I got a fish vet to test store bought catfish for internal parasites

Den

New Member
Jan 22, 2011
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Warnbro W.A.
I watched a friend loose much of his prized pleco collection to parasites, and I also had major issues with a bunch of bristlenose in my fish room years ago, so I always suspected that many sucker catfish are carrying parasites, but I never realised just how bad it was until I got a qualified vet to do some testing on store bought catfish, we bought 3 species of catfish, 2 out of 3 were carrying parasitic worms.

We made this video link below, which shows you how to find and identify parasitic worm eggs under the microscope and how to detect whether your catfish are infected with worms or other parasites, I hope you find the info useful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GKXnnXyuss

We plan to send the eggs we found to the lab and get a parasite expert to identify the exact species of worms and we will do another vid with exact details for effective treatments in a video in the future, will keep you updated.

If you are having issues with diseases that have been hard to solve or have a high loss rate please let me know in this thread and Dr Loh and I will try to cover the topic in one of our future videos and try to work out an effective treatment plan.

Cheers
Den:D
 

dw1305

Global Moderators
Staff member
May 5, 2009
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Wiltshire nr. Bath, UK
Hi all,
Not a catfish, but my experience with commercially produced Apistogramma is that they are often carrying Camallanus cotti infection.

Without singling out any particular country SE Asia would seem to be the worst source for infected fish.

cheers Darrel
 

Den

New Member
Jan 22, 2011
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1
Warnbro W.A.
Worms lay eggs inside the fish and the eggs come out in the fish pooh, as the pooh breaks up the eggs eventually settle on tank surfaces, since sucker catfish feed from surfaces they are more likely to be the first to ingest any worm eggs and get infected, its just a theory. It also depends on the species of worm, some are species specific and others can cross species.
 

Phreeflow

New Member
Jun 7, 2016
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USA
Great video and I do agree with your theory that bottom dwelling fish often get infected by feeding at the substrate level where worm eggs are more concentrated. I now treat every catfish for internal parasites as part of quarantine even if no symptoms are present