My new silver aro has an anchor worm on its dorsal fin. I am letting the lfs that sold it to me pull it out and look at it (they say they never noticed it). I plan to keep the fish assuming everything works out. The aro is in a tank with synodontis and a clown knife which supposedly can't take normal levels of many meds (w/copper in them?). What meds should I use? Do I need to use an antibiotic for the fish and a chem to kill the ancor worm eggs? I am beginning to lose faith in my lfs so any shared experience or tips would be appreciated.
Anchor Worms on Aros!!!
- Thread starter lujor
- Start date
It's important to be 100% certain it's anchor worm before you treat. In the mean time you can use salt at 1 TBS per 5 gallons for the first few days then slowly bump it up to 2 TBS per 5 gallons. This will stop the eggs from becoming viable and hosting on other fish.
If you're 100% sure it's Anchor worm I can say I've treated anchor worm on several occasions with Dimilin and has worked every time. You can find it in the pond section for Koi. It has a very long treatment time and the directions must be followed very carefully. I never required additional meds and would not advise the use of anything other than salt in addition to the Dimilin. You should manually pick of the obvious adult female anchor worms and remember that dimilin will kill all inverts.
Oh I guess I should tell you that I've never used dimilin on an aro..
Good luck.
If you're 100% sure it's Anchor worm I can say I've treated anchor worm on several occasions with Dimilin and has worked every time. You can find it in the pond section for Koi. It has a very long treatment time and the directions must be followed very carefully. I never required additional meds and would not advise the use of anything other than salt in addition to the Dimilin. You should manually pick of the obvious adult female anchor worms and remember that dimilin will kill all inverts.
Oh I guess I should tell you that I've never used dimilin on an aro..
Good luck.
Thanks. I figured the few feeder ghost shrimp would be goners - I'll try to get them out beforehand and flush 'em. I'm especially concerned with the clown knife and two synodontis cats because their supposed to be touchy about exposure to many meds. May end up half dosing with a med recomendation from more reputable lfs and adding aquarium salt. Thanks for the help.
i had anchor worms on one of my aros once. they are a pain in the neck. i removed the fish from the water and pulled them of as quick as i could. then treated the water with coppersafe. it seemed to work. good luck
UPDATE - 3 weeks later - aro is doing better than fine. It has gained weight and length. There has not been any sign of anchor worm on it or any of its tank mates. I ended up using a half dose of CFX (a copper based external parasite eliminator) and adding aquarium salt. I still have not resumed carbon filtration, and just did my first water change without redosing the replacement water. I will do another water change and resume carbon filtration next weekend. Hopefully, that will be the end of it.
My new jar had acouple anchor worms, I used Jungle Parasite clear. two full doses to the tank an there gone.
