ok, my new leopard has a parasite...zoom in.

[we4wieners]

What do I have? And what to do? Just got him from importer who claimed to treat them. This was not there this morning and he's eating and active.
http://i1022.photobucket.com/albums/af341/we4wieners/Mobile%20Uploads/20150205_161512_zps0ceaea81.jpg (http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/we4wieners/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20150205_161512_zps0ceaea81.jpg.html)

[we4wieners]

I am not sure if this is an anchor. Any ideas?

[nc0gnet0]

Is the area of attachment red/inflamed at all? Is there any way to get a clearer picture? Is this a planted tank?

-Rick

[we4wieners]

Only pic. No redness, as of yet. It was not there this morning, so it's relatively new. No, not planted. I have never had external parasites before, so I am LITERALLY CLUELESS as how to proceed. If you zoom in on the pic, you can see what seems to be a long thin worm hanging from the wound.

[we4wieners]

Thoughts on treatment of fish and tank?

[brewmaster15]

I have never seen anchor worms on Discus, but thats what it looks like...Theres a med called anchors away by jungle...it contains dimilin...it should work if this is an anchor worm..(actually a type of copepod)..alternatively you could try netting the fish and physically removing the "worm" with a tweezers,then topically swabbing with hydrogen peroxide or iodine in the affected area. I personally would go the tweezers route here and save the meds for if you see more of these.
hth,
al

[brewmaster15]

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?117106-Treating-topically-(Iodine-H2O2-etc)

info on swabbing.

[we4wieners]

I have never seen anchor worms on Discus, but thats what it looks like...Theres a med called anchors away by jungle...it contains dimilin...it should work if this is an anchor worm..(actually a type of copepod)..alternatively you could try netting the fish and physically removing the "worm" with a tweezers,then topically swabbing with hydrogen peroxide or iodine in the affected area. I personally would go the tweezers route here and save the meds for if you see more of these.
hth,
al
Thank you Al. Do you recommend I treat my tank as well?

[we4wieners]

I removed the affected fish and swabbed the slime coat at the point of infection/wound and swabbed it with iodine, let it dry, and moved him to hospital tank. Treating hospital tank with PolyGuard. He's active as ever and eating fine.

I am quite confident it was NOT any kind of worm. When I swabbed him, it looks as if it were a hair from my dogs possibly.

I am considering treating my DT with PolyGuard as well, any suggestions? I reached out to Seachem and they recommended this product given the pics. They said it would not harm my bio, loaches, or cory's and it was their suggestion to treat DT. Wanted to bounce this suggestion off the forum prior to.

[brewmaster15]

Active ingredients: sulfathiazole (36%), malachite green (1.9%), nitrofurantoin (0.14%), nitrofural (0.14%), quinacrine dihydrochloride (0.27%). Inactive ingredients: excipients (61%) polyguard ingredients.I haven't used this yet so no idea about it..but its cocktail, shot gun remedy and i generally don't like these.

At this point you may have just had a localized infection.If no other symptoms are present and everyone looks fine..Id hold off treating the tank for now.

Hth,
al

[we4wieners]

polyguard ingredients.I haven't used this yet so no idea about it..but its cocktail, shot gun remedy and i generally don't like these.

At this point you may have just had a localized infection.If no other symptoms are present and everyone looks fine..Id hold off treating the tank for now.

Hth,
al
Ok, will do. Thanks again for responding. As you know, these things tend to occupy your mind all day. Then I start googling everything...disaster.

[brewmaster15]

glad to help!

[Skip]

What is ur water change routine. . I had seen something like when i got lazy with wc...if u had not been doing daily wc... it would not hurt to start. . But now that i see i black beard algae on ur driftwood. I am thinking u don't do wc often anf this is water quality issue

[we4wieners]

I do WC's every day. I have phosphates issues causing my BBA on the driftwood. The fish was intro'd into my tank a week prior. I removed him and wiped it and treated him with iodine and treated tank with polyguard. He has completely recovered. I just started doing daily wc's about 2 months ago, beginning of December.