Can anyone identify this parasitic worm???

[Tft12]

I’ll post the pictures first and then give a full history in a second post. This worm was collected after fresh water dip of an Anthias that lost its eye after some pretty bad popeye.

When I received this fish I extensively quarantined it for months and it did receive prophylactic prazi treatment, but as you can see in the picture this isn’t a fluke or any other flat worm. Whatever this worm is, it wouldn’t be likely to be susceptible to prazi.

The blurry round things in the photos are fish scales, not flukes. The only interesting thing in the pictures is the worm that has a curly tail and a large head.

Thank you to any worm expert that may be able to tell me what this is likely to be, and if a worm like this is likely to cause any zoonotic disease in humans (my suspicion is yes).

 

[dbl]

@KJ...any ideas here?

 

[Tft12]

History of that worm issue is below.

Almost two years ago I ordered a mix of 15 Resplendent and Carberryi Anthias. All went into qt with prophylactic copper and prazi. During qt one got popeye and died. The rest appeared skinny but ok. I kept them in qt for about 3 months until they put on a lot of weight. I normally don’t run qt this long but I was extra cautious due to the one that had popeye. After the 3-month qt I did a freshwater dip of 2 Anthias to screen for flukes or other things, neither had anything fall off, and I distributed all of the Anthias to 3 different displays. I should have checked all of the remaining 14 instead of only 2.

After about 2 months one Resplendent developed popeye and died. I didn’t think anything of this at the time.

A few months later I consolidated those three systems and I had all Anthias living in one tank. They seemed to get a long well enough and were doing very well for a few months. Then another 2 Resplendents developed popeye and died. This time I could see a spike-looking thing sticking out from the upper border of one of the resplendent’s eyes. It looked exactly like the tail of a small mysis that would be fed, but with some mucous covering it.

Many months passed and I’m now down to 5 Anthias. I know people often say that this happens with a group of Anthias so I didn’t think too much of it, except that I wouldn’t try creating a group of Anthias again.

About a month ago an Anthias developed popeye, eventually he lost the eye, but the fish had been hanging on without eating for a long time (I feed my fish very heavily and they’re extremely fat, so apparently they can handle long fasts). About 3 weeks ago my Achilles Tang that I’ve had for about 2 and a half years developed an air bubble in one eye and eventually the air bubble went away, but then about one week ago he developed severe popeye. Today I did a freshwater dip on the Anthias that was missing an eye and collected the worm in the photos.

That’s everything. I know that it certainly isn’t typical flukes because that isn’t a flat worm in the pictures. Also, prazi won’t kill it for the same reason.

Does anyone know what this is and if it poses likely risk to humans?

 

[KJ]

Pic to blurry for positive ID

 

[Tft12]

Picture is to blurry for positive ID.

Yeah, that’s the best I could do. The worm is pretty small.

What you can gather from the photo and my info is that it’s a worm from a saltwater aquarium fish that infects eyes (maybe other parts too), has a curly/wavy body and a large head. Does this fit the description of any common parasite that shows up in aquarium fish - I wouldn’t expect anyone could look at a photo of a small worm and ID its species most of the time. What are some options here?

 

[KJ]

@Humblefish @4FordFamily @Brew12 @Big G

 

[KJ]

https://www.google.com/search?q=sal...ved=0ahUKEwiQy-Hpk9nbAhXMx1kKHRKFDCYQ_AUICigB

 

[Maritimer]

This one looks somewhat similar:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/parasitic-worm.226295/

~Bruce

 

[Tft12]

Unfortunately it does look somewhat like that thing, which is pretty gross. I didn't see any treatments mentioned in that thread that would treat a worm like this. Prazi and metro wouldn't do it. I'm surprised there aren't common roundworm medications used in the hobby. In mammals at least, prazi is used to treat flat worms and I don't see any indications that works for roundworms, though the reflex in the forums seems to be worm infetcion --> use prazi. Roundworms are common in fish but hobbyists don't use/have products for treating roundworms. I found Levamisole online and perhaps I'll use a Levamisole bath during qt in the future, I think that could have avoided this issue. At some point I'll see if anyone has any experience treating roundworms or using Levamisole.

 

[deedubz]

Can you get your hands on fenbendazole? I know @Humblefish was experimenting with it as an alternative to internal parasites and flukes. I'm curious as to how that's gone and if he thinks it may work here.

I've never used levamisole and I may have a different medication in mind when I ask this, but is that one that's fallen out of favor due to being extraordinarily harsh on fish?

 

[Flippers4pups]

Anchor worm?

 

[deedubz]

Can you get your hands on fenbendazole? I know @Humblefish was experimenting with it as an alternative to internal parasites and flukes. I'm curious as to how that's gone and if he thinks it may work here.

I've never used levamisole and I may have a different medication in mind when I ask this, but is that one that's fallen out of favor due to being extraordinarily harsh on fish?

I also wonder if formalin may work. I hate the thought of using it but, as Humblefish told me, sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I ran into a metro resistant strain of brook and had to use formalin followed by antibiotics (the trifecta). I'm glad I did.

 

[Tft12]

I believe levamisole might have a reputation for being hard on fish. I've never used it though. I found a University of Florida guide for treating roundworms in fish and it said that fish could be treated with feed fenbendazole or bath of levamisole or feed levamisole. A bath is generally much easier to get a measured dose to the fish so I was starting my consideration with levamisole.

From the UFl document:
For intestinal nematode infections of ornamental fish, several anthelminthics (dewormers) are available. Two effective and commonly used dewormers are fenbendazole and levamisole. Fenbendazole can only be used as a feed additive at the rate of 1.14 grams per pound of food fed for three days, with a repeat treatment in two to three weeks. Levamisole can be used both in the feed and as a bath treatment. One effective oral dose is 1.8 grams of levamisole per pound of food fed once a week for three weeks. One effective bath treatment dose is 2 ppm (mg/liter) levamisole for 24 hours, with a repeat treatment in two to three weeks. However, be sure to consult with a fish health specialist before commencing any treatment and always follow their recommendations.

Link
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa091

 

[deedubz]

I'm definitely following along. I'm curious as to the answer(s) you'll receive

 

[Alfrareef]

Not sure if I can see the worm! What’s that round white thing?

 

[Humblefish]

If this is a roundworm (can't say for sure from the photos), then your best bet would be fenbendazole. But I typically have to both food soak & dose the water with it, and it can take up to 3 weeks to completely clear the fish. Intestinal worms are a real PITA. :mad:

 

[Tft12]

Not sure if I can see the worm! What’s that round white thing?

That thing in the middle is just part of the specimen container.

 

[Tft12]

If this is a roundworm (can't say for sure from the photos), then your best bet would be fenbendazole. But I typically have to both food soak & dose the water with it, and it can take up to 3 weeks to completely clear the fish. Intestinal worms are a real PITA. :mad:

Thanks @Humblefish. This is my first time seeing a small roundworm in my fish. I’ve seen large ones when cleaning fish to eat and I’ve seen large canine ones but never a small roundworm in my aquarium fish, though I always suspected these to be present due to their prevelance in nature. I know the picture is pretty bad but in person, especially when the worm was floating through the water, I’m becoming more and more confident that is was indeed a roundworm. Also, depending on the host and species of roundworm it’s pretty common for parasitic worms to migrate around the host so that could explain the eye involvement. I keep being reminded of the Anthias I saw with the white protrusion from the eye - I should have caught the whole issue then but migratory roundworms wasn’t really on my radar.

From spending a lot of time looking into treating roundworms in aquarium fish, it seems that for the freshwater people, they have a long history (decades) of using Levamisole bathes for treating internal roundworm infections. Why do you prefer feed fenbendazole to levamisole bath? Also, apparently levamisole has been used in active reef tanks, with some degree of reef safety it seems, for treating AEFW. I’ve never had AEFW so I had no idea about this. Lastly, a lot of these types of worms have other hosts during their life cycle so levamisole treatment to the whole tank seems like a good idea in case there are roundworms in snails or shrimp. Of course this option has the greatest possibility of causing trouble for my reef system.

 

[Elegance Coral]

I know you won't agree with me but for what it's worth, here's my suspicions.

The "worm" doesn't look like a worm at all. It looks like a tiny piece of thread. It's even curled and twisted up like thread often does and frayed on the ends.
Pop eye, is cause by a bacterial infection behind the eye. Which builds up pressure, pushing out the eye. Worm treatment like prozi will do little for popeye.
There are several ways to treat, and help prevent pop eye. None of them include deworming medication.
First, and easiest thing to do is to keep the tank clean, with a low bacteria population. Things like carbon dosing and allowing nutrients to rise and accumulate in the system, leads to higher bacteria populations, and higher probability if bacterial infections in the tank inhabitants.
Second, a good healthy diet, and a low stress environment helps to build a strong immune system, enabling the fish to fight off infections.
Third, if none of the above works, treatment with antibiotics is the only hope. If caught early enough, and the above conditions are addressed, antibiotics are rarely necessary.

JMHO
Peace
EC

 

[Humblefish]

Why do you prefer feed fenbendazole to levamisole bath?

I have no experience using Levamisole. My understanding is it basically treats the same worms as Fenbendazole, but the latter is just more commonly available nowadays because aquaculture facilities started abusing use of the former and fish were building up resistance to it.

I know you won't agree with me but for what it's worth, here's my suspicions.

The "worm" doesn't look like a worm at all. It looks like a tiny piece of thread. It's even curled and twisted up like thread often does and frayed on the ends.
Pop eye, is cause by a bacterial infection behind the eye. Which builds up pressure, pushing out the eye. Worm treatment like prozi will do little for popeye.
There are several ways to treat, and help prevent pop eye. None of them include deworming medication.
First, and easiest thing to do is to keep the tank clean, with a low bacteria population. Things like carbon dosing and allowing nutrients to rise and accumulate in the system, leads to higher bacteria populations, and higher probability if bacterial infections in the tank inhabitants.
Second, a good healthy diet, and a low stress environment helps to build a strong immune system, enabling the fish to fight off infections.
Third, if none of the above works, treatment with antibiotics is the only hope. If caught early enough, and the above conditions are addressed, antibiotics are rarely necessary.

JMHO
Peace
EC

Easy enough to tell. If the OP is really dealing with intestinal worms here then he will notice white stingy poop coming out of the fish in question. If you wanted to take it a step further, a microscopic examination of the poop would likely reveal eggs and tell the exact identity of the pathogen.