Possible anchor worm?

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Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

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We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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TYoung8
Puffer Fry
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Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2019 1:05 pm
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Possible anchor worm?

Post by TYoung8 »

Ammonia is at 0
Nitrite is at 0
Nitrates are at about 5ppm
PH is 7.6
SG is at 1.003 (working on slowly raising it)

Treated the tank with General cure last week as the instructions on the box specified.

Last night I noticed something white hanging off my figure 8 puffer under its mouth. I’m concerned it may be an anchor worm. :(
Doesn’t seem to be any irritation in the area and he’s full of energy.
Wouldn’t the general cure have killed it if that’s what it is? Should I re-dose general cure? Will the salinity kill it off? Not sure what to do at this point.

What wisdom can you guys give me?
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Possible anchor worm?

Post by Pufferpunk »

Can you net him & pull it off with tweezers, keeping him submerged?
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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TYoung8
Puffer Fry
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Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2019 1:05 pm
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Re: Possible anchor worm?

Post by TYoung8 »

It could possibly be a bit of skin that he partially scratched off too?

Possibly. I don’t want to make him puff up or stress him out too bad. Is that what you would recommend?
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TYoung8
Puffer Fry
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Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2019 1:05 pm
Location (country): Illinois, USA

Re: Possible anchor worm?

Post by TYoung8 »

So I trapped him against the glass with a net to get a better look. I’m thinking either skin or fungus at this point. It’s thin and kind of floats around with the water like hair algae or something like that would. If its a piece of skin I don’t want to rip it off with tweezers or I’m afraid I may hurt him. Thoughts?
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TYoung8
Puffer Fry
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2019 1:05 pm
Location (country): Illinois, USA

Re: Possible anchor worm?

Post by TYoung8 »

I went ahead and netted him and grabbed the thing with tweezers. Kept him under water of course. He put up with me and didn’t freak out. He gladly accepted a piece of krill as a treat after I finished with him. ;-)
Me grabbing it shortened it and there was no resistance or anything. I wasn’t even sure if I got it until I let him go and it was shorter. I’m 99.9% sure it’s not an anchor worm at this point. A little bit of loose skin makes the most sense to me.
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Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32773
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:
Contact Pufferpunk

Re: Possible anchor worm?

Post by Pufferpunk »

Good job, glad it's not a worm. Good puffer!
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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