I did loose one of my cons last night. Im hoping the rest make it but i dont know if they will.

I lost my Girlfriends con last night It took me a whole hour to get her to stop crying. I almost lost my redhead and my JD lastnight before I added more salt.

On that note I'm seeing white worm like things and what I think look like lice but with claws on the sides of my tank. They are also on my redhead too. What is that?

Mike how are your fish doing?

Still breathing hard and not eating. My redhead has a gold tint to her.

Sorry to hear that. I didn't even see your post that was from earlier today. I wish I could help, but it looks like you are doing all you can.

Mike D wrote:

I lost my Girlfriends con last night It took me a whole hour to get her to stop crying. I almost lost my redhead and my JD lastnight before I added more salt.

On that note I'm seeing white worm like things and what I think look like lice but with claws on the sides of my tank. They are also on my redhead too. What is that?

Sorry to hear the bad news Mike. Little white things with claws... ...not sure what that is. Maybe hydra? but I'm not sure they have claws. They have little tentacle type things.

I ordered some coppersafe so hopefuly my fish can hang in there untill It comes in.

Sounds like fish louse. Took a minute to find a pic.

Fish Louse

Never had 'em. Cure choices I remember involve picking 'em off with tweezers or potassium permanganate baths. Don't know the KMnO4 concentration. Shoul be able to find KMnO4 at a pool supply store.

WYite

Oh shit.

I've had some resuce koi have the louse. Little bastards are *HARD* to get rid of.

With the condition your fish are in, I think potassium permanganate will kill them.

That being said, I have potassium permanganate crystals. I think Wyite is right that they carry them at pool stores. I got mine online somewhere awhile ago and actually think it was a spa supply place. Mine came with instructions to mix with water for the desired ppm. Then I had to look up what would be safe for the koi.

For 10 hour bath 2ppm was considered "safe" and for a 2 hour bath 10ppm.

If you dip them and they look at all funny or act at all weird, pull them out asap. That stuff is a nasty nasty harsh chemical, and flammable to boot.

My first attempt at louse removal and another potentially safer option for your fish (this is based on koi too), but is a mid term salt bath. 2.5 lbs of salt (I used kosher) per 30ish g of water for 10 days. Most louse will drop from the salt. Some not so much. I believe it largely depends on how well established they are.

Before I found the potassium permanganate solution method, the koi that had it the worst I had my vet friend give me a hand and we aestheticized the koi (my notes don't have what he brought) and then did a salt bath and then picked all the little bastards off with tweezers.

I'm assuming you haven't added anything recently to introduce lice? Be careful of your guppy tank as well, since you moved that other fish in there temporarily.

The lice may have been in from the old owner of that tank, the eggs can last quite some time from what I understand of them.

Once you treat the fish. Nuke the tank from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

Dang! Those little bastards look nasty.

F bomb!! I dont think my fish could take a potassium permanganate bath. Nothing in the tank is new I have had all of these fish for a year pluss. Im going to unfortunately have to ride it out because either I give them a bath and they die or I wait it out and they die or live.

When I get home from work tonight I'm putting them in a tote and draining the tank. Tomorrow I will boil all of my rocks for 45 min and then put them into the freezer for 2 days. Wile the rocks are freezing I'm taking the tank down to a local car wash and taking a hot water pressure washer to the inside of the tank. When I get it home I'm washing the tank with ammonia (because if it stays in the tank it will help the cycle process unlike bleach.), Refilling the tank and starting the cycle process all over again.

I should be packing but I dug out the koi book that has the salt bath info.

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but if you don't do *anything* they'll die from direct contact to the lice, or from infections from the wounds from them.

I would at least try the salt bath.

This is the shortened version of the formula I've used and it's worked well. This book claims that therapeutic levels of salt for *most* freshwater fishies is 3ppt (Yea Thousand) Since it's a koi book it doesn't get into all of what those other freshwater fish would be, so again, watch em and be careful with what you do.

Here's my short hand conversion. It should make sense I hope.

ppt = grams per liter.

Now to convert.
3.785 Liters == 1 gallon
2.2 lbs == 1 kg

So then: grams of salt = (volume gal * 3.7854) * (salinity)
Then, since salt usually comes in pound boxes convert it:
(grams of salt) * (2.2 / 1000) = lbs salt

For a 55g quarantine tank (like what I use)
(55*3.8754) * (3) = 639.44 grams salt.
639.44 * (2.2 / 1000) = 1.4 pounds of salt

I actually have a gram scale, for the torts, so I don't bother converting. I'm assuming that most people don't have a gram scale sitting around.

If your worried about doing 3g/l then maybe start with 2?
3.7854 * (2.2/1000) * (1.5) * [volume of tank (gallons)] * [salinity (usually = 3)]
0.03748 * [volume of tank in gallons] = # cups salt @ 3g/L (ppt)
0.02498 * [volume of tank in gallons] = # cups salt @ 2g/L (ppt)
0.01249 * [volume of tank in gallons] = # cups salt @ 1g/L (ppt)

It just occurred to me now that you could more than likely get away with 3 tablespoons per 5 gallons and get it close enough for 3ppt or 2 tablespoons at 2ppt

Blah. Stupid easy way.

Good luck with it.

Wow saint my eyes went crossed reading that one, Not to mention that its 12:30am here. Thank you for all of the info! If you dont mind I'm going to save all of the info you posted. I'm going to do the 3ppt tomorrow. How long should I let them bathed in the saltwater and I'm using regular salt right?

Are ya sure it is fish louse?

Yes. Please please please make sure you can actually see parasites on the fish. If you can see em, odds are they'f flukes or lice. The salt bath should work on both, so long as they're not too established.

half an hour is the max I'd do for 3ppt. The koi I did was 2lbs and near 2 feet. Your guys are going to be smaller, so a shorter time would be a good start.

Just watch big time the fish in the bath. Do one at a time and make sure there's an airstone running as well. Fish starts acting weird, pull it.

I wrote up more the first time, but the forum ate my post,

Im seeing worms on my fish not lice. the lice are on the sides of the tank.

Yes, sounds like flukes or lice. If ya can' see lice on the fish, the many-legged things on the side could be harmless critters.

Another link:More parasites, including anchor worms.

Are the worms anchor worms, possibly? They;re actually crustaceans, unlike flukes. Either way, the baths mentioned above should help.

WYite

BTW, if ya can get a pic or two that would be heplful. I know your busy and stressin' over the problem, but would be easier to help ya.

I'll try and get a pic but where they are so small I dont know if you would be able to see em.

Update: My fish are doing better. I dont think the parasites were actualy attached to the fish. What I did was I shut the lights off for a week, added aquarium salt and Maracide. The fish started to act normal with in 4 days of the treatment. Today I took the fish out and put them into a tote. I removed the decor and washed them with boiling water. I'm running the tank right now with saints 3ppt salt mix, after a few hours Im going to drain the tank, clean the filters, heater and airstone. Im also going to clean the tank with boiling water and dry it compleatly. Hopfuly this will do the trick.

Glad to hear things are getting better.

Cool I am happy to here this, good work Mike!

Glad to hear things are moving in the right direction for ya Mike. Best of luck to ya!

Ed

I didn't think of anchor worms, but if it's cleared up, it's all good.

Awesome! Happy to hear things are better.