Illness/Sickness: opalina ciliates

help I looked in my axie tank and found very small specks moving. my b/f does photography and got a close up of it. it looked like a opalina ciliate.

how can i treat it? worried

Here are the pics I took of the two things that was moving around. My photo setup isn't exactly for shooting small thing so this is the best I could do.


We have identified this as oplina sapphirina.


This one looks like a worm, but don't know what it is. Maybe the male?

from the axolotl.org does mention a treatment for sapphrina but not sure what the other worm looking thing is (may be the male?). Also separate the axie or do all of them need treatment?

If anybody with some experienced can chime in it would be much appreciated.

Thanks a bunch

Hi steffiegirl and andigit,

Firstly excellent photography skills. They look right out of a textbook.

Have you recently added something new to the tank such as new animals, feeder fish or aquatic plants? These protozoa are normally carried through in particular feeder fish vectors. Remember to quarantine your new stock for minimum of 30 days beforehand before adding to the main tank.

Have a look at this link. http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Tank_critters.shtml



This is an extract from that site. The strategies are common to reduce the protozoal load.

• Reduce feeding. Leftover food can fuel large outbreaks of tank critters.
• Remove them manually by wiping them off and/or siphoning them out. If
• Do a better job removing all uneaten food and waste products.
• Do a better job adhering to scheduled water changes (at least 10% per week, perhaps more until the critter epidemic subsides).
• Wait. In most cases, we only notice tank critters when they suddenly explode in numbers. If you wait, their number will almost always decrease as their food supply dwindles or they are balanced out by the growth of other micro-organisms in the tank.

Do NOT tear apart your whole tank and "clean everything" in order to get rid of the critters. If you do, you will need to start over with the process of cycling your tank, and you are likely to do more harm than good to your amphibians.

When i think of protozoa, i think of metronidazole. Vets can administer them in cases of parasitism on the axies themselves. Sometimes treating the axies will break the life cycle of the parasite as they do not have a source of 'nutreint' to feed from. It depends on the species of protozoa though, whether they are 100% reliant on feeding on axies, or they can survive on plant matter etc.

I cannot tell you what the other worm is, its not my area, however, im sure there will be someone here who is good at identifying aquatic protozoa. (Oceanblue im thinking you). It could be a flatworm?

Also have a look at this site. http://www.axolotl.org/health.htm

It discusses about protozoal infections. However, i must stress do not try to self treat with over the counter medications and chemicals.

There is something i think of which might have a lot of potential in targeting the problem you are facing. It does require the correct id of the other protozoa though. An aqueous (soluble) treatment of Flubendazole is commonly used among aquarium hobbyist to get rid of a lot of parasites - hydra, planria, flatworm, snails etc. It appears to also have effect on opalina. Flubendazole has quite a high safety margin as well in that it targets specifically the biochemical pathways of parasites that axies don't have.

http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/FlubendazoleArticle.pdf

Anyway, let me find out a bit more and get back to you about that one.

Cheers

Despite Rayson's comment I'm no expert here but looking at internet photo's I wonder if Photo 1 is cyclops, a common copepod which if present in very high numbers can predate on small larvae, is quite good food for larger larvae and no threat to adults. They are a nuisance if they get into daphnia cultures as they predate them and crash the population. I had a small population in my axie tanks (where I think they feed on another small inhabitant an ostracod which eats rotting vegetation) and the axies are fine.

I haven't a clue what the second picture is.

If your axolotls look well don't do anything drastic! These creatures may be far less harmful than the potential treatments.

reading more, the first one doesn't seem too harmful. Still not sure what the heck the second one is.

We'll keep our eye on our axie... at the moment all the axie seem to be acting them self and eating.

Based simply on the odds, I'd bet that neither of these are any threat to the axolotls. Healthy aquariums are full of micro-life, nearly always harmless.

May I use your copepod photo on this page:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Tank_critters2.shtml
?

Thanks for the replies!!!!!we have not put anything new in our tank for several months but plastic plants. I have rinsed them out before putting them in our tank. Like andigit says all our axies are acting normal and they are still eating like little pigs. I feed them all black worms, axolotl pellets,red worms(frozen), and the occasional meal worm, and wax worm for treats. Maybe those parasites were there already. I really just discovered them last night while a was looking at one of my female axies(Squirt).Out of the corner of my eyes little specks were moving around. Were reading up on the medication info that DARKMAVERICK has given to us. hopefully Jennewt is right that they're harmless. I just have not seen them before, so I felt alarmed and worried about our axies.

Jennewt: You can use my photo anything to help out with the health of our axies.

Hi all,

Its best to just leave the protozoa be unless you notice that they are negatively impacting on your axie's health, in which by then intervention would be necessary to eradicate them.

Cheers.