# Never seen anything like this...its a little scary



## akskidoo (Dec 20, 2007)

Just today I noticed excessive sand swirling around in my tank so I decided to take a closer look. I first saw these creatures on my 7 inch Oscar. They appear dark green or brown in color and very small (about the size of a grain of sand). However, they move around on him! You can see them on the Clown Knife as well and the driftwood in clusters (what I thought was the sand earlier were these creatures swimming around). I don't know what this is, but it can't be good and I want it out of my tank. Any ideas on what it could be and/or how to get rid of it? Maybe some sort of parasite?


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## oscarlover43055 (Jun 7, 2008)

What do you feed them? And how much. I need to know this. Oh, and what size tank?


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## DirtyBlackSocks (Jan 24, 2008)

This should be in the disease/illness forum, and I have no idea, never heard of external parasites that are actually so large they're visible besides gill flukes.


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## oscarlover43055 (Jun 7, 2008)

DirtyBlackSocks said:


> This should be in the disease/illness forum, and I have no idea, never heard of external parasites that are actually so large they're visible besides gill flukes.


Anchor worm, Velvet disease, Argulus. This case sounds like Argulus because it is a crustacean that swims from host to host. It anchors to the fish with strong suckers and penetrates the skin with a poison spine. These parasites are visible to the naked eye and are approximately the size of a grain of salt.

Your Oscar will need to be removed from the tank and placed on a wet cloth. He will survive for one or two minutes. Remove the parasite with tweezers. Place the fish in your quarantine tank or other suitable hospital aquarium, so that you can treat the original aquarium with a proprietary remedy for fish lice that will kill any remaining larvae.


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## oscarlover43055 (Jun 7, 2008)

Could also be Camallanus worms. Anyways you will need to buy a 20 or 29 gallon over filtered quarantine tank if you are going to have oscars or any cichlids. It need to be filtered and heated even with no fish. Sand is the best substrate as long as it is clean. No ornaments.


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## akskidoo (Dec 20, 2007)

I feed the Oscar Hikari cichlid gold pellets and occasionally some small feeder goldfish. The Clown Knife gets frozen bloodworms at night (so the Oscar won't eat them first). I already have a spare 20 gallon tank with a filter and heater that is empty but not running at the moment. Can this be moved to the diseases/illnesses forum? Maybe I'll get some input on what this is exactly and how to treat it.


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## akskidoo (Dec 20, 2007)

sorry tank size is 55 gallon and I do a weekly 25 percent water change.


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## the-bruce (Feb 28, 2007)

akskidoo said:


> sorry tank size is 55 gallon and I do a weekly 25 percent water change.


I would personally up the water changes as well, 55 gallon is the bare minimum for an oscar and you have other fish in there also ...

Brucey


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## bulldogg7 (Mar 3, 2003)

here's a pic of argulus









there's something called a fish louse that looks similar and swims around.

Some parasite meds may help, with water changes you may be able to suck some out if you can see them like that.

http://www.jbl.de/onlinehospitaluk/perp ... dPic=014_b
an article I found


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## hitme455 (Jun 22, 2008)

gross


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