I place a few crayfish traps out on the river (Platte River) hoping to catch some crayfish to fish with (bass candy =P)... I caught 4 crayfish, 6 fish I believe are baby carp, 2 plains killifish, 2 brook stickelback (5 spined variety) and a large mouth bass. They are all in a tank with a wad of moss I brought home from the river thinking it would be full of some live foods they could eat.
First 2 days I had no filter just an air stone and I noticed on the moss a couple snails and many things I can only describe as flatworms. I can not tell if the flatworms are parasitic but I am assuming that since I have only seen them on a dead fish, moving through the moss and on the tanks glass they are not.
Bought a piggyback style filter (for 15 gallon tank filter is for tanks upto 60 gallons). The slight turbulence added to the water sent the flatworms deep into the moss I rarely see them in any quantity now but after 2 of my carps got skinny and died I get worried... Visual inspection of my fish I see a carp has what I believe is an anchor worm. Its basically a very thin black thing no wider than a medium bic pen line that is about 1/4" long but it also has 2 light green colored "leafs" on the end forming kind of a T shape. Its stuck in a red spot right near a fin.
Really like my little tank of fishes and crays but dont want to be responsible for anymore deaths (aka crayfish food =>)... 1 more carp is about to go its very skinny and they are all "flashing" even the bass. I'll have to make a trip to the LFS to get some parasite killer and possibly take out the moss because its going to be like a safe haven for the anchor worms.
Do crayfish get anchor worm? The ones in my tank are small and growing fast I have only had them a little over a week and 2 have molted. They look and act healthy with awesome crayfish aggression (in other words they getting own tank soon).
What about the flatworms? All but 1 I have seen is gray with a whitish stripe in the middle of its body but 1 was gray with a red "middle" stripe. I am assuming the stripe color had something to do with whatever it was eating which again worries me... red could be blood!... Then again with 2 fish deaths blood prolly should not be such a surprise it would have to mean parasitic... being a relative to the tape worm doesn't help my opinion of what they could be doing to my fish/inverts.
First 2 days I had no filter just an air stone and I noticed on the moss a couple snails and many things I can only describe as flatworms. I can not tell if the flatworms are parasitic but I am assuming that since I have only seen them on a dead fish, moving through the moss and on the tanks glass they are not.
Bought a piggyback style filter (for 15 gallon tank filter is for tanks upto 60 gallons). The slight turbulence added to the water sent the flatworms deep into the moss I rarely see them in any quantity now but after 2 of my carps got skinny and died I get worried... Visual inspection of my fish I see a carp has what I believe is an anchor worm. Its basically a very thin black thing no wider than a medium bic pen line that is about 1/4" long but it also has 2 light green colored "leafs" on the end forming kind of a T shape. Its stuck in a red spot right near a fin.
Really like my little tank of fishes and crays but dont want to be responsible for anymore deaths (aka crayfish food =>)... 1 more carp is about to go its very skinny and they are all "flashing" even the bass. I'll have to make a trip to the LFS to get some parasite killer and possibly take out the moss because its going to be like a safe haven for the anchor worms.
Do crayfish get anchor worm? The ones in my tank are small and growing fast I have only had them a little over a week and 2 have molted. They look and act healthy with awesome crayfish aggression (in other words they getting own tank soon).
What about the flatworms? All but 1 I have seen is gray with a whitish stripe in the middle of its body but 1 was gray with a red "middle" stripe. I am assuming the stripe color had something to do with whatever it was eating which again worries me... red could be blood!... Then again with 2 fish deaths blood prolly should not be such a surprise it would have to mean parasitic... being a relative to the tape worm doesn't help my opinion of what they could be doing to my fish/inverts.
Moss probably did not contain anything to keep them alive long... get some Goldfish food or something not to spendy... Flakes or something and see if the fish eat it..