Aren't you going to PLEEEZE tell us what they were: anchors or not? Suspense is killing me. Check in your mouth and see if you have a salinity tester there. If you can just barely taste the salt, that's about 0.5 g/l (ppt) salinity. 1 teasp salt per gal is about 1.5 ppt, about right for a sick madtom. I think the purported sensitivity of catfish to salt has more to do with people dropping un-dissolved salt in tanks. Catfish that breathe & feed on the bottom get overdosed before the salt dissolves. If you dissolve it first so it mixes throughout the tank immediately, then catfish are no more salt-sensitive than other freshwater fish.

ah, dissolving before putting in the water, thats a good idea. I usually just avoid putting it anywhere near him. Are you serious about tasting it? Also I can't confirm what they were. They were white and squiggly when in the water on the fish. When out of the water they were all curled up which made them hard to get ahold of. The end outside the fish was smaller than the rest, and I guess you could say sorta transparent, no "Y" shape like anchor worm egg sacs though.

Check in your mouth and see if you have a salinity tester there. If you can just barely taste the salt, that's about 0.5 g/l (ppt) salinity.

!!!
NEVER taste fish water!
People can contract Mycobacterium marinum from fish. Disgusting pictures: http://www.reefkeepi...ature/index.php

*shudders*
I refuse to reach into my aquarium when I have an open wound on my hand. I also regularly teach others how to start a gravel siphon without sucking on it.
Video instructions:

Edited by EricaWieser, 30 September 2010 - 05:25 PM.

Are you serious about tasting it?

Don't do that; it was well intended but really dangerous advice. See my previous post about Mycobacterium marina.

Also I can't confirm what they were. They were white and squiggly when in the water on the fish. When out of the water they were all curled up which made them hard to get ahold of. The end outside the fish was smaller than the rest, and I guess you could say sorta transparent, no "Y" shape like anchor worm egg sacs though.

You'll most likely have more unless you treat now with a medication to kill their eggs. There was more than one, no? And they looked happy and ready to stay where they were for a while, no? Then I would place my bets upon there being eggs in your aquarium of whatever they were.

Anyway, the egg killing. You can do that with a variety of different medications. I recommend a visit to the local pet store to see what you can find that is rated to kill invertebrates. CopperSafe is a good one. It liquifies most things without spines. You don't have any live plants, so you don't have to worry about them melting, so... try it. It'll wipe out their eggs. And you can remove CopperSafe completely from your water by using a fresh bag of activated carbon. It's good stuff.

Okay, well, good luck. I wish you'd taken photos of the buggers once they were off your fish. And maybe next time you see them (for example, when the next generation hatches, if you don't take the steps to kill them now), try putting the parasite in a one gallon photo tank and sharing the image of them with us.

Edit: Although I have leeches in my aquarium that leave my fish alone, I found this disturbing picture online of a type of leech that does not leave fish alone. Webpage: http://hbs.bishopmus...-bad/leech.html

Edited by EricaWieser, 30 September 2010 - 05:57 PM.