Anchor Worm parasites

fishman10

New Member
Messages
14
Location
dgh
The minnows and one koi in my dad ponds looked funny a few weeks ago. I notices what appeared to be feathers growing out of their skin. I removed one of the minnows and did some research and found that our pond has been infested with Anchor Worms. These are a parasitic animal that attach to fish. Its very hard to get rid of them once they are in a pond. We quaratined the fish and are letting the pond dry out which will kill any eggs in the water. The koi will have to be seperated from the minnows to make sure they dont cross over. Only one koi had an anchor worm on it and it was removed so they are clean. The minnows are slowly dying off. I took some up close pictures of the worms.

http://www.gather.com/viewSlideshow.action?albumId=37483
 

katie_

Wonder Reptiles
Messages
2,645
Location
Ontario
We see anchors all the time at work. They arent too hard to kill :) Removing the adults by hand though is time consuming and a PITA
 

jemjdragon

Member
Messages
240
Location
California, USA
I remember when this happened in one of my aquariums. I pulled out the affected fish and removed the worms by hand then quarantined them in a hospital tank. The tank and hospital tank was treated with parasite medicine, I don't remember which one. All the fish survived except one which was one of the worst, had over 10 parasites on him. The live aquarium plants died from the medicine, except for the ones that grew out of bulbs, these grew back eventually.

Since a pond is much bigger, I am not surprised you have to dry it out. Do you know how they got in your pond?
 

Visit our friends

Top