How to know if ur fish has internal parasites?

[bentan]

Seen postings abt internal parasites, how do they harm the fish?

How do we tell if a fish has internal parasites?

How to prevent it?

[lsz]

appetite may be normal..

hollow stomach, stringy/white feaces. For tape worm, you can actually see a couple of them dangling out of the anus, and the tips of the worm are squarish, like ribbon. they actually contract back to the anus at will.

some more serious cases will lead to secondary bacteria infection..

internal parasites often manifest themselves when the fish is stressed. In fact, tape worms dont result in weight loss and stunted growth under normal circumstances. But for a fish already weak, the condifiton of the fish may deteriorate fast.

[DEA]

btw the red worms hanging out of the anus are camallanus sp.
once you can see the worms sticking out of the anus, the fish is behind hope
the only way to rescue the rest of the fish is by saturating the water with antihelminthics like dimilin (<- incidentally banned in many parts of the world)
i think metronizadole works the same way

[lsz]

tape worms are white
and still got hope!

just in case it gets mixed up

[bentan]

thanks!