Uh Oh

Okay guys. I know what happened to the Dojo loaches.

Petsmart is currently infested with anchor worms. They look like this:


Gross, right? It's a little tick-like thing that burrows into the fish. The dojos came home with red spots on them, and then died the next day.

I traded in their little fishie corpses for a calico ryukin goldfish. I noticed some of the goldfish had weird dots with little things hanging off but I was so tired of pushy customers (at DI and Petsmart!!!) that I just took it home regardless.

Um, but once home I realized it was too weird to be good. So I researched it and found anchor worms.

Apparently I needed to hold the fish and tweeze the worms out, then treat the water.

Ew.

I've seen videos of people cutting tumors off of their fish and always thought: what crazy fanatics! It's just a fish!



But um, I did it.

I filled a fish bowl halfway with water from the tank, then netted my new lady out of the family mansion. I gently held her in one hand, then tweezed the worms out of her slimy body as close to her scales as I could. I dunked her back in the water in between each worm removal and I don't think she hates me too much for it.

I'm pretty sure I got them all. I treated the water with a VERY LOW dosage of formaldehyde and malachite green salt. It's way lower than what is recommended, but it's all I have!

Hopefully my tank doesn't get infested now. Grrr.

It's so cute though, this new Lady is making friends with Oscar and Glub!

Don't worry Mother, I will post a picture tomorrow.