White squiggly string on dorsal fin of Glofish Tetra

Chris3621 · Jan 6, 2022

I am new to this forum and this is my first mystery. I have tried googling and finding information but can't find anything that looks like what my fish has. I have a 15 gallon tank with 3 glofish tetras and a mystery snail. Ph is 6.2 temp is about 75. Two of the tetras are about 1 yr old and the one I am nervous about is about 6 months. He is eating fine and isn't displaying any different behaviour but about a week ago I noticed this white squiggly string coming out his dorsal fin. I thought he swam through poop and it got stuck. But now there is a squiggly thing coming out his tail fin (not poop) too and the top one is still there. I did a 30% water change 2 days ago and no difference. I attached a pic. Is this a worm or parasite? Should I be concerned or try to get it off?

Slaphppy7 · Jan 6, 2022

Welcome to TFF

Anchor worms, maybe? @Colin_T , have a look, please

Anchor Worms in Freshwater Fish

Anchor worms in fish can be an itchy problem. By properly quarantining new arrivals, you can easily reduce them on your fish.

www.thesprucepets.com

Chris3621 · Jan 6, 2022

Slaphppy7 said:
Welcome to TFF

Anchor worms, maybe? @Colin_T , have a look, please

Anchor Worms in Freshwater Fish

Anchor worms in fish can be an itchy problem. By properly quarantining new arrivals, you can easily reduce them on your fish.

www.thesprucepets.com

Thanks so much. These pics might be better.

Colin_T · Jan 6, 2022

post pictures of the fish under normal white light

Chris3621 · Jan 6, 2022

Hopefully these are better. He is fast so it is hard to get a good shot.

Thank you so much for taking a look. I am a bit nervous for him and don't want him to infect my other little guys.

Colin_T · Jan 6, 2022

can you turn the normal white light on the tank when you photograph the fish?

Chris3621 · Jan 6, 2022

Colin_T said:
can you turn the normal white light on the tank when you photograph the fish?

That actually is the normal light. The tank has a black background so it makes the fish glow. I can try and put my flash on the camera. So sorry!

Caesar · Jan 6, 2022

I'd remove it with tweezers. I had something similar on some tetra imported from Thailand a few months back, they were slightly different than the standard anchor worms I'm used to. After removing them all I had no further issues.