hello all,

My friend recently bought me a new black and orange oranda from Chinatown, NY. When the fish was originally purchased there was nothing in the bag. The store keeper was asked to put enough air to last about 10 hours due to work and then the travel to NJ, in any news when it reached my house the fish was swimming with a parasite in the bag (gosh knows how long its been in there or how). When i received the fish I quickly took tweezers and pulled it off my fish and placed it in new water and aqarium salt. Its been a day now and the fish seems to be okay and was wondering if there is anything else I should do to help the fish and if it was safe to put him in the aqarium with my other fish?

Thank you

Hi there, and !

Just to be sure - how did the bug look like? There are 3 which you can see with your naked eye, and all of them are treated fairly easy.

I wouldn't put him in the main aquarium just yet - he could have brought some unhatched parasites with him, which is very likely. You didn't dump the store water in the tank the fish is in now, right? Just checking... Just to be sure, I'd do a round of treatment to make sure you'll get the second generation of that particular bug. Thats why we need to know how the thing looked.

the bug was circular with a face.. when i looked at it closely it was moving and i think 4-6 legs. I tried to internet search it and all i could come up with was the "fish louse". When I recieved the fish I immediately transfered the fish to a 1 gallon tank i have and tweezed the parasite off, then i transfered the fish agian to an empty 10 gallon tank which i salted with aqarium salt. I was afraid anything would arise from the bagged water so i dumped that ASAP. I feel as though this fish is having so much bad luck being in my hands, when i left the poor guy for 5 minutes the filter I have sucked him up (which I am still not too sure how he got into the tube...)! Luckily I was able to turn the filter off and he was okay.

Fish lice it is then - yeah, you are right.
Salt is good, yes, but for fish lice other treatments are recommended. Medications like Dimilin or AnchorsAway are perfect for fish lice and gentle on the fish itself. If you see a red spot on the fish where the louse was attached to, simply take an antibacterial ointment and apply it to the spot. It might come off after a little while, but it does the trick.

I hope the poor thing can fight the current of the filter and doesn't get sucked up again. Sounds like he is a bit weak from the conditions in the pet store. Can you turn down the filter somewhat, or put an aquarium sponge over the intake tube to prevent it from happening again?

How are things with the little guy these days?

Ranchugirl, would Jungle's Parasite Clear be a reliable medication for fish lice? I discovered a very large fish louse on a pearlscale I bought the other day. I tweezed it off and started to treat with Parasite Clear today.

Hlim, yes, you can ParasiteClear, if that is the only treatment you can get for fish lice. ParasiteClear contains a number of meds for various parasites, and therefore has a lower percentage of each medication. Type specific meds treat only for that parasite, and usually contain a higher percentage of appropriate medication. If one doesn't have anything else available than PC, of course it can be used, since it contains Diflubenzuron, the main treatment for lice. I would just worry that not all the lice would be killed of, that is all.