
Try reading here http/edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa185

 

[ShinySideUp]

Look, I don't know if this will help but since you can actually see these wormy things then they are quite large (on a bacterial scale) and may be able to be filtered out so as to at least keep the infestation down a little until you can find the right chemicals to do the real job. Try putting a 1 micron filter under the outflow from your tank filter, these will filter out almost everything and may be a stalling measure for you. They have them on ebay but that may be too late, so contact your LFS as certainly the one I use has them in stock.
 
Anything like this will do: http/www.ebay.co.uk/itm/18-FILTER-BAGS-3-x-1-MICRON-BIO-DIESEL-VEG-OIL-/171160736145?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item27d9f99191
 
Hope something works.

 

[RyanDDowd]

Great idea! Thanks

 

[Squidward]

Can you get hold of Kusuri dewormer, or something similar?
 
It is a lot safer to use than Potassium Permanganate