PlanetCatfish.com

So, on August 17th, I noticed this on my channel cat, Moxie:


We thought it was just sores from gravel. Septicemia. NOT parasites, as I didn't see any on any of the fish.
So when I get home after having the guys of the LFS look at those pictures, I take another look, and see a thick thread coming out of the holes. Think like, pus coming out of a popped pimple. Mole in a molehill. Like that. The middle of each of those bumps had a hole.
SO. I go, get my camera, and they're gone. Like they're playing peekaboo. but I pull a chair over and after several minutes, a wiggling white thread moving in the water catches my eye. I didn't think anything of it, because it was much thinner, but then, it landed right on Moxie. And was moving independently. And I flipped out, and took a picture of the offender on Moxie, and after I destroy it.
It took an almost complete cycle of Maracide, and two full treatments of Maracide concentrate, with Melafix being used simultaneously, before I quit netting worms.




The last picture are two odd looking worms I netted out later in the treatment period. The one on the left has that weird bulbous thing attached (egg case?)

ANYWAY.
So it's been smooth sailing for the past...month.
I noticed Moxie doing her flashing thing (asked about it, and no one replied). I had been told it could be irritation from raised ammonia levels, but I keep those in check, and for ****sngiggles, I checked again. 0. As usual.
Today, after cleaning the tank (oh god, it looks so nice!) I start noticing all of these little THINGS in the water. They looked like worms, but were no more than half-an-inch long. But then some started wiggling and contorting.
And that's when I burst to tears and my heart sunk and everything around me crashed.
Not only was the past hour of cleaning the tank and making everything look especially nice WASTED, but I have baby worms. And I don't know why. I don't know what this means. The gravel had been removed during treatment, flushed thoroughly and dried for that period. I don't know anything about worms. Once treatment was done, the tubes of my filter were cleaned out and thoroughly washed, ALL of the media washed the canister, the propeller. EVERYTHING.

Anyway.
Now I have the inhabitants of my 75 gallon.
Inside a 25 tall quarantine tank.
AND BABY WORMS STILL MANAGED TO GET IN THE FRESH SETUP.

I'm supposed to be trading off the 75 for a 120 stock pond, but if there's worms, I can't be passing that on! All of the water is drained.

Any and all help is appreciated.
How do I treat the plants, driftwood, nets, everything to eradicate these persistent *&$^#@s ???

Anyway, I'm not sure what information is needed in this case:
All of the water levels are where they should be- The pH sometimes climbs to 7.2. That's it.
There are two silk plants and a live Amazon sword.
The filter is a Marineland C-360.

The inhabitants of my 75 gallon Freshwater tank are:
Ms. Moxie Murder- Channel Catfish of 13"
Domo- Leopard Spotted African Leaffish of ~1"
RazzleDazzle- Lavender Gourami of 3.5"
Vigilante- Rhino Pleco of ~7"
Retic- Snakeskin Gourami of ~5"
Spanky- Red-Bellied Pacu of 8"
General NomNoms- Senegal Bichir of 8.5"
Sergeant NomNommed- Senegal Bichir of 8.5"
Skippy- deformed Striped Pictus Catfish of ~4".

I take it these new worms are different & not on the fish? Have you got a pic at all?

The new worms & flashing might not be connected at all - the new worms could be something like planaria?

It would be great if you posted your nitrate, nitrite and ammonia values rather than "are as they should be", as I've seen many examples of someones "should be" being quite different from what another person thinks it should be. Numbers are much more concrete in that sense - and this variability in "should be" includes the documentation that comes with the test kits. Also, if you use the "strip" test kit, it may well be very much away from the truth, as the strips are generally very inaccurate. The liquid tests are harder to work, but they are much more accurate in their results.

--
Mats

These "worms' actually look like one of the parasitic copepods, Lernaea spp, and need to be treated with insecticide based medications.

regarding "sterilising" the tank and equipment minus fish - just putin a cocktail of anti int and ext parasite meds at several times normal dose and drain after a week.
in many cases just draining and leaving in strong sun to dry out completely my do.
the new little "worms" may be harmless and due to poor water - do a 50% change and add a double dose of filter primer.
if you want to try - crushed cat worming pills in food can help with some internal worms.

Compare your "worm" with fig. 25.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/FA/FA04100.pdf

Hi Dave,

Thanks for posting that figure. I hadn't thought to try it.