Illness/Sickness: A few of my axies have Anchor Worms!!

Hey everyone!

I just recently came home from a two week vacation to find that my adult axies have anchor worms. I have done some research and they are anchor worms. I have tried pulling them off, and I got most of them off, but poor things it hurts them. They are coming out of their gills as well as the side of their body and their legs. I have lowered the temperature to 60 and it stays between 60 - 62 degrees. Im not sure if its better for them or not, but I lowered to lower stress and hopefully prevent infection from pulling them off. They don't seemed to be stressed, but I am. I got some medication yesterday, but I am not sure what to use. I have "Copper Safe" and some other treatments for ponds, by Tetra. I also put benificial bacteria in there as well as anything I can find that will prevent infection of any kind.

Will they be okay?
What else can I do to help them?
How long will it take for the anchor worms to die?

Have a read through this thread

http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=63346&highlight=anchor+worms

Hope it helps.

Hi Sharelkaye,

Firstly, do not use copper safe or add bacterial boosters to your tank. Not only are they not effective in treating anchorworms, they cause more complications.

Secondly, do not attempt to manually remove the anchorworms, you might cause the 'anchor' bit of the worm to break off and get embedded underneath the skin. This would create a perpetual nidus of recurrent infections.

Thirdly, read this link. I have discussed extensively on how to treat, prevent and provide supportive aid to axies with anchorworms.
http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=63057&highlight=anchor+worms

Cheers.

The other thread helped a lot, but I still have a problem I do not have a vet in my city or close by that can treat a salamander.
I was also wondering why not to use copper safe or beneficial bacteria.
What will it do?
As well as the medication you mentioned, I can not find it anywhere.
Is using the Tetra brand treatment for anchor worms okay?

I still can't figure out how they got them in the first place. The only new thing added would be my gfp wild type that I got from rick about a month or two ago. Why would they show now?:errr:

Was the GFP quarantined for 30 days?

Hi Sharelkaye,

Anchor worms can be introduced to the tank via live feeder fish, worms and even new plants as well as any new additions to the tank. This stresses the importance of quarantine. Occasionally, an axie can be a 'carrier'. That means that very low and barely noticeable infection already occured and is just waiting for the ideal conducive environment to go into population explosion.

The only safe and effective treatment for anchorworms are dimilin. Beneficial bacteria boosters claim to just help in accelerating the cycling process and has absolutely nothing to do with treating for anchorworms. If you are worried about secondary bacterial or fungal infections as a result of the anchorworms, the best thing to do is to fridge your axie, ensure good nutrition and water parameters. A prophylactic antibiotic course may be indicated.

Could you private mail me the exact list of constituents in the copper safe/tetra brand medications? I don't recommend their use for several reasons. They are a generic 'combination' drug meant for fish. The active ingredients in the medications may not be tolerated by the axie. Using them can potentially result in more damage to their skin, gills and even toxicity. Secondly, these drugs may not have dimilin as their constituent. Furthermore, even if there is dimilin present, because the medication come in a 'combination', it is hard to accurately dose the axie.

Cheers

It seems like a lot of anchor worms are showing up on axolotls in the U.S. Maybe you should contact some of the people who recently had anchor worm problems and see what you have in common.

Well I had my gfp axie about 3 months before there was a issue. My wild type has it the worst. I don't feed them live feeders except for my at home breed guppy babies which are quarantined before. They seemed to still have a pretty good appetite. Fringing is really hard at my house because there is no room for their size. I do have a chiller and have changed the temperature. What should I put the temperature on? I will get the information on the medications I have tomorrow and post it. The beneficial bacteria I put in their tank was supposed to help with water conditions to stabilized their health and to prevent further infections, parasites, and funguses. They are okay so far, I will keep you updated. Thanks for all your help.

Mardel Copper Safe
*Treats Ich, Velvet, and other external parasites*For freshwater fish*Concentrated formula means you use less
Freshwater formula treats Ich, Velvet, and other external parasites. Maracide contains Malachite Green and Chitosan. 16 oz of Maracide treats 475 gallons. Maracide Concentrate contains trisaminomethane, and aniline green.

.

Can I use this medication?


Anti-parasitic fish medication rapidly treats a wide variety of parasitic diseases*Effective fish medication for use in fresh and saltwater aquariums*Treats diseases such as gill & skin flukes, hole-in-the-head disease, anchor worm, velvet, and fish lice.

I just used the search button (towards the top of the page) to check the ingredients of the treatments. Unfortunately Malachite Green is toxic to axolotl. I have read through some threads about this and some have used it at a low dose. I personally would not proceed with this. I would contact my vet and request dimilin to treat the anchor worm. If necessary print of the information that Rayson has given you, to show them, most vets will be happy to assist.



Do not use the API general treatment as this contains copper sulphate..also toxic to axolotl

Yes Julia is absolutely right. (She makes a budding vet!) Those medications are indicated only for fish. As i mentioned in my earlier post before, most generic off-the-counter medications are broad spectrum combination drugs. They most often contain a compound or substance that are toxic to axolotls. Malachite green and copper compounds have profound toxic effects on axies and should not be used on them.

Use only dimilin. You can get them from the vets or from general aquarium supply stores.

Cheers.