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  • Results 1 to 9 of 9

    Thread: Worm looking parasite?

    1. #1
      rickya is offline Member
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      Worm looking parasite?

      Hi all. Need a little help again with this one please. For the past few weeks my fish have been acting strange clamping up on the bottom and flashing. One small koi looks like its the start of droopys but instead of eyes sticking out they look sunken in? And one looks like it's starting to get fin rot.

      I get these strange problems around this time every year, water tested by myself and also took a sample for testing which is 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. I even rang my water supplier a few years ago to ask if they put anything in the water around this time of year which they said they don't...

      I did scraps a few weeks ago found nothing and done some more today and found 3 of these worm looking things and 5 dead ones, no idea what they are I've never seen anything like them before.... (Link for the parasite video https://youtu.be/hQhrJf_x50A)

      My pond is 15 years old and for the past 5 years or so it's had a little leak so it's always on a auto top up through a 3 Stage filter, since taking the cover off after winter I can see the leak must of got worse so now around 40% of the water is replaced every week through the 3 Stage filter which had replaced filters about a month ago. I've brought a new liner but didn't want to stress the fish anymore by moving them around to replace the liner...

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    2. #2
      msegger is offline Senior Member
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      sorry to hear about the problems - rich probably would like to know the nitrates and KH so I will ask it and he can respond when he is on.

      worm kinda reminds of a hookworm and I dont know if there is any correlation to koi. Hopefully you can get it taken care of.

    3. #3
      SimonW's Avatar
      SimonW is online now Senior Member
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      My 2 cents:

      I have been much interested in koi parasites since I started the koi hobby, and I have never encountered or heard of or read on koi parasite that looks like this - an ordinary worm.

      I would guess that this worm is just a peaceful creature living in your pond/tank. Excellent food to fry type.

      Have you tried to find anything alive with greater magnitude, like 400X? Some parasites are very small and not easy to see.

      Last summer some of my koi flashed and jumped and I could not find anything. Then I did a shot-gun treatment with fluke-M and formalin-malachite green mix (one treatment includes addition of the medicine 2 times, 1 week apart), and the abnormal behavior stopped. So they must have had some kind of parasites that I failed to find under microscope.

    4. #4
      rickya is offline Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by msegger View Post
      sorry to hear about the problems - rich probably would like to know the nitrates and KH so I will ask it and he can respond when he is on.

      worm kinda reminds of a hookworm and I dont know if there is any correlation to koi. Hopefully you can get it taken care of.
      Not sure what the nitrates would be I'd have to test it, I never bother testing it because the water is changed so much. I'll go and get a KH test kit tomorrow and see what that reading is

    5. #5
      rickya is offline Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by SimonW View Post
      My 2 cents:

      I have been much interested in koi parasites since I started the koi hobby, and I have never encountered or heard of or read on koi parasite that looks like this - an ordinary worm.

      I would guess that this worm is just a peaceful creature living in your pond/tank. Excellent food to fry type.

      Have you tried to find anything alive with greater magnitude, like 400X? Some parasites are very small and not easy to see.

      Last summer some of my koi flashed and jumped and I could not find anything. Then I did a shot-gun treatment with fluke-M and formalin-malachite green mix (one treatment includes addition of the medicine 2 times, 1 week apart), and the abnormal behavior stopped. So they must have had some kind of parasites that I failed to find under microscope.
      Yeah I've been scraping koi for nearly 15 years so definitely got a good eye haha I've had costia a few years ago that was a little bugger to see lol

    6. #6
      two_wheeled is offline Senior Member
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      I found those in my microscope a couple times. Check out this thread of microscope pics. Here is my post where I asked about the same worm and found out it's a nematode.
      https://www.koiphen.com/forums/showthread.php?158901-Microscope-pics-please-share&p=2748752#post2748752
      Last edited by two_wheeled; 05-05-2021 at 05:51 PM.
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    7. #7
      nmtsaki's Avatar
      nmtsaki is offline Moderator ~ WWKC Secretary
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      I was going to say nematode, which are usually harmless, free-living organisms, for the most part. Some nematodes ARE parasitic, however. There aren’t many nematodes that are true parasites of koi, although there are a couple (which I doubt that one is, since it’s microscopic). Acanthocephalens and Ascarids, covered by Doc Johnson here: https://drjohnson.com/worms-in-koi-and-pond-fish/

      I’ve seen ascarids and they are usually visible to the naked eye. That “could” possibly be a larval form of some parasite, although again, I doubt it is a true koi parasite.

      Nice video by the way! I was expecting to see a fiber!!!







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    8. #8
      rickya is offline Member
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      Haha thanks for the identification

    9. #9
      Hope J is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by nmtsaki View Post
      I was going to say nematode, which are usually harmless, free-living organisms, for the most part. Some nematodes ARE parasitic, however. There aren’t many nematodes that are true parasites of koi, although there are a couple (which I doubt that one is, since it’s microscopic). Acanthocephalens and Ascarids, covered by Doc Johnson here: https://drjohnson.com/worms-in-koi-and-pond-fish/

      I’ve seen ascarids and they are usually visible to the naked eye. That “could” possibly be a larval form of some parasite, although again, I doubt it is a true koi parasite.

      Nice video by the way! I was expecting to see a fiber!!!
      I love Dr Johnson! I have learned so much from him but I haven't found any new videos in quite a while now.

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