YouTube video (case #49) by Gerald Bassleer presenting a kissing gourami (scientific name given in the video as "Helostoma teminki") suffering a gill fluke infection. The speaker shows microscopic observations (about 200x) of gill flukes on the gill tissue, describes clinical signs (emaciation, rapid respiration, damaged/broken gill filaments, secondary bacterial infection) and explains practical control measures: removing/euthanizing severely infected fish, anti-gill-fluke medication (product mentioned: "Ductumor"), retreat after seven days, add extra sea salt (recommended 3–5 g per liter) to slow parasite reproduction, use antibacterial treatment for secondary infections, siphon the substrate and clean filters to remove eggs/parasites, and feed Dr. Bassleer’s garlic food for at least 20 days during recovery. The video is instructional and aimed at aquarium hobbyists seeking diagnosis and treatment tips.
Questions this video answers
Case number 49.
Helostoma teminki (as spoken by the presenter).
About 200× magnification (presenter: "observation at 200 magnification, I presume? Yes").
Retreat after seven days.
3–5 grams per liter of sea salt.
Chapters
Hello, dear fish keeper, I know you're watching my videos because you want to learn more about fish diseases, how to prevent, how to diagnose, how to control. And in the cases I present, I Hope in the 47 I already did, you learn something more about fish disease. But fish diseases always change, evolve. We have some new ones which are coming up, which sometimes we don't know how to define, but sometimes we have cases which are very typical, very common. Today we will talk about a very common problem in our aquarium hobby. And that's about the Gulf. Look, infections. And here, a gill flug infection and a kissing gourami. Scientific name is Helostoma teminki. This is our case number 49. The kissing gueramis which we received for observation were becoming very skinny, emaciated. You can see some of them show the very rapid respiration because their gills were suffering and they were wasting away and they were dying. You can see some are getting very skinny because the fish is very much stressed because of the parasitic infection and also because he had some other problems in the gills due to the parasitic infection. We had a bacterial infection coming up. And here we see the observation with the microscope of the gills. You see the dark objects here, the parasites, gill flukes here and here. Few are loose into the water. And this is just an observation at 200 magnification, I presume? Yes. And show you one more here. You can see that some are moving away from the gills because on that moment when we take our sample tissue, it's not good for the worm. So he knows he wants to survive, so he tries to escape. What we also notice that many are in between here, between the gills, all those black here, here, here. Some are moving, some are not actively moving. And there are quite a few here, which is, of course, stressing our fish or kissing gourami, and also can cause a lot of damage. Like you can see here. You see here, the gill filaments are broken, are damaged, you know, some are here getting probably secondary bacterial infections. And you can see here also that the gill fluke is trying to get out of this bad situation and he's going to look for a new host, other fish in the aquarium which are close by. So the more you crowd to aquarium, the more fish you keep together, the easier it is for this parasite, this gill fluke, to get away and to find a case to live in. Let me show you again here. And these flukes are. Well, they are common. They are common in our hobby, why we keep a lot of fish together. Those Worms can easily reproduce and that's why they can cause a lot of damage and a lot of problems in our aquarium. And giving the fish a chance to suffer and to die. Well, as a treatment I can tell you that the fish which are very badly infected, you better utinize and you put them asleep because if they die, the worms will leave the sinking ship like rats do. Rats also leave a sinking ship. But the Gulf looks will also leave the dying fish and looking for a still healthier host, which is another fish in the aquarium. So put a fish out of the aquarium and euthanize it. Try to use anti gulf fluke treatment that you can get from your veterinarian or you can obtain your aquatic shop. Like Ductumor is one of the products which is available and that can help against the Gulf flu. We recommend that you retreat after seven days because those gill flukes they lay eggs and those eggs usually produce larvae. Within seven days they can come out of the filter or the bottom of your aquarium. Adding extra salt helps 3 to 5 grams per liter. And that extra sea salt helps that to kill. Flukes don't like too much to reproduce, to grow. So it helps. It doesn't kill them, it just puts them off reproducing, puts them off to growing and it helps during a treatment. So sea salt is a good help for that. Also we recommend to use an antibacterial treatment when you see the fish have been badly infected, like we are with this kissing gourami. And it's better to do it because you have secondary bacterial infections and that can kill the fish. Also because the badly damaged gills cause the fish to suffocate. Use our Dr. Basler Baiser food garlic at least for 20 days. Do not give other food in that time because that food helps that the worms don't like to remain on the guilt tissue. So those all extra things you can do. We also can recommend siphon of the bottom to remove parasites or cleaning the filter to remove eggs or parasites. So those all things you can do to help to control this infection, like here on this kissogram. So this was the case of gill fluke infection. We have more cases to come in the coming weeks. So I hope you stay tuned and stay active in finding solutions for your diseased fish. Thank you for your attention and becoming a better aquarist.
