Large Parasite on my Catfish

[EppsDynasty]

Hello looking for some help with this parasite. I have been told leeches, and tried salt bath with little results. They are very hard to remove so I have stopped trying that. Our pond is 2000 gallon ish. Just noticed these on the catfish 2 weeks ago, and they have multiplied like crazy. The pond has 4 turttles, 1 catfish and 100+ goldfish and shubunkin. We live near the mojave desert in ca. Any advice/help would be appreciated, he/she looks miserable.

 

[jjohnwm]

Leeches for sure, and unfortunately one of the relatively few parasitic blood-sucking species rather than the common scavenger types.

Physical removal is tough, and can leave scars. Back when I had lots of turtles, I would remove these suckers...see what I did there? ...by removing the turtle from the water and dribbling a few drops of alcohol or vodka on them. They didn't like that and let go pretty quickly. Gotta do it over a container of some sort, otherwise you have mobile, angry little gobs of blood-sucking snot to police up after the treatment .

Never had them on fish; that catfish is large and easily handled, so I might be tempted to try the same deal here, making sure to avoid getting alcohol in the gills, eyes, mouth, etc.

An elderly gent who helped me along in my early days as an aquarist removed leeches from his outdoor turtles by the careful application of a hot soldering iron to the leech! Too much of a chance of error for my taste.

 

[EppsDynasty]

Thank you for the confirmation. I was afraid of that. Thanks for the way to get em off now, thats what I am doing this afternoon. What about the pond itself, anyone know the best treatment. ordered 20 lbs. of salt today as well

 

[Koko4Cichlids]

Have you tried Copper medication or Hydrogen Peroxide?

 

[Fishyboy🐟🐟🐟]

Hello looking for some help with this parasite. I have been told leeches, and tried salt bath with little results. They are very hard to remove so I have stopped trying that. Our pond is 2000 gallon ish. Just noticed these on the catfish 2 weeks ago, and they have multiplied like crazy. The pond has 4 turttles, 1 catfish and 100+ goldfish and shubunkin. We live near the mojave desert in ca. Any advice/help would be appreciated, he/she looks miserable.

View attachment 1524553

I’m not sure how it would apply here with these types of leaches but I’ve heard to not directly put salt on leaches or like pull them off and not scrape them off by the mouth as they can regurgitate blood and cause infections at least for humans

 

[jjohnwm]

I’m not sure how it would apply here with these types of leaches but I’ve heard to not directly put salt on leaches or like pull them off and not scrape them off by the mouth as they can regurgitate blood and cause infections at least for humans

That's a good point! Certainly, the removal of ticks when they have attached themselves to a human or a pet should be done in such a way that the tick is not seized by the body and squeezed, which definitely forces its stomach contents back into the host. Scraping them off is safer, but still might remove the head and leave it embedded after the rest of the tick is gone. Local veterinarians sell special tick removal tools, like little gardening weeders, that slip under the tick's head and then "unscrew" the entire critter without squeezing it or tearing it apart.

When I was a kid, we would remove leeches from ourselves with a careful scrape of a knife blade. This sometimes left a mark, but it certainly didn't squeeze anything back out into us. With practice, it's a quick process; any discomfort is limited to the leech itself.

Alcohol seemed to make them let go way faster than salt, but it's still not instantaneous. That regurgitation possibility now makes me wonder if it's the best way to go. But what's the alternative?

Of course, in today's ultra-sensitive world...we probably need to find a method that doesn't hurt or inconvenience the leech in any way...because it has rights, dammit!

 

[jjohnwm]

Maybe just use tweezers; grab the leech right at the point where it is attached, so that it's "throat" is pinched shut and nothing can be re-gurgitated?

If you had only a few turtles and large fish, you could literally go over each one from head to tail and get all of them at once. But with so many smaller fish...hmmm...

 

[Logan487]

Have you tried Copper medication or Hydrogen Peroxide?

I thought copper was fatal to cats/scaleless?

 

[Fishyboy🐟🐟🐟]

I don

I thought copper was fatal to cats/scaleless?

I don’t think it’s fatal, but they are more sensitive to it and need a lower dose, they could remove the catfish and treat the pond with full dose

 

[EppsDynasty]

So have tried hydrogen peroxide....nothing. Tweezers...impossible, scraping, nothing. I do have Fenbendazole (livestock dewormer) but it will kill all of my snails, crawdads, and dragonfly nymphs. Today I may do a 150 gallon hospital tank to treat the catfish alone. I have yet to find any on the turtles or goldfish. First gotta clean up after Hurricane Hillary, We have 3 properties spread out over 25 acres. Felt a little like a ccr song, 6 months worth of rain in 6 hours.