Worms on my corydoras!!

[benny]

Hi guys!

I'm having some problem with my corydoras and they seem to be having some kind of worm infestation on their fins. I'm not sure what it is, but they sure look like micro anchor worms.

1/640 seconds, F11, ISO 100

Comments welcome.

Cheers,

 

[MrMup04]

Wow nice shot benny, how did you know that your cories were having worms on their fin?

 

[Andreas Werth]

Great details!
Looks like one could see eyes and mouth.
I had a look into my books about fish deseases, but didn´t found anything. Sorry.

 

[Roy W.]

Is this "Anchor worms" ?

 

[Coryman]

benny,

This is the reply I got from my friend Dr Peter Burgess, who is a specialist in fish diseases.

"I am pretty sure these are monogenean flukes. I suspect one of the skin flukes, such as Gyrodactylus species. There are hundreds of different monogeneans that affect fish, so I couldnt say which one it is. Many (but not all) monogeneans are host-specific, so it is possible that these flukes might be unable to transmit to other cory species."

Ian

 

[hobbit6003]

Hi Benny,

Hope I'm not too late!

Yes, what Dr Burgess says, is correct. They are monogenetic skin flukes of the Gyrodactylus genus.

Though most of them are species specific, they may cross infect fishes of the same genus. Most of the time, you may find endemic on the fish, but when the water condition deteriorates, they may proliferate to a pathogenic level.

To treat them isn't too difficult, as there're many proprietary medication out there. Alterntively, you can give them a potassium permanganate bath, of abt 100mg of PP per 10 litres of water, duration of abt 5-15 mins.


Cheers,

Kenny