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Possible Parasite??

1K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  TheKingsFish 
#1 ·
Housing
What size is your tank? 25g (currently in 1/2gal QT)
What temperature is your tank? 78
Does your tank have a filter? Yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? Sorority of female bettas, 4 Cories, flying fox

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Hikari Pellets, frozen Bloodworms
How often do you feed your betta fish? once daily

Maintenance

How often do you perform a water change? once a week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 25%-50%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Prime

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 7
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? clamped fins, faded colour, strange reddish tentacles (???)(they move, thinking it could be some kind of parasite, no idea what though) seen between ventral fins near the ovapositor (See drawing)
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Loss of appitite, hiding
When did you start noticing the symptoms? a couple weeks ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? QT
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No.
How old is your fish (approximately)? approx. 6 months

Several of the girls have been exhibiting similar behaviour and we are QT'ing everyone to be safe. I drew a picture of the strange things between her fins as we couldn't take a clear picture. We haven't been able to get a good look to see if any of the others have them too. They are hard to spot with the ventrals in the way.

All of the other tankmates are behaving normally.

Sketch Drawing Fish Fish Illustration

See strange dangling red things on her belly. When we noticed them they were moving. Their size has been slightly exagerated to make them easily noticable.
 
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#2 ·
For external parasites I usually use Potassium Permanganate or combine salt with Jungle's Parasite Clear. If multiple females are showing symptoms then you should treat the whole tank. If I remember correctly, you were using PP on a different fish? Personally I would use that since it is a effective way to treat an entire tank.

For the Salt treatment i would add 1 tsp/gal 3 times, 12 hours apart so that you end up with 3 times the normal concentration. Remember not to do salt treatments for more than 10 days... If you keep them QTed then do 100% water changes daily, if you put them all back in the tank to treat them then do as much of a water change daily as you can, make sure to clean the gravel thoroughly.

Do either the salt/Parasite Clear treatment or the PP treatment. PP should not be combined with salt.
 
#6 ·
You have lots of fish; one of them was probably a carrier. I'd treat your whole tank just to be safe - if your betta first started showing symptoms a couple of weeks ago, that implies a high chance that other fish in the tank are also infected. Parasitic worms get all the sustenance they need from their hosts, and devote their entire lives to reproduction. You might want to throw your aquarium in a furnace to kill them all.



oh god
 
#4 ·
This is going to be a really stupid question but out of curiosity - how do parasites like that get introduced into a tank? I'm asking simply to attempt to avoid that or something like it. Bear in mind I'm a newbie with only one lil fella and not well versed on these kinds of things.
 
#5 ·
Many parasites are always in your tank, they just aren't a problem unless for some reason your betta's immune system is compromised. Parasites can also be introduced when you buy new fish or plants, feed your fish live foods or use water that you collected outside.

To prevent parasites, keep your fish in tip top shape (clean water, good food high in protein, varied diet, right temp), only buy fish/plants from reputable stores where ALL fish appear healthy, don't poor store water into your tank (just net out new fish), treat new plants with a Potassium Permanganate bath, and sanitize nets occasionally.
 
#7 ·
Thank you!

Even though these camallanus worms sound pretty scary it is great just to know what the heck we're dealing with. We did some research and found what medication is supposed to kill them -Fenbendazole (or Panacur is the brand name). It's a dewormer used in larger animals (dogs, horses, etc.), but is used in fish to kill these evil beasties. We had to get it from a vet clinic (we had to go to -I swear- all the clinics in town to find it). But they were great, they worked out all the propering doses and treatment schedules and everything for us. Apparently one of the vets who works there has a wife who's dealt with these particular buggers in her fish tank once too.
 
#10 ·
That's great news, and now I can add another medication to my list! I never would have imagined that you could use panacur on fish...

I'm not sure what to do with the fry... How old are they?
 
#11 ·
We've lost 2 more just in the last few hours. We followed the advice posted in the link above, and also from the vet. The only common thread we noticed is that the ones we've lost haven't been eating--so obviously just medicating the water isn't enough.

Is there any way to force feed a betta without injuring it? It seems like the only way to get rid of this thing is to introduce the medicine into their digestive tract.
 
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