DragonNeko Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 I was looking at my Molly and I noticed her anus looked red. She was swimming up and down the tank a lot, and when she came closer I saw 3 red string like things coming out of her anus. Are these Camallanus Worms? I did some research and the pictures I found looked exactly like what she has. What do I do? I hate to use medicine, but I don't think I have a choice. I don't want my fish to die. They're in my 20 gallon which has 2 female mollies, 2 corydoras, 1 oto cat, 3 endlers, and about 4 endler fry, snails, plants (vallis, amazon sword, pygmy sword). What medicine should I use that will hurt the fish and plants the least? I don't see any point in setting up a quarentien, since they'd be put into an uncycled tank and that's not much better. Please help me! I'm completely freaking out right now! I don't wanna lose my fish or anything else in the tank I finally think I'm doing really good with the tanks, and now this happens... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatpuffer Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 If is camallanus worms...i have used levamisole hcl. That is the only thing that worked for me. You will have to treat the whole tank and other tank that it shared equipments with. Unfortunately (for me), it was a deadly parasite that wiped out couple of my tanks. Look for the Levamisole HCl as soon as possible. I know someone...may Jayba...bought some a while back. PM him. Jonah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonNeko Posted April 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Would I be able to buy levamisole in a store? According to Jayba's profile he lives in Red Dear, which is about 2-21/2 hours away from where I live. I don't know if I could make it out there in time. Plus my husband likely wouldn't think it's worth the drive. I'd hate to have to restart all my tanks, though I'll have to accept it if it happens. At least I only have 3 tanks. I feel like crying right now...this just sucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatpuffer Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 PM him and see if he can send you some. I ordered mine from b.c. a while back because nobody had it. Took 2 days to get here with regular mail. Jonah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonNeko Posted April 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Thank you for your help Hopefully I caught it soon enough to save my fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishkabod Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Contact Patrick from canadian Aquatics if you can't get any from redeer. He is the one i got mine from and he also has great instructions on how to dose the tank. I was stunned as to how fast the worms died with a dose of the stuff. You can't buy it in stores as it was at one point a dewormer for cattle. Good luck L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sierra Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 That sounds exactly like callamanus worms....unfortunately it is very inconvenient to get the (only working) medicine on time. Your best bet would be trying to get some from someone on here probably. As per my suggestions: I would highly suggest removing the infected fish if you can...it is really not worth loosing your whole tank to and that tends to happen... Sorry to sound discouraging. I had a fish with this problem in its own tank and read a lot of reviews and information and levamiscole (spelling ahh) was the only compound that worked for anyone. I think it was too late for him though he didnt survive treatment. There is a jungle tab food product with levamiscole in (the only one i could find in any petstore anywhere) however none of my fish would eat the pellets not even when I tried enticing them with things like garlic etc. (NONE of my fish... not even other tanks, healthy fish etc.) If you caught it early I would still remove the fish. Get some of the compound and treat your tank as per instructions, but I wouldn't recommend leaving the fish in the tank at all even if that means ...saying bye-bye. You can decide if its worth it, but it is a nasty parasite to deal with and will not disappear if not treated and eventually lead to death of the infected and its tank mates. I sound like the grim reaper AHH. If you decide to leave the fish in---> get the compound treat as quickly as possible and I hope everything turns out. People have had some great results. Good luck!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayba Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 Removing the infected fish won't really do anything, it is a futile attempt. By the time you realize you have them your tank is full of the eggs. These eggs lay dormant awaiting the next fish to ingest them. I have sold a pound of Levamisole on this and other forums. It works well, the secondary infections and complications (infections etc.) that infected fish have are the second hurdle. Levamisole paralyzes the worm, causing them to be passed by the fish. The drug is ineffective on eggs. This is why another dose is required 2 weeks later, once the next generation is in the fish. You must medicate, vacuum the tank several times and re medicate and vacuum some more. They are a pain to get rid of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sierra Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 Removing the infected fish won't really do anything, it is a futile attempt. By the time you realize you have them your tank is full of the eggs. These eggs lay dormant awaiting the next fish to ingest them. I have sold a pound of Levamisole on this and other forums. It works well, the secondary infections and complications (infections etc.) that infected fish have are the second hurdle. Levamisole paralyzes the worm, causing them to be passed by the fish. The drug is ineffective on eggs. This is why another dose is required 2 weeks later, once the next generation is in the fish. You must medicate, vacuum the tank several times and re medicate and vacuum some more. They are a pain to get rid of. Shouldn't removal decrease the amount of parasite while you wait to get treatment started? Less worms the better. Like any sick fish you don't want it spreading more and more into your tank?? I don't think it has to be true that by the time one fish has them your whole tank is infected. It could be a new fish added or a small number of eggs/one worm began it all.. I'm trying to be optimistic lol Totally agree on the secondary hurdle. Keep a close eye on them. I hope I never get this in a tank it seems like a huge pain in the .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishMommy Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 treat the whole tank, and any other tanks that may have had contact from shared equipment (nets, gravel vacs, even your hand unwashed between tanks!). an adult female callamanus worm will spit out TONS of eggs, so removing the infected fish does nothing, it just creates another infected tank that you have to treat. i have read that callamanus used copepods in the tank as a intermediate host, and it's not the fish eating the eggs that infects them, but eating the callamanus in a certain stage after it has left the copepod. this is why running a tank fallow (no fish in it) isn't a cure for callamanus like it is for ich (which requires a fish to survive). with levamisole (the only callamanus treatment IMO!), you want to keep the lights off during treatment. do the first dose, wait two days, then do a HUGE water change and vacuum your substrate as well as possible (if you have plants, just float them for the duration of treatment, they'll be fine). as mentioned, you need to dose again in two weeks to get all those eggs that would have hatched in the meantime. 5 grams of levamisole will treat 100 gallons of tank. you want to make a stock solution first, then use that stock solution in the tank. never put dry powder levamisole directly in a tank! mix the 5 grams of levamisole with 100 ml of water. each ml will now treat 1 gallon of tank. if you only have, for example, one 20 gallon tank, then cut the dry powder into 5 equal piles and use only one pile in 20 ml of water. it's pretty hard to overdose on levamisole. i used it last year when my one 55 gallon had callamanus, and most likely went over the dose by a little (my pile eyeballing skills are not that great, lol). thankfully, i had separate equipment for all my tanks then, and there was no cross contamination. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 5 grams of levamisole will treat 100 gallons of tank. 5 grams of levamisole will treat 500 gallons. See the info in the following link for more details ..... http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=29236&st=0&p=2216984 Good luck with your fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishkabod Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 Here is how i dosed my tank with no stress issues. Here is how i dosed my tank. 1 10g 5g packet into 100ml of water dosed 1ml per 10 gallons Worked like a charm I used a small empty bottle of stability for the stock solution, Good luck L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonNeko Posted April 12, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 Thank you everyone! I'm feeling a little more optomistic now. I'm happy to know the plants will be okay. Would the treatment affect my snails at all? What I'm worried about the most is not getting all the worms/eggs out of the gravel. Should I scoop half the gravel out so I can get it all? Part of me wants to take all the gravel out and boil the little monsters to death...but that might not be good for the bacteria colonies. If all my fish end up dead, I'll be having just shrimp tanks for awhile, lol. I don't think I'll be buying fish from a store for awhile either. I REALLY don't wanna have to deal with this again for a long time. I'm going crazy just thinking about it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishMommy Posted April 13, 2011 Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 (edited) when i treated my tank i had apple snails and ramshorns in it. i did have one apple pass away shortly after, but that may have been due to it being a heavy breeder and it was at the end of its short life span anyway (focusing energy on breeding shortens lifespan, IMO, and apple snails usually only live a year to 18 months). i believe i had a few cherry shrimp in there at the time too, and they fared fine. my plants suffered a little browning but bounced back in a short time with no problem at all. i did frequent parameter tests during treatment and never had an ammonia or nitrite spike, so i believe my beneficial bacteria didn't take any damage. when i dosed using the 5 grams per 100 gallons method, i had no fish stress and worms were passing within hours of dosing. if i ever have to go through callamanus again (knock on wood that i don't!), i will try the 1 gram per 100 gallons. buying fish from stores is just fine as long as they look healthy and you quarantine them in a separate tank for a minimum of 30 days. if during that 30 days they take ill or have any infectious issues (parasites, etc), then the 30 day quarantine restarts after treatment of the issue is completed. Edited April 13, 2011 by BettaFishMommy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonNeko Posted April 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 when i treated my tank i had apple snails and ramshorns in it. i did have one apple pass away shortly after, but that may have been due to it being a heavy breeder and it was at the end of its short life span anyway (focusing energy on breeding shortens lifespan, IMO, and apple snails usually only live a year to 18 months). i believe i had a few cherry shrimp in there at the time too, and they fared fine. my plants suffered a little browning but bounced back in a short time with no problem at all. i did frequent parameter tests during treatment and never had an ammonia or nitrite spike, so i believe my beneficial bacteria didn't take any damage. when i dosed using the 5 grams per 100 gallons method, i had no fish stress and worms were passing within hours of dosing. if i ever have to go through callamanus again (knock on wood that i don't!), i will try the 1 gram per 100 gallons. buying fish from stores is just fine as long as they look healthy and you quarantine them in a separate tank for a minimum of 30 days. if during that 30 days they take ill or have any infectious issues (parasites, etc), then the 30 day quarantine restarts after treatment of the issue is completed. Thank you Hopefully my shrimp don't stop breeding from any stress. They're just starting, and I'd hate for them to halt for any period of time. It's nice to know that among all the worms and such my shrimp are thriving, lol. Must be doing something right. I have been thinking of setting up some sort of quarantine tank. Maybe I can grow plants in it when I don't have a new fish in it. I'd hate to have an empty tank most of the time. Do plants need heaters? and would I be able to put shrimp in it as well as long as they don't leave the tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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