Stumper!! Help!!

[sleepyflight]

Here's a stumper.... I introduced some natives into my tank for giggles, never had an issue because I usually had or could get parasite meds pretty easy. I gave the newbs a salt and med bath for about a half hour or lil less to make sure I could get rid of everything. Problem being, I still have some anchor worms on some of thier fins. I tried double dose of malchite green to see if it would be enough to kick them but I don't think it totally did the trick and it's starting to wear on my fish. My nearest store is about an hour away..... Anyone got a fix/remedy to try that would help me out?? I don't want to deal with an infestation!!!

[piranha45]

try raising tank temp to 85-86F

[sleepyflight]

temp is up and salt is in already....c'mon P45...I know you're chemically knowledged, you ever dabble with house chemicals for meds?? hmm....sucks I won't be able to get to a shop for a few days atleast.

[guppy]

This is a case of good news/bad news, Anchor worm seldom kills but the secondary infections can. Salt at the same level as an ich treatment kills the free swimming stage and eggs, it does not bother the adult stage. The only time I have had it show up it was only a couple of parasites so I removed them with forceps using a steady, straight, firm pull, and dosed the wounds with an iodine swab. For major infestations the old way is to give the fish a bath in 10mg/liter for 2-3 minutes. The more modern treatment is diflubenzuron, a potent toxin, and the only product that I am aware of that contains it is hard to find. It is called ANCHORS AWAY. A couple of other products are marketed like DFD but I think that they are all illegal in this country as they are persistent poisons like DDT.

[Miles]

10g QT Tank with a Copper treatment? Unless the native fish are sensative to copper?

Copper kills just about anything..

[guppy]

How would you make a copper bath? pennies, copper sulfate?I have never done it.
It has also been over twenty years since I bought any potassium permanganate but you used to be able to get it at almost any pharmacy.
If nothing works then you could whip up some ammonium tri iodide and blow the little suckers off.
Joking about that just made me wonder if swabbing the anchor worms with hydrogen peroxide might work, you would have to avoid the gills of the fish but hmmm.

[sleepyflight]

Remember miles....I have too far to go to get copper solutions. Home remedy. Guppy.....now we're talking, some creativity. Surprisingly, I think the double dose of malachite green and high temp is really nailing it but double dose of that stuff is kinda putting a beat down on the fish.....about to do a major water change.

[sleepyflight]

c'mon, anyone feeling creative today with some sort of goofy yet effective solution??

[sleepyflight]

Okay, so no one came up with anything in time so the perch had to go back to native land since nothing was taking care of his severe case of anchor worms. :(

[piranha45]

its a sad day in lawrenceville, PA... :P

[sleepyflight]

haha....got that right, everything is sad here. The toothless drunken neighbors (not sure if I can call them neighbors since they're almost a mile away) and all the nothingness is driving me insane!!!!!

[Waldo]

Ok lets do a synopsis of what just happened to prevent it from happening again. We took a fish from the wild and put it into our domestic tank. Parasite found and not eliminated..... fish put back into the wild possibly containing NEW and IMPROVED SUPER DOMESTIC BACTERIA. I call it NISDB for short.
PS Miles was right. Copper kills all. You could have used the stuff that you put into your sewer.... that's where I used to get my copper from. you could have also barbequed the fish.... which would have killed the parasites, kept all of your domestic problems in it's tank and made one hell of a meal. :clap :thumbsup:

[sleepyflight]

Aparently you've never lived in the sticks.... Put in our sewer?....can you say 'leach bed' or septic tank.... Don't have to put anything in it which means I didn't have any copper solutions. Note the word solutions....the copper we typically use, which I wasn't able to get to a store to buy, is not pure....its a solution. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think pennies would break down fast enough to give a level to kill them. Further, I figure it's too small to eat, and there are natural things that take care of those in the wild where he comes from. Hence giving him a chance to get better and survive normally. And an anchor worm isn't considered a bacteria. I would also consider a home aquarium way more apt to contain less types of bacteria. Would you risk a full tank infestation of anchor worms?? Didn't think so. The idea here was to find a way maybe to get or make chems that would work. Super bacteria :ROFL: I don't think I'm going to affect much with a secluded pond that probably has enough chems in it to kill whatever when he was reintroduced anyways....

[Waldo]

Well aparently It didn't have enough to kill anchor worms. I'm just saying puting wild in with domestic then releasing back into the wild isn't smart. For insteance... fish carry with them good and bad bacteria. Gold tetra actually are that way because of a simbiatic bacteria. All animals carry bacteria... this is basic biology. If any bacteria were to be introduced to a new host it could have terrible consiquinces. I beleive it was the flu that killed many native americans because their body's could not fight that bacteria. Also it sounds like your pond already has life......
Just trying to help.