Potassium permanganate treatment for Anchor worms

[guido58]

I have had a anchor worm problem for some months now. I did a Protozin treatment about three weeks ago and it has not fixed the problem. I have a copy of "Diseases of Aquarium Fish " A practical guide for the Australian veterinarian, that states treatment may be potassium permanganate at 2mg/l as an idefinate bath, however as the life cycle of 40 to 100 days depending on temperature . My temperature is 26 and i keep a range of south American Cichlids with some Australian rain bows as the dither fish. Since the Protozin treatment the the obvious red blister with a trailing white tentical has gone but many of the fish still show a small white dot about the face and the fish flash execessivaly.

My question is what is indefinatly mean is the concentration of permanganate kept at 2ppm for all water change water for 40 to 100 days or is it a daily dose of 2mg/l for the dosing period.

[poxboy]

My memory is a bit foggy, but we used potasium permagnate (Condy's crystals) to treat huge lice on fancy imported goldfish when I worked at a LFS. I'm sure we used a higher dosage than that, it turned the water dark purple. When the water turned brown, the treatment was finished, and we then added Hydrogen peroxide???? or something similar to neutralise the Potasium permagnate. It turned the water clear again.

I'm not suggesting you try this, but that was how we used it.

Bretto.

[NSWCS Representative]

I am unable to help with dosages - we had some on hand to treat a cone snail infestation a few years back.

Unfortunately it is no longer available on chemist shelves

[cyber_crimes]

hi Guido58,

I work in a chemical company and can tell you that Hydrogen Peroxide OR Sodium Thiosulphate will nutralise the Permanganate, but you're better off doing a water change after treatment IMHO. Messing with chemicals, especially these class 5.1 oxidising agents that are toxic via inhalation or skin contact could have a fatal outcome if overdosed. As an eg: Potassium Permanganate & Hydrogen Peroxide when mixed in higher concentration creates a substance used in rocket fuels. I think Hydrogen Peroxide at 3% is adequate for nutralising the dilluted Pot. Permanganate.

My advice if you use Pot Permanganate is you want the water to remain a pinkish colour for about 5 or 6 hours. Do a water change once the colour goes brown or yellow, and re-treat every 3rd day or so, but I wouldn't treat any more than 3 times in total. Also make sure you remove your biological filtration before treating as it will kill it. HTH

[guido58]

Thanks for that guys .

But my fish are still flashing and the remaining severum has another of those white spots on its head which was the percuser to its partners death.

I have been doing the water changes and dosing the water change water to 2ppm and the colour does fade after a few hours should I maintain a total tank dose of 2ppm for how long as the anchor worm has a life cycle of 40 to 60 days?

What will rid my fish of this parisite?

[mbuna man]

Have you thought about treating the food instead of the water. Or will a uv filter help you. I read an article about using this method in tratment though i have never had this problem myself. good luck

[oakes]

What other treatments have you tried? Waterlife's Protozin is great for whitespot but is not designed to kill anchor worms. Sterazin would be a better choice but it did not work for me on gill flukes so may not work on anchor worms either. Trichlorfon based tabs would be the go, if you have fish that can handle it, it's pretty harsh and will kill b/n's and some scaleless fish.