# Blue Face Angel with worms on his side



## pind4070 (Jun 7, 2006)

I obtained about a 4.5 in Blue face angel about 1.5 months ago. Quarantine tanked initially and had a ich outbreak 1 week into quarantine. Treated with hypo salinity for 5 weeks and placed into display tank 1 week ago. The day after being placed in display tank I noticed one of his scales was out of place and assumed maybe he had a disagreement with a tank mate over night (although about day 3 had my suspicion it could be some sort of external parasite). Today (day 7) the first dislocated scale fell off and there is an obvious parasite/worm looking thing protruding from his body. I am attaching some pictures
( http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/ ). Please any help in diagnosing and treating this little #28### would be great. The fish is still active eating and generaly enjoying life.

Display tank
180g with 40g wet dry/30gallong refugium with 6in deep sand bed
PH 8.1
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.1 (having some issues with local water supply unless would be 0)
Nitrate >20
Phosphates 0
Fish tank mates include 13in tesselata eel, 7in porcupine puffer, 5in Yellow tail Red Coris Wrasse, 2.5in dog face, 2in maroon clown, 1 watchman gobi, 1 other type of sand sifter gobie I dont like lol, 2.5 male lyretail anthias, 1 in female lyretail, 1 in blue damsel, and 1 in flame angel
Food includes frozen Market shrimp, pe mysis shrimp, spirulina brine shrimp, dried sea weeds, and formula 2 marine pellets


----------



## Guest (Mar 17, 2010)

unable to open the link dude. am not SW keeper but it sounds like an anchor worm.


----------



## pind4070 (Jun 7, 2006)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/
This link should work


----------



## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

looks like a possible bacterial or parasitic infection... although without getting a close up focused shot its hard to tell... can you catch the fish?
if you can
try a freshwater dip (pH and temp the same as the tank) for 5-7 minutes. 
after that rub any loose scales off around the parasite/bacterial infection and apply biobandage... (apply 2Xdaily)


----------



## pind4070 (Jun 7, 2006)

I am 99.9 positive it is not a bacterial infection there is an obvious tubular worm/parasite coming out of the ulceration. The question is what type of parasite or protazoan is it and how was it that is could survive 4 weeks of hyposalinitly to only appear 1 day after being in the display tank with no other fish having and problems at all. I would be able to catch the fish and have fish anesthetic/sedative on hand so I could get a super awsome picture but dont think it would not be worth the stress at this point.


----------



## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

How did it survive hypo? Simple. LOTS of things survive hypo. Hypo is a very lame treatment not worth the time and effort. A five minute freshwater & formalin dip works much better with no osmotic damage to the kidneys.
However, it won't cure everything, and worms will only laugh at it.

Okay, your best bet is to get a pair of tweezers and grab it. You'll probably break it in half, so you'll have to be very gentle and give a steady pull. Most likely you are only seeing a protruding part while the main body is embedded in the fish, but the opposite may also be true. If you don't get the whole thing, stuff some antibiotic cream and iodine into the wound.
If it wasn't a fish, you could put a glob of vaseline on the creature to suffocate it and force it to let go in an attempt to escape. Not really an option this time.

By the way, it looks like you've also got a case of head and lateral line erosion starting. Get some food called "Lifeline" brand food, ( its frozen ) to fix this. The stuff works wonders for reversing this.


----------



## navarchus (Jan 26, 2010)

I've had this before on a Harlequin Tusk. Like TheOldSalt said, get a tweezer and work it out of the wound.

In my case, any open wounds I have on my fish, I would use Hydrogen Peroxide. Take a q-tip and dap the Hydrogen Peroxide onto the wound until it starts to foam. I then rub it a little more to remove any infected skin. You can tell by looking at the wound, the dead tissue turns white. Then I put the fish back. This has work for all bacterial infection I've had, also worked on Lymphocystis. Except for Lympho, I would Freshwater dip first and then apply the Hydrogen Peroxide


----------

