TONS of Baby White Worms!!! HELP.

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hervoicewasgray

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 8, 2009
84
0
0
Florida
So, on August 17th, I noticed this on my channel cat, Moxie:
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We thought it was just sores from gravel. Septicemia. NOT parasites, as I didn't see any on any of the fish.
So when I get home after having the guys of the LFS look at those pictures, I take another look, and see a thick thread coming out of the holes. Think like, pus coming out of a popped pimple. Mole in a molehill. Like that. The middle of each of those bumps had a hole.
SO. I go, get my camera, and they're gone. Like they're playing peekaboo. but I pull a chair over and after several minutes, a wiggling white thread moving in the water catches my eye. I didn't think anything of it, because it was much thinner, but then, it landed right on Moxie. And was moving independently. And I flipped out, and took a picture of the offender on Moxie, and after I destroy it.
It took an almost complete cycle of Maracide, and two full treatments of Maracide concentrate, with Melafix being used simultaneously, before I quit netting worms.
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The last picture are two odd looking worms I netted out later in the treatment period. The one on the left has that weird bulbous thing attached (egg case?)

ANYWAY.
So it's been smooth sailing for the past...month.
I noticed Moxie doing her flashing thing (asked about it, and no one replied). I had been told it could be irritation from raised ammonia levels, but I keep those in check, and for ****sngiggles, I checked again. 0. As usual.
Today, after cleaning the tank (oh god, it looks so nice!) I start noticing all of these little THINGS in the water. They looked like worms, but were no more than half-an-inch long. But then some started wiggling and contorting.
And that's when I burst to tears and my heart sunk and everything around me crashed.
Not only was the past hour of cleaning the tank and making everything look especially nice WASTED, but I have baby worms. And I don't know why. I don't know what this means. The gravel had been removed during treatment, flushed thoroughly and dried for that period. I don't know anything about worms. Once treatment was done, the tubes of my filter were cleaned out and thoroughly washed, ALL of the media washed the canister, the propeller. EVERYTHING.

Anyway.
Now I have the inhabitants of my 75 gallon.
Inside a 25 tall quarantine tank.
AND BABY WORMS STILL MANAGED TO GET IN THE FRESH SETUP.

I'm supposed to be trading off the 75 for a 120 stock pond, but if there's worms, I can't be passing that on! All of the water is drained.

Any and all help is appreciated.
How do I treat the plants, driftwood, nets, everything to eradicate these persistent *&$^#@s ???

Anyway, I'm not sure what information is needed in this case:
All of the water levels are where they should be- The pH sometimes climbs to 7.2. That's it.
There are two silk plants and a live Amazon sword.
The filter is a Marineland C-360.
 
sounds like plantaria its normal to have some but to many is bad, means u have a dirty tank, shuld treat with quick cure if it is plantaria. look it up and see if the description matches yours. are u feeding your fish live feeders? if so stop they carry diseases
 
i use to have a lot of them but they are gone after i put in a submersible uv filter and my smaller fish eat them.
 
I've already looked at those and no, I really don't think so.
They're free swimming.
And somehow, I don't think that them burrowing through my fishes flesh is "healthy" or "normal"
 
Planaria or nematodes do not attach to fish. They are free-swimming in the water column. Therefore, it is not planaria. It is obviously some sort of parasite, but what kind, I'm not sure. Hopefully, someone more experienced with this sort of thing will chime in. Sorry I couldn't help. However, I can definitely say it's not anchor worm.
 
I've never seen anything like this. Are you sure the worm on the fish's side wasn't just a coincidence? Just an odd planarian landing on a fish which coincidentally also had a sore? Did every sore have a worm in the middle?
 
I had this, my CAEs (chinese algae eaters) ate them before they spred
 
Both sores had atleast one worm in the middle, yeah.
And I'm pretty sure. It landed on her and started nosing around her side.

My biggest question is why none of the other fish were ever affected.

But uh...she...died. The other afternoon. She was fine in the morning.
But come afternoon, she was on her side, stiff and with a surprised look on her face.
I don't know why. I didn't see any worms in her gills, or on her, but then again, I wasn't looking because I was too busy bawling my eyes out because my baby died.
I noticed two odd bruises on her head and on her back, and that's it.
My only guess is that I somehow overdid it with the Maracide. I don't know how, as I counted out the drops. But maybe a drop was too big, or I miscounted.
 
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