anchor worm

[countryboy]

i need help,, "bad" and i hope someone here can help me. i had a mud pond put in 15 months ago and i have a anchor worm problme and i don't know what to do... my pond is 50x6 and i only have koi and goldfish in it. to date i have lost about 6 or 7 fish to this problem.. looking for any ideas here that would help... is there a way to get rid of anchor worm for good??      THANKS

[flywheel]

Anchorworm is pretty common in mudponds, treat the fish with Dimilin, I use it at double the dosage and it has worked great. You also have to retreat in 14 days and no water changes for another 14. If the infestation is bad enough you are losing fish you could have a secondary bacterial infection from the anchorworms that may need to be treated as well, I used Forma-Green from Fishy-Farmacy to treat that with excellent results also.  Are you sure it's anchorworm? If you are seeing small threadlike worms attached to a sore or pimple it's anchorworm.
Good luck,
Ron

[Pond God]

Bubba,
 I been around anchorworm ALOT...and I've seen it in mud pond after mud pond..if it is killing fish you got bigger problems. Honest. tell us more about your pond

[countryboy]

my pond is a mud bottom,, 50ft round by 6ft deep and is stream fed.. koi,, goldfish,, crawfish and frogs are the only things in there besides water plants.. and yes there are thread like worms on my fish,, i have caught a few fish and pulled them off,, but the fish are hard to catch because of the size of the pond.. do anchor worms eat away at the fish also??? the fish that have died looked like something was eating at them,, and i know it wasn't caused by other fish...... what other info would you like about my pond???  and pond God,, you said that i might have bigger problems,, that doesn't sound good,,, what kinda problems??? i have been told to treat a pond that is my size will be very costly,,, is that true??? thanks for all your help so far.... 

[flywheel]

The secondary infection I saw did eat away skin ,fins,etc. and did kill off one fish, the anchorworms themselves do not, the infection started at every site there was an anchorworm.  My guess would be you need to get the fish in some kind of contained area with a known amount of gallons to do any kind of treatment but I never dealt with anything like this, mine were in a 1000 gallon QT tank. I think Pond God will be more helpful if that's enough info on your pond.

Another couple of things that might be helpful is have you added any fish/plants, changed anything? Is there any field/farm runoff going into your pond?

Pond God, what other questions need to be asked?

[Pond God]

not nice not nice..I think I see what we got here

[countryboy]

there is no kind of run off that goes in to my pond,, the nearest farm is about 2 miles away... i did add 10 new koi to the pond this spring,, but i didn't notice anything on them when i put them in... i have about 25 koi,, and i wouldn't know any way to catch them to treat them except to drain the pond,,, but i will if i have to,,, i enjoy it to much to let something take over and kill all my fish... Pond God,, you said that you see what we have here,,, what do you think it is and how and i treat it or what can i do??? 

[flywheel]

Countryboy, Pond God must be unavailable, hopefully things haven't gotten any worse. Maybe you should try Koishack, there is a lot of knowledgeable people hangin'around over there. Post under The Critical Care Shack.

Ron

[Admin]

Isn't he at the show this weekend?  It's still a good idea to check it  out with KoiShack, though...lots of good people there and you should get some great advice there.  Here's the URL... http://www.koishack.com/forums/index.php

Tell 'em Newt sent ya.  I agree, by the way, that it will be a LOT tougher to clear something like this up in a pond that large than if you can get them all out and into a quarantine tank.  Pretty much a 'must,' in my opinion.

Newt

[countryboy]

if i am getting what everyone is saying here is that i have to treat my fish,,, and not my pond,, so to speak,,, is that right??? treat my fish and that will get rid of my problem in my pond??? not treat my pond??? i'm kinda new at this if you can't tell.. i also heard that i could treat my pond with sea salt,, is that true?? and would that help my problem and how much would it take to treat a pond my size???  to everyone here,, thanks for all of your help,,,,,,,,,,,, countryboy

[countryboy]

i was able to catch one of my small koi today and it did have anchor worms,, which i pulled off of it,,, but i seen what might be a bigger problem,,, it looked as though something was eating at it on it's side,, kinda like a big sore,, but i could see the ribs of the fish,,, this can't be good,,, HELP!!!!!!!!!

[78]

koi,, goldfish,, crawfish and frogs are the only things in there besides water plants..

Don't fool yourself Country Boy. There are 6,000 frogs, 20,000 birds, lotta bird ****, bird feathers, frog ****, toad ****. snake ****, raccoon ****. dogs. cats. raccoons. skunks. possums. Your pond is a  very popular place.
If you have sloped banks you have wading birds. If your pond is not purposefully swaled so that there is NO runoff going into the pond, well, then, you have runoff going into the pond.

What's your weather like? It sounds like you need to drain this thing and get it cleaned up.
If you are able to dry it many things will just leave or die off. (not the dumbass frogs.) Renting a trash pump for a day might get it drained.

This was build like a catfish pond?

[countryboy]

yeah 78,, i guess you could say that this was built like a cat fish pond,, i wanted a pond,, had a guy come in with a dozer and dig it and while it was filling is when i decided to put koi in it,, it just has a mud bottom...and you're right about the raccoons and things,, i've already had a bear there too,, deer,, turkey you name it. from what i am hearing from over at the koi shack,,(newt sent me there) is that i do have to drain my pond and lime it good,, it's my stream that is the problem,,, i didn't know that,, but i know now.. i know i gotta lot of work cut out for me real soon,, but i leave for colorado next saturday for two weeks,, so not a lot of time on my side right now....