Threadworms/pinworms

[LindsayO]

Hey everyone,

I'm currently quarantining a new calico telescope by himself before adding him to my main tank. He's about 1-1.5 inches long (tiny guy!) and he's currently in a 10 gallon on week 3 of his QT. He's been doing fine, although I noticed that it seems to take a long time for him to poop after eating. For the first time today I saw what appear to be threadworms in his tank. I'm 100% sure they're not planaria (not oozing around on the glass, not flat like planaria are) and I'm about 90% sure they're threadworms (round, whitish, about 5mm long, float around lazily in the flow of the water, squiggle frantically occasionally). My 2 questions are:

1) Could the threadworms be why my little guy takes so long to digest?

2) Should I treat for them? I saw a previous thread from about a year or so ago regarding threadworms, but I didn't really see a lot of definitive answers for whether or not to treat and what to treat with.

Extra info:

He's the only fish in there and the tank is a bare-bottom with 2 snails and a moss ball as the only decoration.

The tank was fully cycled before I added the fish.

I didn't do any pre-treating with meds as part of the QT process. There is no salt in the tank either.

I last did a water change 2 days ago, about a 50% change.

I've lost 2 other fish in the past from this same LFS at around the 3 wk range because they just kind of wasted away, so I'm worried that will happen with this guy.

To treat or not to treat?? That is my question

Edited November 2, 2010 by LindsayO

[Cynders]

You should definitely add salt during the quarantine process. I would use aquarium salt to raise the salinity to 0.1% (1 teaspoon per gallon) So that's 10 teaspoons. And repeat this 2 more times over the course of 12 hours. What are your water parameters?

[Captain Findus Goldfish]

Would those worms fall in the Prazi hit list? I think you should treat the little guy with Prazi - he probably has a few flukes anyways