Possible Piranha Parasite

[TourDeForce]

I have a shoal of Red Belly Piranha. I have been feeding them feeder goldfish for a while but have recently stopped and switched to frozen fish fillets due to the following observation;


2 of the smaller P's that don't seem to be growing as fast as the other P's have long white stringy things coming out of there gills. I just noticed it last night so it kinda came out of nowhere. First one just had it, now I am noticing it in 2 of them, keep in mind its the smallest of the pack.

Please let me know what to do.

 

[austrian_predator]

ugh, that sounds pretty horrible
thanks for sharing your story
i'm getting some red bellies pretty soon, gonna keep them away from any non-quarantined feeders...
i hope someone's got some advice on what to do against this...
imo it's a parasite that either the goldfish brought with them or the piranhas already had when you got them, and it just recently got bigger/worse (according to your sig they're wild caught)

ps: i would quarantine the piranhas with the parasites, or the other two might become infected too, you never know

 

[LesleyFish]

Sounds exactly like Gill Flukes. Gill Flukes are pretty bad if not treated correctly, I'd normally say quarantine the fish but with a shoaling fish like P's it might be worthwhile to treat them all, I'd also do 40-60% water changes. The way to really take care of gill flukes is to blanket salt treatments in order to kill the larger parasites but also the hatchlings here is a good bit of information http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/Body And Gill Flukes.html hope this helps.