South American Fish Health Problems

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Wiggles92

Dovii
MFK Member
Apr 25, 2009
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Pennsylvania
There seem to be two forms of problems plaguing my South American fish aquarium. My first problem looks like small worms; they seem to have a population boom overnight. I'm not exactly sure on what they are, but I know that they definitely are not anchor worms. The other problem appears to be ich; it too seemingly appeared overnight.

My current stock consists of a South American lungfish, a tiger shovelnose catfish, a redtail catfish, and a South American cichlid (not sure on exact species).

What should I do to remedy these problems? I already increased the salt levels and temperature in accordance with the standard treatment for ich but will this also help with the worms?

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the worms do not seem to be on any of the fish, and the ich is only on the two catfish and the cichlid.
 
All of the fish are still alive. None of them seem to be having any major trouble; I want to fix the problem before they do start to have trouble.

After doing a bit more searching, the worms appear to not be anything detrimental to the health of the fish, but I still want to eliminate them for aesthetic purposes.
 
Are the worms small and white?

Fish with ick where sometimes stressed before they got ick, making them susceptible to ick. Water chemistry may be an issue. If they are small white worms, those usually show up in tanks that could do with some extra cleaning = high nitrates.

What are you tank parameters? Tank size?

I think the Ick and the worms are both symptoms of the same cause, not separate problems.
 
purplecandle;4816933; said:
Are the worms small and white?

Fish with ick where sometimes stressed before they got ick, making them susceptible to ick. Water chemistry may be an issue. If they are small white worms, those usually show up in tanks that could do with some extra cleaning = high nitrates.

What are you tank parameters? Tank size?

I think the Ick and the worms are both symptoms of the same cause, not separate problems.
Click to expand...

Yes, the worms are small and white.

The aquarium is a 55 gallon, and here are the water parameters:

  • Nitrate- 20 ppm
  • Nitrite- 0 ppm
  • Total Hardness- Hard
  • Total Alkalinity- 120 ppm
  • pH- 7.2
According to the test strip, all of these parameters are within the "Safe" or "Ideal" ranges. Any suggestions as to what might need changed?
 
Strips are inaccurate, get a liquid test kit ASAP. You levels might be higher than you think

The worms are likely Planaria worms which suggest over feeding, under vacuuming, a rise in Nitrates, a rise in ammonia...basically because stuff is starting to go wrong.

The most logical explanation.
1. Something is wrong with the water (maybe you need to do more water changes, maybe you overfeed 2 weeks in a row - basically a number of things could have triggered this)
2. Water chemistry is going bad (in some way for some reason). Fish become stressed making it easy for an Ick attack
3. Planaria erupts (pointing out what is most likely going wrong, high nitrates, over feeding, and so on)

For the planaria, get the liquid test kits, clean things up, cut back on feeding and frequent water changes should solve this problem. Don't freak out and boil everything Planaria has happened to the best of us :)
 
purplecandle;4817361; said:
Strips are inaccurate, get a liquid test kit ASAP. You levels might be higher than you think

The worms are likely Planaria worms which suggest over feeding, under vacuuming, a rise in Nitrates, a rise in ammonia...basically because stuff is starting to go wrong.

The most logical explanation.
1. Something is wrong with the water (maybe you need to do more water changes, maybe you overfeed 2 weeks in a row - basically a number of things could have triggered this)
2. Water chemistry is going bad (in some way for some reason). Fish become stressed making it easy for an Ick attack
3. Planaria erupts (pointing out what is most likely going wrong, high nitrates, over feeding, and so on)

For the planaria, get the liquid test kits, clean things up, cut back on feeding and frequent water changes should solve this problem. Don't freak out and boil everything Planaria has happened to the best of us :)
Click to expand...

Sounds good.

I've already noticed a major reduction in the planaria since adding the salt and bumping up the temperature, and the ich has started to clear up, too.

I'll have to up my water change schedule to be safe then; I've been doing changes once a week, so I'll make it twice a week. Overfeeding hasn't been a problem. There are almost never leftover pieces of food, and the extra pieces of food are gone in under three hours if there ever are any.
I'm starting to think that the stress might not be from just the water quality because the cichlid is the most recent addition, and it hasn't been getting along with the catfish. It doesn't pick on them, and they don't bother it; they all seems to be afraid of each other despite no major signs of aggression. I think I'm going to remove the cichlid so that those fish aren't stressed any more.
 
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