:( Cammallanus Worms :(

[ameekplec]

So looking into my 20g planted tank today, I noticed that one of the blue rams has a outward bulging at it's anus, and on closer inspection it had little red worms. :(
This tank got it pretty bad for the last few months. I think it all started with a bad shipment of clown killifish I received, or some plants from the LFS. Either way, I had a wicked outbreak of bacterial septicemia, which killed a lot of fish (all my clown killies :(). The remaining fish have since then been susceptible to ick, with 2 or 3 break outs in a few months.
The tank has been set up for a long time now, so it's not a cycling concern, nor are the water parameters out of whack in any way (Nitrites, ammonia, 0, nitrates ~20ppm, pH = 7.4, temp 78F), and I do WC every week (30-40%).
When I read up on some of the long term symptoms of cammallanus worms, apparently two of them are spinal deformities and pinched bellies, which one danio has had for a while (but is otherwise asymptomatic), but I thought it might have been a result of the septicemia. The worms out the anus just proves it, I suppose.
The current inhabitants are as follows: 2 GBR, 6 danios (mixed small types), 2 BN, 3 three-spot gouramis (which have grown extremely shy) and 1 tiny fry, and 3 otos. This whole ordeal makes me want to tear this tank down and start it over, but I'm too attached to it's inhabitants.

I've pm'd mykiss about levamisole, so hopefully I can start treating soon.

My question is this (well, I have two): if I'm treating in the tank (as I'm sure all the occupants are affected), will I be able to rid my tank of the worms if I can't do a complete gravel vac? At this point, it's really not an option to vac the gravel. I might as well do a teardown and start the tank over. Can I do without the gravel vacs? I could skim along the ground cover, and maybe a bit between plant groups, but that's about it.
My second one is this: do you think I should treat my other tanks (5g, 6.5g, 15g, 75g)? I use the same siphon tube for all my tanks when removing water and same set of buckets (one for dirty water, one for clean), and I've been somewhat careful not to let water from the infected tank (because of the septicemia) get into contact with the other tanks, but I'm afraid I might have passed the worm around. Any insights to how mobile the larval stages are?

In all my years keeping fish, I've never had parasites besides ick, so this is all new to me :( Any help is appreciated!

[mykiss]

PM sent.

I'd treat the tank twice just in case and have some extra meds on hand in case it comes again. It's often difficult to get rid of them completely especially if you have gravel for them to hide in so I always recommend second treatments.

I'd treat all the tanks as you may never know if it transfered or not, and when you see it, it's too late. Cheers

[Melody]

Agreed - otherwise you get reinfected and it starts all over again. You'll drive yourself nuts watching for them, etc. So on both counts, I'd say yes, treat all tanks and more than once. If it was something easily cured like Ich I'd be the first to object, but these little monsters are a different story.

Good luck!

[Katalyst]

PM sent.

I'd treat the tank twice just in case and have some extra meds on hand in case it comes again. It's often difficult to get rid of them completely especially if you have gravel for them to hide in so I always recommend second treatments.

I'd treat all the tanks as you may never know if it transfered or not, and when you see it, it's too late. Cheers


Heyyy I didn't know you had meds as well...Hmmm I think its time to visit Canadian Aquatics lol.

[jusdeb]

These C. worms are are often imported with fish that come from fish farms in Asian countries.
It has been a problem here as there are no specific meds for the C.worm.
What we do here is use Avitrol bird wormer as it contains both ingredients known to kill the worms.
Myself I make a hospital tank and put the fish in with the Avitrol or Wormenda for 24 hours ..in the meantime the affected tank is pulled down and everything is boiled and put out in the sun to dry.
Plants go into a bath with the Avitrol as well.
This has worked well for me but I did have one fish that must have been holding the worm for quite a while as she took a long time to recover and now has a curve in her spine so I say the worm may have caused some internal damage.
A second treatment a week later doesnt hurt either before returning the fish to the sterilised tank.

[Melody]

The spine thing can be a sign of vitamin deficiency so that could be it, since a bad case of worms over a long period would rob the fish of his food. There's also another parasite that can get into the bone structure... can't remember what it's called. Everytime I try to treat that one, the fish die from the treatment. I think it does something to them when the worms die, be it infection or otherwise.

I didn't know that about the bird med's, thanks for mentioning it! What are the active ingredients in it?

[jusdeb]

Levamisole Hydrochloride at 1 or 2 drops per litre for 24 hours followed by massive water changes and thorough gravel vacs to get any expelled eggs .
I prefer to use a hospital tank and clean the tank while the fish arent in there.
Lev. is not available here for treating worms in fish so we rely on bird wormer.
A lot of fish people here who import treat the fish as soon as they get them out of quaranteen as a precaution .

[Melody]

OIC, same med designed for a different purpose, thanks! We're all going to be reading deworming boxes in everything but the fish section now :laugh: . I think I read somewhere that it isn't available off the shelf here but I could be remembering wrong. Mr. Mykiss holds a Phd of something fishy or another (why I can't remember that poor man's title is beyond me :rolleyes: ), so he can access such things.