What to do After Anchor Worm Infestation

[SissyP33]

Hello all,

Long story short, after battling an anchor worm infestation for 3 weeks all of my goldfish have passed away.

I drained the tank and my canister filter but how long should I wait until I add new stock to restart my tank? I know anchor worms are parasites and cant live without a host, but I'm terrified of getting another infestation. I've even considered throwing out all my equipment and starting over from scratch, but if it's possible I'd like to use what I have.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

What did you treat them with?

Anchorworm don't normally kill fish quickly. I have seen fish covered in anchorworm for 6 months and they were swimming around and eating.

The safest way to treat anchorworm is with salt. Add 4 heaped tablespoons of rock salt, sea salt or swimming pool salt per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. Keep the salt levels up for 2 weeks and the anchorworm should be dead.

If there are no fish left, then fill the tank with fresh water and add enough salt to the tank so it no longer dissolves. Get the filter running and leave the salt to flow through the system for 24-48 hours. Then flush it out with fresh water and start again.

 

[SissyP33]

Thanks for the advice. My fish were weak and had issues before the anchor worms showed up and I think that in combination with secondary infections just pushed them over the edge. I treated them by pulling the worms off (which left gaping holes in my fishs body) and treating them with Microb Lift Lice and Anchor Worm medication.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I’ve heard you have to pull the anchor worms out. Colin, will the salt kill the worms without having to pull them out? Fortunately, I’ve never had to deal with this.

 

[Colin_T]

Salt kills anchorworms within 24 hours and they turn grey and usually drop off when dead. If they don't fall off when they turn grey, you can pull them out then and they don't do any damage to the fish.

If you pull healthy (cream or white) anchorworms out of fish, you leave big holes in the fish where chunks of flesh are removed with the parasite, and these can get infected and make the fish sick.

 

[SissyP33]

. If they don't fall off when they turn grey, you can pull them out then and they don't do any damage to the fish.

If you pull healthy (cream or white) anchorworms out of fish, you leave big holes in the fish where chunks of flesh are removed with the parasite, and these can get infected and make the fish sick.

Interesting, I found the opposite. When I pulled grey worms off my fish they usually were the largest and did the most damage upon removal. And the you white/almost clear ones did the least damage as they were much smaller (they still took a little chunk out of my fish and made them bleed but it was nothing compaired to the larger worms).

*shurgs* just my experiance... oh well what's done us done.