Strange Worm like thing coming from gill of firefish.. Please help

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synyster11

Guest
I am very upset.. I have had bad luck with fish before, so I should have known. I just bought 3 great looking firefish from the LFS the other day. They looked great, and seem to be doing great. All 3 stay very close together and just hang out right in the front. Well, now for the problem. It has only been 2 days and I just noticed a very strange worm like thing coming out of the gill of one of them. I can just barely see a red spot where it looks like its attached just inside the gill. It is a clear/white thing coming off that is very very curly. It does not move while I am watching it and does not seem to bother the fish.. What is this??? I cant get a picture to show it well. It looks like a curly white worm about half a centimeter attached inside the gill of the fish. What do I do? and how do I remove this thing. I do not want to return one of them because they all seem very close. The LFS said they had been together for 2 months.
 
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synyster11

Guest
The "worm thing" is now a light brown color. Also, my clown keeps trying to bite it......
 
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synyster11

Guest
I have been keeping a close eye on it, and it is now white again. It does not apear to bother the fish, so I am just not sure what it is?
 
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synyster11

Guest
It would not be too bad, but what kind of treatment should I do?
 
meb

meb

New Member
Dude,
They call them anchor worms, they are common on firefish, especially purple ones. Its probably bugging you more than it is him, but if it is in his gills it could eventually kill him. You can treat him a variety of different ways. You can net him and physically remove it with tweesers if its on the body but I wouldn't do that if it was on his gills. You can use any of the dips or quarantine him and use copper or Green X. You have to be careful not to over treat him with these treatments, gobies tend to absorb the chemicals through their skin and become toxic quicker than other fish. Just follow the instructions and watch him. You can bring the salanity real low to about 17 or 18 (that will kill invertebrates do it in a treatment tank) You also would run the temp about 82 and crank your ORP to between 450 and 500 (if you can) You have to watch him for infection in the gill , if so use erythromyocin. if you can't get him out the reef tank, you can use GreenX, I know Terry doesn't like it, but I have used it a lot with good success. You gave to remove any carbon filters and shut your skimmer down for about an hour after applications. I use it sparingly and it effective on the ich and other parasites. You can follow the instructions or cut back the dosage some if you have sensitive corals, the stuff is poison. I have a large crown that don't like it too much, they will close up but come baxk nice after the water is clear. Once you get rid of the worms or ich do a water change. Water changes are great my tank prefers more frequent smaller water changes, but they work miracles
 
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