Level 1


Group: Members
Posts: 2
Member No.: 1,857
Joined: 19-January 04

Gender: Female
Age: 30
Country: Canada


OK so I'm new at this. I came home today and my oranda had a long (4 inch) tubelike, wormy looking thing coming from under its tailfins (not where the poop comes from). Inside the tube there are very small pearl like spheres. Are these eggs?The fish seems otherwise fine, except that it is not nearly as aggressive as it has been since we got it 1 week ago. Help please!

starsmom Posted: Jan 19 2004, 04:27 PM


Level 4


Group: Full Member
Posts: 327
Member No.: 96
Joined: 5-August 03

Gender:
Age:
Country:


Nicole, I'm pretty sure that's a parasite called anchor worm you're seeing, not goldfish eggs... Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this one...my fish has had eggs lots of times and I've never seen anything like that at all.

Is it possible to post a pic? If you can post it in the disease forum, someone should be able to help you diagnose and get rid of it. If it was my fish, I would take a pair of tweezers and remove the worm right away. You can also put a dab of antibiotic creme on the spot the worm was attached to. Don't mean to scare you or anything...

Laura



--------------------


What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla


nicole Posted: Jan 19 2004, 04:52 PM


Level 1


Group: Members
Posts: 2
Member No.: 1,857
Joined: 19-January 04

Gender: Female
Age: 30
Country: Canada


Thanks Laura. Whatever it is just kept getting longer before my eyes until it fell out from under the tailfins and floated to the top of the tank. I fished it out so unfortuneately no pics. Couldn't have taken very long though, went from 2 to 4 inches and fell off in about 20 minutes. I will post on the desease page too.

Thanks

No, that isn't anchor worm. Anchor worms hang on to the fish's body, are brownish yellow in colour and have a distinctive forked tail.

I suspect it is simply air-filled feces. If the fish gulps in air when it is eating from the surface or if it eats unsoaked flake or pellet foods (which can contain a lot of air), this is often expelled as a series of tiny bubbles suspended in a string of clear poo. The fact that it floated to the surface is a definite clue.

Nothing to worry about, but you should feed less floating food and soak any dry foods before feeding from now on.

Hope this helps.