Argulus

I do not have any... but I was talking about microscopy with the pet store where I buy my plants for my newts tank, and found out that he has a quarantined tank with a fantail goldfish with argulus.... He gave me some to look at under my microscope.... they were neat to look at, and I have been trying to help him come up with a solution...


My concern is there any possibility that my plants could have had argulus on them? It seems hard to "quarantine" in a busy pet store where you probably use the same net in all the tanks...

I haven't seen any, and also I haven't been able to find any instances on caudata.org, or anywhere else on the internet about them attacking newts.... should I be worried? Do you think a newt would try and eat one? Do you think the toxins would put them off, or do you think they are only specialized to goldfish type fish?

Opinions? Should I be worried, or am I being paranoid?

According to Amphib Med and Captive Husbandry (Wright & Whitaker), argulus can infect aquatic amphibians. However, if they do infect, they are easy to see and identify. Also, they are not hard to treat. They can be removed manually (the newt then moved to a clean enclosure) and they can be treated by salt bath, and as a last resort, ivermectin (10 mg/ml for 30-60 min). As another alternative, I would suggest that the newt could be kept out of water for a time ("dirt quarantine") and the parasite would be unable to survive this. Dirt quarantine is described:
Caudata Culture Articles - Sores

I would suggest just keeping a close eye on the newt. It seems unlikely he would get it.

Although the argulus were very interesting.... finding out that they are in aquariums that are near and next to the aquariums where I buy my plants spooked me and unnerved me... It doesn't sound like there have been many complaints about this with amphibians.... but I just wanted to run it past you guys.... thanks for the re-assurement... I will keep an eye on them... I don't think they will get them, but that paranoid part of my mind is worried...

I am also trying to find a way to help the pet store owner.... I have suggested several chemicals I have read for goldfish treatment, but was wonder if anyone knew if they had any natural predators?

I unknowingly dragged some of that in on some plants from my outdoor pond one year. It did attack some goldfish, but my ribbed newts were left unaffected? Nasty thing really!

here are some argulus pics

Also were you ever able to get rid of them? I am trying to help the pet store owner get rid of these guys who are on his fantail?