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Heya. I haven't posted here for AGES!

OK, all four of my bettas have a white, powdery-like substance on the bottom of their tanks. It started off with just Cricket's tank, and now it's in all four. Also, the fish have what looks like little tiny worms coming out of their scales. Anchor worms? I don't want to treat with anything just yet, but I thought I'd ask first.

Cricket and Barnaby are in 5 gallon tanks and Andersen and Nehemiah are in 3 gallon tanks. Three are heated. I do 100% water changed every six days, they each have their own buckets I fill with water before they get changed and their own nets. The only possible cross-contamination would be air and perhaps some splashing. Feeding is also possible but I do not touch the water when I feed them.

What should I do? Parameters are all obviously zero.

Oh, Nehemiah has no obvious sign of the worm-like creature yet, but the bottom of her tank has the same white, powdery stuff. I treated Cricket and Barnaby with multi-cure recently. I've only just noticed the worms now.

Sounds like anchor worm to me too....never seen it first hand but the description matches. Parinox, Clout and anti-parasite meds all came up as medications to treat anchor worm. Not sure what's available in oz....

The white powdery substance confuses me some, are the tanks covered or do they have floating plants as a cover (I'm thinking pollen might be a possiblity however remote).

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Yeah, no plants. I was two silk plants in each tank. Barnaby has a terracota pot and Nehemiah has a little cridge thing I bought from a fish shop. None of them have any rocks. That's why I can see the substance easily. I've seen white build up in heaters and tanks that didn't get cleaned properly... maybe I'm not cleaning the tanks properly when I change the water, regardless of how frequent it is.

Anchor worm is supposed to produce a red bump, though, and none of them have any. Also, they are very small. And white. I mean, it could easily be mistaken for fungus or something to that extent. I really don't know but I've had no bubble nests from any of the males in the last week.

I'm really cautious about parasite meds. I had a guppy once that I used them on and she ended up completely blind and her colours changed. This was when I was being really careful with the dosage too. And I know meds are always the last resort.

I just thought there may be someone that's had something similar...

You know what I would try first:
Salt.
Ordinary aquarium salt. Just slowly up the dosage until you have about 1 tbls per 5g in the tank. If it is a parasite this should cause them to release.
You could also do a salt dip on the fish, and see if that helps
My Manual of Freshwater fish health by andrews, exell, and carrington says that the best treatment for anchor worms is Metriphonate at a rate of 0.25-0.4 mg per litre.


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I put 1/2 teaspoon per gallon in there every time I change their water. I might try your suggestion and increase the amount slowly. Any suggestion as to temperature they should be at?


Last edited by elisecroft at 22-May-2005 01:54