Re: parasites from beyond

[Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@bewellnet.com>]

Gary,

It sounds like you had one of the tropical fish lice, possibly Argulus chromidis
(there are about 50 known). This is a relative to the Argulus foliaceus which is
more commonly seen on goldfish. They're nasty little beggars that use a spine to
puncture the skin so that the tube mouths next to it can suck the juices right
out of a fish. They reach 5 - 8 mm in diameter. I usually found them on unarmored
South American catfish (big pimelodids and jaguar cats). Big fish don't like them
but survive; small fish die. It's a crustacean that should be easily controlled
with most antiparacite medications.

Mike Wise
Frauley/Elson wrote:

> Hi all,
> I just killed a remarkable beast that was parasitizing my hardworking
> dither fish. The fish in question were a H. species 'chocolate neon',
> and later an Aphyosemion gardneri Akure female. While the parasite
> didn't get onto my apistos, it probably could have, and since it was a
> South American creature, I thought maybe someone on this list might
> recognize it.
> It first fooled me (and everyone else who looked at it) by appearing as
> a deformity of the ventrals on a newly imported chocolate neon. At first
> the fish seemed fine, then it suddenly died. The parasite left it and
> attached itself to the gardneri. I removed it, then, unscientifically
> grossed out, I stiffed it.
> It was an insect about 1/4 inch in length, beetle-like in form. the
> abdomen was pale green and the hard back featured two stripes from the
> head to the tail. It attached itself just behind the gills, hanging down
> like extra ventrals. It spent 2 months on the characin (yeah, I didn't
> look closely...) without the fish losing weight.
> It also had a fine collection of strong, grasping legs.
> It doesn't seem to have spread, although I've quarantined the tank and
> am careful about nets and such anyway.
> Any I.D. on this plug-ugly creature?
> -Gary
>
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