Just noticed one of my betta girls has an anchor worm on her tail. It's my first case of it...anyone know how to get rid of it? I read that you have to use potassium permanganate...but I have no idea what that is and where to get it.

Why not try a salt bath before messing with potasium permanganate.

One tablespoon of salt per gallon in a bucket. Aim for a temp simular to your tank and give her 15 minutes or until she rolls, do this twice a day for a few days or until you notice results. Fortunately anchor worm is an external paracyte so salt is an option.

as glaive said...

use some salt... but you have to be cntinuous with the dosages other wise the fish will keep on getting re-infected

Arg...I forgot to update. D:

The worm disappeared less then 3 hours after I posted this topic. Before I even treated her. So...she was "infested" for a day and a half and it never came back. This happened to me many months back...do they only last a few days?

I managed to grab a pic of it before is disappeared. Is it Anchor Worm or am I mistaking it for something else?

Anchor worms attatch themselves to the side of the fish and feed off the fish..

that looks like its coming out of her scales...

it might be something parasitic on the inside

but then again if she's still kicking and you treated her with whatever treatment...


then you caught the anchor worm before it spread



when i worked at Big Als the knife fish had them REAL bad.. and it took a good 2 solid weeks of treatments to get them to even close to being under control