Hookworms in fish?

Miles

Stingray King
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Jul 2, 2005
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Can hookworms possibly infect fish?

Is it visibly noticable? I understand it's an internal parasite and you would likely need a microscope to view the parasite?

Could it be mistaken for Anchor worms?


A customer at my work suggested her fish got hook worms from a fish we sold her.. It killed her whole tank, except 1 cory cat.

She dosn't want to clean her tank because the Cory cat enjoys the dirty tank and she dosn't want to 'overclean' and harm her delicate balance.

With that being said, could these 'hook worms' just be planaria from poor husbandry practices, and her fish died simply from poor water quality?

She purchased livebearers, and when introduced to a tank with poor water quality I find them to be very susceptible to fin/tail rot and other secondary infections.
 

bigspizz

Polypterus
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Apr 20, 2007
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Hookworms are an intestinal parisite....."anchorworms" are visible and removable with tweezers. Salt and high temp method will kill eggs larva and the free swimming ones, for the others you will have to use tweezers or they COULD kill a fish. She may have spoken the truth on this one......
 

Miles

Stingray King
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Jul 2, 2005
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bigspizz;1105995; said:
Hookworms are an intestinal parisite....."anchorworms" are visible and removable with tweezers. Salt and high temp method will kill eggs larva and the free swimming ones, for the others you will have to use tweezers or they COULD kill a fish. She may have spoken the truth on this one......
So if she bought the fish from a central system that keeps a temp of 82 degrees and a salinity of .020+, would you still assume it could possibly be hook worms?

Since it's obvious she knows nothing about the nitrogen cycle with her pompous comments, do you think she could even identify a hook worm?

Do anchor worms reproduce in saline water?

Do anchor worms effect fish more rapidly in poor water quality?
 

bigspizz

Polypterus
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Apr 20, 2007
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Hookworms, are intestinal, so yes they could live anywhere. The anchors, if a shipment comes in infested, like I said there is a chance (not for sure) that it came from the store. They would not die immediately. Did she say she could SEE the worms? Did she bring the "infected" fish and a sample back to the store? The anchor worms' eggs, could pass through to the filter floss and grow on it. Check yours at the store just to be sure. (she is probably like 99% of people.....know nothing about anything! lol)........
 

Miles

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bigspizz;1106027; said:
Hookworms, are intestinal, so yes they could live anywhere. The anchors, if a shipment comes in infested, like I said there is a chance (not for sure) that it came from the store. They would not die immediately. Did she say she could SEE the worms? Did she bring the "infected" fish and a sample back to the store? The anchor worms' eggs, could pass through to the filter floss and grow on it. Check yours at the store just to be sure. (she is probably like 99% of people.....know nothing about anything! lol)........
She didn't say she could see the worms.. she very confidentally told me she 100% got hookworms from us. I just acted confused and played along with it, because I know she is full of it. She didn't bring any fish in, or even try to return them.. She said this was months ago. How she came to the conclusion they were hook worms is beyond me..

After the comment about the tank being the right amount of 'dirty' for her cory cat, it immediately popped the idea of planaria in my head.

We run a heavy salinity in our system, and treat weekly (1 hr after shipments) with a Malachite Green/Formalin mixture.. Do you think either Anchor worms or Hook worms could survive or reproduce in these conditions? This is what I was asking..

I have been in charge of the fish system at my work for over 3 years now, and have only seen 1 case of Anchor worms, and never even heard of hook worms in fish, just dogs. The anchor worms came in on a single koi, I isolated and treated it, and haven't seen any parasitic infections since.
 

Miles

Stingray King
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FYI our distributorship also uses a heavy salinity and the malachite green/formalin mixture to treat and prevent diseases..

The infected Koi arrived at the peak of spring pond sales, so I would assume it wasn't in the wholesale facility for a long period of time..

With that being said, I find it very hard to believe she got either of those possible parasites from our fish..
 

bigspizz

Polypterus
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Apr 20, 2007
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You know your stuff, that I know. So, I am sure she was probably just looking for some free stuff, or a discount Or she could have just wanted you to partake in a sad sad tale of "the loss of her PRECIOUS pets" lol You must have done pretty good, if she didn't pitch a fit, or even worse try to cry on you.
 

rjmtx

Feeder Fish
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Jul 14, 2007
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The first thing we always demanded when I worked at an LFS was a water sample for fish returns. If the water was bad, you wouldn't get free stuff, but we'd help you fix it (and if you were agreeable, we'd cut you a break).

I've heard people come up with all kinds of stuff... the hookworm thing doesn't surprise me a bit. Now if she were a parasitologist... but then she would know the cory didn't like the dirty water.

Keep on keepin on.
 

Miles

Stingray King
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Jul 2, 2005
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Sadly.. it is a new co-worker. :( Not in my dept. thankfully..

I just wanted some more knowledge on the situation, so when I talk to her about it later, I would have strong talking points.. Going to try to trick her into admitting it was planaria.. and then ask her to bring in a water sample.

Teach her a lesson about talking ignorantly about things.. happens too often :D
 
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