Worm in Betta’s Gills

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Fujimoto

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 15, 2021
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Maryland, USA
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Hello everyone!
Tonight I was watching my betta eat, and I noticed a small white worm crawl out of his gills, crawl around on his skin, and then go back inside the gills. Does anyone know what this could be? I thought maybe gill flukes but I looked them up and they seemed much too small.
Some background: for the last few weeks, my betta has been looking a bit haggard and having trouble eating, but I thought it was probably just because he had recently moved tanks and the new filter was a bit strong for him (in hindsight I should’ve known something was wrong — cant cry over spilled milk though) Tonight I decided to turn off the filter for a bit to make it easier for him to eat, and thats when I saw the worm. This worries me a lot because I've had this betta for months now, quarantined it and everything, and had no problems, but that means there could have been cross contamination with my other tanks because I wasn’t specifically isolating the betta as I had thought it was disease free.
Any help would be much appreciated!
 
Hello everyone!
Tonight I was watching my betta eat, and I noticed a small white worm crawl out of his gills, crawl around on his skin, and then go back inside the gills. Does anyone know what this could be? I thought maybe gill flukes but I looked them up and they seemed much too small.
Some background: for the last few weeks, my betta has been looking a bit haggard and having trouble eating, but I thought it was probably just because he had recently moved tanks and the new filter was a bit strong for him (in hindsight I should’ve known something was wrong — cant cry over spilled milk though) Tonight I decided to turn off the filter for a bit to make it easier for him to eat, and thats when I saw the worm. This worries me a lot because I've had this betta for months now, quarantined it and everything, and had no problems, but that means there could have been cross contamination with my other tanks because I wasn’t specifically isolating the betta as I had thought it was disease free.
Any help would be much appreciated!
Maybe hookworm? Seems unlikely tho, i would treat with a broad spectrum anti parasitic
 
No chance you got any pictures? Assuming it’s a worm, you can try treating with prazi pro to see if that helps.
 
Pic should help.
 
Thanks for all your replies, I think I’m gonna try the prazi pro. Do you think I should also preventatively treat my many other tanks, or is this a more dangerous medication? I think there was definitely some cross contamination between the tanks before I realized the betta was ill. I’ve also attached some pictures as you requested, sorry they’re not really good. The actual parasite is not in these pictures, I think it doesn't usually come out of the fish, I just got lucky seeing it once. In the pictures you can see that the betta has some skin issues around its head and gills.

78DE353F-F183-4DB9-9D0A-0B2EBB5DF9D9.jpeg

AE0B261D-B0B4-4064-A57C-569472C8B2EF.jpeg
 
Try the prazipro with repeat dosing. If still around then try fritz expel p.
 
Prazi is not a harsh med, but I wouldn’t worry about treating other tanks unless you see signs of illness. This seems like it could be more isolated.
 
Thanks so much people! I‘m dosing the betta with prazi pro today. I’ll try to keep updating this thread as well.
 
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