# Nerite snail with parasites?



## Lefitte (Oct 2, 2013)

After a week of quarantine, I placed my new nerite snail in with my betta. It's been a couple of days and I've been able to see him a lot better with the aquarium lighting. Last night I found a little white worm crawling on and IN and around my nerite snail. 

Obviously, I want to treat both my snail and betta, but I haven't been able to find much on snails and parasites so I'm not sure what would be safe for them. I'm not sure what kind of worm it might be. Small, white, quick. I also had some marimo in the QT with him [after my other snail laid eggs on it and I had no idea what it was] which was placed in my other tank, so I might need to treat both tanks now.

Housing 
What size is your tank? 10g
What temperature is your tank? 80F
Does your tank have a filter? Tetra Whisper EX20
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? Nerite snail

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? NLS Betta formula, Hikari frozen bloodworms, sometimes Hikari frozen daphnia
How often do you feed your betta fish? 2 pellets twice a day

Maintenance 
How often do you perform a water change? Once a week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 25%-50%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? AmQuel Plus, Plant Food, occasional liquid CO2

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?
4-24 before a water change
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 40ppm [Have nitrates in my tap]
pH: 7.6
Hardness: n/a
Alkalinity: n/a

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? n/a
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? n/a
When did you start noticing the symptoms? No symptoms seen on betta, white worm crawling on nerite snail
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? No
Does your fish have any history of being ill? Not once
How old is your fish (approximately)? Around 9 months [Got Kirei late October, no older than 12 weeks for sure]

What kind of parasite could it be? What signs should I look out for? How should I treat?


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## Valkyrie (Apr 4, 2014)

Id start by taking the snail out. Put him in his own cup. So it just looks like a white worm? Ok well im going to go look around and see what it might be. I love a good puzzle.


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## Lefitte (Oct 2, 2013)

I do have a 2.5g that I just took him OUT of just the other day that I can put him in but is it really worth it? If he's infected then my betta's been exposed and could be infected now too. If I do take him out, I still have to treat my betta. I've been debating whether there's any point to it or not.


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## Kithy (Nov 21, 2012)

Was it really, really tiny? Less than the thickness of an average hear? Positive it was crawling and not waving from water current?


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## Lefitte (Oct 2, 2013)

Before I planted my tank, I had a bare bottom tank and had the normal little worms [planaria?] which I think you're referring to. This was thicker, shorter, sorta chubby, and very clearly crawling along the snail's shell and then made it's way between the snail's body and shell, moving almost like an inch worm.

Looked sort of like these [if I'm right to believe that fish is a tiny neon tetra].


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## Kithy (Nov 21, 2012)

Ohh. :X Could it be anchor worms? hopefully someone will come by and help >.< I've only had planaria and those definitely are not planaria.


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## Lefitte (Oct 2, 2013)

Yeah, having had some planaria myself, I immediately saw the difference. I've never had a parasite problem or had to treat with medication [I prefer a more natural approach with clean water and salts]. I kept a fairly close eye on my snail during his QT, he's in the kitchen with my other tanks and I check in with them constantly. I never saw a worm on my snail or in the QT tank [I had the marimo with snail eggs in there so I was looking for any hatched babies since I've heard they can hatch but don't really survive FW]. It was only late last night after about two days in my tank that I saw this worm.


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## Valkyrie (Apr 4, 2014)

Ok well see the treatment for parasites on fish will kill snails. But since its a nerite you can salt his water and that should help kill off the parasites on him. But uou would need to remove all the snails and treat the tank, then make sure the water is clear of the treatment completley before readding the snails. Ok so what i would do is put the nerite back in qt. salt that tank. Keep an eye on the betta for signs of parasites. If he gets them then treat him. Or go ahead and do it anyways. But i would bare minimum move the snail, and salt his tank.


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## Lefitte (Oct 2, 2013)

Ah okay I see. Then I should for sure do that. If the treatments weren't different then it might make more sense to keep them in the same tank.


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## Kithy (Nov 21, 2012)

Will the salt be okay on the plants? That would be the only concern if/when treating the betta if it's in the tank.


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## Lefitte (Oct 2, 2013)

Yeah I'm not sure what steps to take to treat my betta if he starts showing signs [which he hasn't]. I have a ton of different plants in there and I'm not sure how they would take a salt treatment.
Valkyrie was talking a salt treatment to just the snail in QT for now.


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