How the hell do you get rid of anchor worms

[bleh]

ive been having this problem with anchor worms for the past 2 months and ive tried everything to get rid of them. they were introduced into my axol tank by some live plants i bought from a pet store, atleast thats what i think. so anyway i first noticed them on some of the feeder guppies i keep for my axols to munch on, but i didnt think too much of it. then i noticed that more and more of the guppies were developing them. so i cleaned out the whole tank and got rid of the gravel and all the fish and plants. i salt bathed my axols and put them back in with new gravel.

a few weeks later i noticed anchor worms on my axols and freaked. i read that the only way to get rid of them is to pull them off, so i did as carefully as i could. then i pulled everything out of the tank again, threw it all away and put the axols back in with nothing at all. i also changed the filter.

this did not get rid of the worms either, so ive just continued to pull any visable worms off the axols whenever they appear. not only this but both axols have lost their gill feathers and im not sure why. they dont seem to be fighting or have a visable fungus. the loss of feathers doesnt seem to slow them down because they are more active than ever.

just wondering if there is something i can add to the tank or something i can dip my axols in that will get rid of those damn worms forever.

 

[heather]

could you post a picture of what they look like? i dont really know what they look like, if they are what i think they are i could be able to help you out a bit...

 

[leah]

I'm not all that familliar with the life cycle of anchor worms, but I'll give it a shot First, are you sure they are anchor worms? They get quiet big, to nearly an inch in length! Yikes.

There's a picture of one here:
http://www.pond-o-mania.com/dimilin.htm
(and another site recommending the same med: http://www.koicarp.net/koi_medication/parasites2.html )

Like it says there, the parasite has a free-swimming stage of it's life, so if you're only pulling off the adults, you're probably not getting them all. Have you ever dealt with ich in fish? If they've had the chance to reproduce, you have no real way of knowing how many you've actually got in the tank until they attach themselves to your fish! I'm guessing the same goes with anchor worms. You need to deal with the free-swimming ones as well as the adults that you find on your axies. You can kill them with meds made for flukes or with dimilin (on that first site), though I don't know if it's a 'safe' med, OR you can break the life cycle by removing the parasite's host- meaning take your axolotls out of the tank and put them somewhere else. The parasite should die off without a host to feed from. Let the tank run empty for a month. I don't know how long the anchor worm life-cycle is, so I'm going by how long it takes to properly rid a tank of ich. However, I don't know much about anchor worms, and it could be that they don't even need a host to reproduce, in which case you'd just end up with a REALLY infested tank! Does anyone know? Hmm. That's the idea anyway, and the advantage of removing the host and killing the parasite without using meds is that you won't destroy all the nitrifying bacteria/biological filtration in your tank. It takes longer than meds, but having to re-cycle your tank will take just as long!

Do some searching on the internet for info on anchor worms and you'll find more information than I can give you. A couple good sites that I know of with message boards are www.goldfishparadise.com and http://wetwebfotos.com/talk. I've used both for help with strange parasites and they're great!

Where do your guppies come from? Have you bred them yourself, or do you buy them from a fish store? Feeding 'fresh' (un-quarantined) live foods is dangerous. They could be carrying any number of internal and/or external parasites parasites. Your best bet is to set up another tank for raising guppies, and to quarantine any new fish for at least a month before feeding them to your axie. That gives you time for parasites you might not have seen to show up, and saves you from a repeat of what you've got now!

Hope that helps a bit, good luck getting rid of the worms!!!

 

[bleh]

yeah they are anchor worms alright, but ive never allowed them to get very big on my fish or axols, i always flush the fish on first sight of anchor worms and pull them off my axols when they first appear also. i do not like to waite because if you let them stay attached for more than a couple weeks they really get stuck in the axols/fishes skin and when you pull them out they really cause a bloody mess, eew. so anyway, ive never seen an anchor worm an inch long, sheesh, id prolly faint. they are tiny when i pull them off, but i know for sure thats what they are. thanks for the info, ill have to search around and see if i can find some of that dimilin med mentioned, untill then ill just have to keep up what im doing, ick ;P

 

[leah]

AAAAAAAAHHH- don't flush fish! That's so cruel!

Personally, I'd still try pulling them off, but also give the substrate the best vaccuming you've ever given it to hopefully suck up some eggs, and put the aixes in some other container. Leaving the infested tank run for x amount of time until any eggs have hatched and the larvae have long died off won't harm your axolotls, and you won't have to worry about meds killing them either.

Keep us posted- I've never dealt with anchor worms and it'd be great to know how to get rid of them if I ever do see some!

 

[amy]

anyone have any idea how long to leave the tank running for?

 

[heather]

You need to treat with copper to kill the anchor worm larvae. if you buy cupramine (I think it's called) it's only a five day treatment but it's probably to harsh for the axi. remove adults CAREFULLY if the head of the anchor worm stays inside it can cause infection and deformity. don't use Ich meds because it's a malachite green base not a copper base.