Worms on firefish gills?

[Eliza]

Help! I noticed a stringy whitish-opaque parasite on one side of my firefish's gills. I had him in in freshwater for 3 minutes but it didn't fall off. What should I do? Is it not flukes? This picture is of him on the way to quarantine.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Is the parasite into the gills or attached to the skin? If it’s attached to the skin I would try manual removal

 

[drstardust]

+1 take some tweezers to that sucker

 

[Eliza]

Definitely near the gills I think it's attached to them but not positive

 

[Big G]

When did the "thing" first appear? Was the fish treated with any meds before you saw this "thing"?

 

[Eliza]

To be totally honest I haven't had the fish for long. My friend got him from petco as a gift a few weeks ago, and no meds were given

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

You can try a dose of Prazi and FW dips need to be closer to 5 min, parasites are usually affected around the 4 min mark.

 

[Eliza]

Okay I can do that

 

[HotRocks]

Does it look like this?

Piscicolidae Worm

Round worms that aren’t as common in our hobby, but can be treated with formalin dips. Once removed, watch for infection in the areas the worms were attached.
Photo: Alexis Terlep

 

[Eliza]

They’re more curly than that and opaque and only on the gill area

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

They’re more curly than that and opaque and only on the gill area

Do you have a Formalin product? Have you tried a full 5 min FW dip or Prazi?

 

[Eliza]

Update I tried a full 5 min FW dip last night and they didn't fall out so I put him back in quarantine and today after realizing they weren't in his gills I tried tweezing them and was able to remove them but he just passed away

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Update I tried a full 5 min FW dip last night and they didn't fall out so I put him back in quarantine and today after realizing they weren't in his gills I tried tweezing them and was able to remove them but he just passed away

Sorry for your loss, do you have pics of the worms?

 

[Eliza]

No they were white and stringy and curly but I threw them in the trash as I removed them

 

[Big G]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[jasonrusso]

Sorry for your loss. We get attached to these little guys, especially when we are trying to save them

 

[cracker]

Sorry Mam !

 

[Dolelo96]

So sorry

 

[Lilithschilde]

Apparently this is common in Firefish. I've seen several posts all over the internet about them, but without any real luck in what they are. I've heard they're anchor worms, possibly. One of my Firefish has the same thing, so I'm hoping not to lose him.

 

[Lilithschilde]

picture