Affected fish should be removed and destroyed as there is no effective treatment, but never sold or released to ponds or rivers as the disease is dangerous for many fish including trout. The disease is notifiable in Western Australia so fish must be purchased only from sources free of Goldfish Ulcer Disease, and any suspicious ulcerative disease occurrences must be reported to the nearest Department of Agriculture office within 24 hours. An example of a attached Lernaea Goldfish also sometimes develop coloured lumps on the skin. These are usually relatively harmless tumours known as fibromas, but are unsightly. Fluke infestations of the skin, as well as the gills, are common.
Treatment is as for gill flukes.
The most common is the koi tapeworm, Bothriocephalus acheilognathi , a long, fine, white ribbon-like worm found in tangled masses in the intestine. These are easily recognised if affected fish are dissected. Heavily infested fish lose condition and can suffer intestinal blockage. Treatment can be safely carried out before the fish reach this stage. The tables should be ground up and added to a bucket of feed pellets dampened with vegetable cooking oil at a rate of 10 tablets per kilogram of food.