Here's a stumper.... I introduced some natives into my tank for giggles, never had an issue because I usually had or could get parasite meds pretty easy. I gave the newbs a salt and med bath for about a half hour or lil less to make sure I could get rid of everything. Problem being, I still have some anchor worms on some of thier fins. I tried double dose of malchite green to see if it would be enough to kick them but I don't think it totally did the trick and it's starting to wear on my fish. My nearest store is about an hour away..... Anyone got a fix/remedy to try that would help me out?? I don't want to deal with an infestation!!!
Stumper!! Help!!
- Thread starter sleepyflight
- Start date
temp is up and salt is in already....c'mon P45...I know you're chemically knowledged, you ever dabble with house chemicals for meds?? hmm....sucks I won't be able to get to a shop for a few days atleast.
This is a case of good news/bad news, Anchor worm seldom kills but the secondary infections can. Salt at the same level as an ich treatment kills the free swimming stage and eggs, it does not bother the adult stage. The only time I have had it show up it was only a couple of parasites so I removed them with forceps using a steady, straight, firm pull, and dosed the wounds with an iodine swab. For major infestations the old way is to give the fish a bath in 10mg/liter for 2-3 minutes. The more modern treatment is diflubenzuron, a potent toxin, and the only product that I am aware of that contains it is hard to find. It is called ANCHORS AWAY. A couple of other products are marketed like DFD but I think that they are all illegal in this country as they are persistent poisons like DDT.
10g QT Tank with a Copper treatment? Unless the native fish are sensative to copper?
Copper kills just about anything..
Copper kills just about anything..
How would you make a copper bath? pennies, copper sulfate?I have never done it.
It has also been over twenty years since I bought any potassium permanganate but you used to be able to get it at almost any pharmacy.
If nothing works then you could whip up some ammonium tri iodide and blow the little suckers off.
Joking about that just made me wonder if swabbing the anchor worms with hydrogen peroxide might work, you would have to avoid the gills of the fish but hmmm.
It has also been over twenty years since I bought any potassium permanganate but you used to be able to get it at almost any pharmacy.
If nothing works then you could whip up some ammonium tri iodide and blow the little suckers off.
Joking about that just made me wonder if swabbing the anchor worms with hydrogen peroxide might work, you would have to avoid the gills of the fish but hmmm.
Remember miles....I have too far to go to get copper solutions. Home remedy. Guppy.....now we're talking, some creativity. Surprisingly, I think the double dose of malachite green and high temp is really nailing it but double dose of that stuff is kinda putting a beat down on the fish.....about to do a major water change.
Okay, so no one came up with anything in time so the perch had to go back to native land since nothing was taking care of his severe case of anchor worms. 
