barbianj
05/29/2009, 09:46 PM
I had just finished treating the DT with Prazi, and now it is in the first few days of treatment with Cupramine. I had made the mistake of not QT'ing my last fish, a Goldheart trigger. All of my small fish are doing fine and eating, although the large Queen trigger is taking it a little harder.
I came home from work today, tested the water, fed NLS pellets and an algae sheet. I started to siphon off some dead bristle worms, when I noticed a white stringy looking thing about an inch long. I siphened it out and put it in a separate bucket to look at later. Then I noticed that the Goldheart had a similar looking thing hanging from his butt. He swam around for a little bit, and it didn't break off like poo normally would. He hid in a dead end cave, so I thought I would try to get it with the siphon tube, and sure enough, another two inches of it slid out of the fish and up the siphon tube. Three words. Nasty, nasty, NASTY.
I have a USB microscope at home, so I took some pictures of both of the parasites. They were both dead, and their bodies looked empty, but they did not look alike. The smaller one had many little hook-like appendages at the business end, and the larger one had more of a geometric pattern. I'm not sure how much of them were missing, but they seemed fairly intact. There was one in the Queen triggers tank that was mostly decomposed, and two small ones about one inch each in the other tank. Both of those had a reddish-brown color, and they looked more like the smaller one with the hooks, but I didn't get a chance to siphon those two out.
Now, when I first saw the parasite hanging from the Goldheart, I thought of what many people have described as "stringy white poo". I was more that a little shocked to see that it was actually a parasite, and how long it was. The thing is 3 1/2". The fish is only about 5"-6".
The Cupramine is apparently killing the parasites, and the smaller fish are doing pretty good. The Pintail doesn't eat much, but the others all seem more or less normal, and their ich spots are diminishing. The Queen trigger, however, has not eaten in the last two days, and just kind of sits there. I understand that it can affect fish differently, but after seeing those parasites, I wonder what internal wounds need to heal once they are gone. I do have an ammonia reading of .5 from the die-off in the rocks, so I'm sure that does not help.
Last week, I was feeding my fish in ignorant bliss, thinking that everything was going too good, and now everything is a little crazy. I QT'd my fish, but I didn't follow through all the way. I'm making this post to find out what these parasites are, but also as an example of what can happen if you don't follow strict quarantine procedures. Don't fool yourself.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q172/barbianj/Parasites/IMG_7313.jpg
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q172/barbianj/Parasites/IMG_7312.jpg
I came home from work today, tested the water, fed NLS pellets and an algae sheet. I started to siphon off some dead bristle worms, when I noticed a white stringy looking thing about an inch long. I siphened it out and put it in a separate bucket to look at later. Then I noticed that the Goldheart had a similar looking thing hanging from his butt. He swam around for a little bit, and it didn't break off like poo normally would. He hid in a dead end cave, so I thought I would try to get it with the siphon tube, and sure enough, another two inches of it slid out of the fish and up the siphon tube. Three words. Nasty, nasty, NASTY.
I have a USB microscope at home, so I took some pictures of both of the parasites. They were both dead, and their bodies looked empty, but they did not look alike. The smaller one had many little hook-like appendages at the business end, and the larger one had more of a geometric pattern. I'm not sure how much of them were missing, but they seemed fairly intact. There was one in the Queen triggers tank that was mostly decomposed, and two small ones about one inch each in the other tank. Both of those had a reddish-brown color, and they looked more like the smaller one with the hooks, but I didn't get a chance to siphon those two out.
Now, when I first saw the parasite hanging from the Goldheart, I thought of what many people have described as "stringy white poo". I was more that a little shocked to see that it was actually a parasite, and how long it was. The thing is 3 1/2". The fish is only about 5"-6".
The Cupramine is apparently killing the parasites, and the smaller fish are doing pretty good. The Pintail doesn't eat much, but the others all seem more or less normal, and their ich spots are diminishing. The Queen trigger, however, has not eaten in the last two days, and just kind of sits there. I understand that it can affect fish differently, but after seeing those parasites, I wonder what internal wounds need to heal once they are gone. I do have an ammonia reading of .5 from the die-off in the rocks, so I'm sure that does not help.
Last week, I was feeding my fish in ignorant bliss, thinking that everything was going too good, and now everything is a little crazy. I QT'd my fish, but I didn't follow through all the way. I'm making this post to find out what these parasites are, but also as an example of what can happen if you don't follow strict quarantine procedures. Don't fool yourself.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q172/barbianj/Parasites/IMG_7313.jpg
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q172/barbianj/Parasites/IMG_7312.jpg