# Other Aquarium Forums > Fish Care, Nutrition and Water Management >  Tubifex worms attached on Cardinal tetra body? (Roundworms)

## feide

Hi bros

can help to identify the disease on my cardinal? 
looks like a tubifex attached to its body!
I do feed them tubifex once in a while but I always make sure the worms are cleaned properly before feeding.
This fish is behaving normal now.... doesn't look sick at all till you see its "accessory"  :Opps:

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## fisherw

It might be anchor worms. See:

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...?t=8833&page=2

post #2 or google.

There's a photo here:

http://blog.thepondguy.com/2008/06/2...-of-june-20th/

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## Fingerling

Ive had this when i was keeping cardinals before. Treated for parasites ( including anchor worms) but it doesnt go away. You'll find that this worm-like condition will spread slowly to all parts of the body. I ended up having to dispose of the whole group. :Crying:  The only possible disease i can guess this might be would be also known as Neon Tetra Disease. The infestation is very hard to treat and almost impossible to treat in the later stages. 

The cycle begins when parasite spores enter the fish after the fish ingest infected food or organic debris ( such as bodies of dead fish or live food, often tubifex worms. ) After the spores enter the intestinal tract, the newly hatched embryos burrow through the intestinal walls and produce cysts within the muscle tissues that start to die off resulting in pale white tissue.


Symptoms would be..
1) Restlessness
2) The fish becomes more isolated
3) The fish will have difficulty swimming
4) The white/pale tissues appear
5) Body becomes more lumpy and irregular 
6) Spine may become deformed or curved.
( My infected cardinals had all this symptoms mentioned when it had that worm-like condition. ) 

Fishes that can be affected.
Most tetras
Angelfish
Most danios


Treatment..
Move the infected fish into a seperate tank and treat using methylene blue. 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons( Do not overdose ). Treat for 30 mins before moving the fish back to their main tank. This can be performed twice daily. Do not pour this water back into your main tank.

In the main tank, you'll need to treat with parasite treament. A UV sterilizer is strongly recommended. 

If all these steps are followed, rate of stopping the spread of the disease is almost 100% and treatment if in the early stages would be about 20-50%

This is a summary from a page i read up on.

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## feide

Hi Fisherv

Thanks for the sticky and photo. Not sure whether it is anchor worm. Mine is pink, curled up and 'embedded in a coating' on the fish's body


Hi Fingerling

Thanks for the write up, appreciate that. Sorry to hear about your loss. 
Strange thing is that my affected fish is behaving normally, schooling and eating with the rest.
Certainly hope it is not neon tetra disease since there is no cure for that... 
Might try methylene blue on that sick little fella.

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## feide

Just found this website, looks like 'roundworms' to me 
"They often come in with contaminated live foods such as _Tubifex_ worms." -> quoted from the website.....
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/fish_..._1.html#Lernea


mine is very similar to this picture (exept it is more 'pinkish')
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/fish_..._mikeaofa.html

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## RHX

I had tetras that has got these parasite before. It wiped out most of my fish population, infecting them slowly. I had treated it with anti-parasite medication, but it did not work. So I don't think it's anchor worm. Think you better quarantine it first before it started spreading, until you have found a cure for it.

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## jimlen

Hi 
Just to add to the topic that if you think you have parasites in your fish then it follows that you have them in the tank,but while methylene blue may work on a parasite that has erupted from the fish ,there are more stages in the life of the parasite,usually the fish is just a host for the parasite to complete its cycle,they have many stages that look nothing like the worm that we see,one member recommended UV sterilizer which is very good,years ago before we had sterilizers we would take the infected fish out of the tank,kill it then put all other fish in another tank,we would then raise the temperature a lot to hasten the rate of development of the parasite,leave for about 3 days and all the parasites would die as they had lost their hosts.good luck ,jimlen

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## feide

Hi RHS and jimlen
I will try to get net the whole school out for treatment to be safe...
any suggestions on the medications? I am really no good in this and don't want to add on more sufferings to the poor sick fishes by choosing the wrong 'antidote'..

meanwhile will consider a uv sterilizer for the tank, I heard some claims that it will affect the benificia bateria in the tank, I better do some readup before taking any action. nevertheless thanks jimlen for the advise

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## jimlen

Hi
You would be safer asking your local fish for medications as he will know up to date methods,Also do you mind if I ask why you feed whole tubifex worms,years ago we got our main supplies of worms from the River Thames [upriver]they lived in almost pure sewage,we would let clean cold water run over them for at least 4 days to purge them of any crap,then we would cut them up and put them on a small tray on tank bottom,what was,nt eaten in an hour was thrown away.Jim

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## feide

I believe many bro in Singapore feed live tubifex too, live food should be 'alive'.. . (to me at least)
Thanks for sharing your recipe. That's a fair bit of work, Not to mention cutting tubifex!
I actually bathe them a few times with abit of very diluted "listerine" solution before feeding. (will rinse off with water).
I have managed to fish out most of cardinals, treating with methylene blue now, will update. Praying hard....

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## benny

These are indeed internal parasite call roundworms (nematodes). Most external parasite medication will be useless against it. Anchor worms (which is straight) is an external parasite. I have heard of some success with discus de-worming medication. Perhaps you can consider that if your methylene blue treatment does not work.

Cheers,

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## feide

> These are indeed internal parasite call roundworms (nematodes). Most external parasite medication will be useless against it. Anchor worms (which is straight) is an external parasite. I have heard of some success with discus de-worming medication. Perhaps you can consider that if your methylene blue treatment does not work.
> 
> Cheers,


Thanks Benny
Seems like Methylene is not working for them, will try to get hold some discus de-worming medications as per your advise. Hope the poor fishes can hold on... Any brand to recommend? Thanks!

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## Christos

Hi everyone,
I keep a school of 10 cardinals and 2 of them have the identical worms attached to them. 
The fish 9 days agocaedinal3a.jpg
Same fish yesterday just before I removed the worms with a pair of tweezers DSC04466a.JPG
The worms in 100x magnification worm-4.jpgworm-2.jpg worm-1.jpg
On the 5th of June I started treatment by dissolving 5 tablets (for 120 lt) of Parazin (Waterlife). When I removed the worms I poured a drop of mycopur (serra) straight to the fish for the recovery of the wounds and possible bacteria infections. All that was decided after I asked for advice my local pet shop owner.
Today I cant see the 2 fish I treated........they must be hiding in some place.

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## Christos

and on top of that DSC05140a.jpg the belly on another cardinal gets a funny shape (its been quite big (bigger than normal anyway) the last few days. Didnt think much of it then but now I am troubled.
I dont know if I was any help but surely I can use all the help I can get...
Thank you in advance

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## jimlen

Hi Christos
Wondered if you also feed tubifex worms to your cardinals.Jim

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## Christos

Never have fed them tubifex. Twice a month I feed them blood worms (frozen). Live food is considered a luxury in Greece, almost impossible to find!!
By the way, the funny belly is back to normal...

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## jimlen

Hi Christos
Glad your fishes belly went back to normal,probably a large lump of food,hope your cardinals do OK too,let us know if the worms return.Jim

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## feide

Hi Christo
thanks for sharing your experience and the pics.
My cardinals are fine now, the roundworms just 'disappeared'. ( I did not manage to treat a few sick fishes as I couldn't catch them). still very puzzled but will definately avoid live food in future.
As for your 'bloated' cardinal, could it be due to overfeeding? this happens to my fishes when I feed too much  :Grin:

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## Jitticus

Those look like camallanus worms.

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## Christos

> My cardinals are fine now, the roundworms just 'disappeared'.


I am glad your cardinals are fine now, but tell me plz what kind of treatment did you follow (if any..). And the question remains, does someone treat the fish or the whole aquarium?

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## feide

> I am glad your cardinals are fine now, but tell me plz what kind of treatment did you follow (if any..). And the question remains, tret the fish or the whole aquarium?


Hi Christos

I caught some infected fishes and treated them with methylene blue, they seem better after a few days. But the funny thing is that I have some infected ones with were untreated in the main tank (I didn't manage to catch them), they 'auto' recovered after a few days too... 
So I have no idea whether methylene blue works... I only treat the fish (quarrantine tank), not the whole tank.

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## jimlen

It should be remembered that methylene blue is a dye that stains cells of bacteria thus inhibiting the normal life of the bacteria,but you should remember that it will also stain the cells of the beneficial bacteria that lives in your filter and could kill or at least inhibit their normal function,sometimes it is best not to treat the fish but to cull it,this is what happens in nature because the stress to a fish when taken from its tank for treating often removes the natural immunity it has to other things,just an opinion,Jim

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## feide

Hi Jim 

Thanks for the note. Didn't know methylene blue works this way.  :Smile: 
Anyway I always take culling as the last resort (when I see the fish in a very bad shape). For this case, they looked fine so I tried treatment in a quarrantine tank.

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## jimlen

OK Feide
Of course though, the Methylene Blue does other things but we would have to be chemists instead of hobbyists to understand it fully,what ever works for you,thanks.Jim

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## liyukun

let me try

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## RedBuLL

Hi, sorry that i need to bring up this post as i have the same problem with my cardinal and rummy nose tetras. Does methylene blue really help to treat this disease? Or is there any other way to treat this disease?

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## feide

Hi Redbull
I am quite doubtful that methylene blue actually helped caused some of my fishes did not make it after the treatment, whereas some auto recovered without the treatment...

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## RedBuLL

> Hi Redbull
> I am quite doubtful that methylene blue actually helped caused some of my fishes did not make it after the treatment, whereas some auto recovered without the treatment...


Thx for the reply  :Smile:  
I had picked out all those worms using a pincer. Some of the worms even grow on the head causing the fish to have swollen eyes. Some even have infection on the gills and mouth. All fishes are still eating normally but not sure if they will fully recover. These worms seem to spread slow but it cant be stopped easily. 
Really need experts here to kill all these stubborn worms in my tank.  :Evil:

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## jimlen

Hi,The worms cant be tubifex as they live in mud in rivers,dont see how they can live in the tissue of other animals,they are more likely to be parasites that need the fish as hosts for their final development,the only way is take the fish out,raise the temperature in the empty tank which will speed up the growth of the worms and not finding a host fish will die,it would be far kinder for the fish to culled.Jimlen

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