Natives have something

[Duckman77]

Thanks! Just about 15 min ago I removed all the affected fish and pulled off the worms. The worms moved around as I removed them.

Should I treat with parasite guard or wait and see if any more pop up?

 

[duanes]

You need a treatment with a chitin inhibitor as part of its make up.

 

[Duckman77]

Makes sense..thanks!

Warning for others that may have fish infected with anchorworms: my sunfish had no problem with me removing the anchorworms with tweezers. However, my yellow bass was so stressed out over the procedure that it died.

 

[Duckman77]

I am still removing these two months later. I got a pic of one of the larger ones tonight. I don't think these are anchorworms. There is no Y ending to the tails of any of these. They are almost always attached to fins and they move once removed.

The one tonight was just under the gill "ear". Yesterday, when I first saw it, it was white in color. Today, when I removed it, it was very dark brown or reddish in color...maybe was taking in blood? Anyway here are the best pics I could get:

 

[Charney]

did you ever treat for them?

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Some sort of fish leech?

 

[duanes]

If they are leeches (they look like it in the photos) , removing them from the fish will not get rid of them. They lay eggs that take from 2 weeks to over a month to hatch, and the cycle starts over. And after feeding, some adults drop off and hide in the substrate.
The best way to get rid of them, is remove all fish to a separate tank, pulling them off while catching those fish.
And let your main tank sit fish less for more than a month, adults and newly hatched leeches will starve, and die.
This stubborn parasite is one of the most convincing reasons why using minnows or other fish as feeders is a bad idea. Leech eggs ca also arrive on plants harvested from the wild.
BYW organophosphates are some of the only really effective chemical treatments, but are banned in many countries because of their toxicity.
Organophosphates (Toxicity) - Toxicology - Veterinary Manual

 

[Duckman77]

I put one under the microscope and came to the same conclusion: leeches. Didn't come from live feeders as I don't feed live, but probably came in on a wild caught fish. The outbreak started shortly after the warmouth was introduced.

All is clear atm. Hopefully I am slowly winning the war. Leaving the tank empty for a month would be inconvenient.

 

[Drstrangelove]

As an aside, studies have found that wild fish typically come with parasites and diseases. IIRC, they found it to be 90-92% of all sampled fish, many fish having multiple organisms.