Camellanus again.

[Bilbo]

I hate this bug. I have had this before and lost loads of apistos and rams with it.

War has begun!
Got the Aviverm (24% Levamisole) yesterday and treated 2ppm but worms didn't die and retreated back into him after 30 hours of meds so did 100% water change and re treated at 4ppm.

At least 5 are visable so he may be to far gone to cure but I will try for another few days.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Best of luck, they are little b*ggers and I hope I never ever see one again.

There is a really good article at "Loaches-online".
<http://www.loaches.com/Members/shari2/levamisole-hydrochloride-1>.

A thought occurs that the 2ppm solution may not actually be 2ppm if it is 24% levamisole HCl? rather than just levamisole.

cheers Darrel

 

[Bilbo]

I thought I had cured this and then it came back again. Dosed again and thought I had cured it again. He started to look alot better for a short time but then went rapidly down hill again, swelled up and died.

My guess is one got stuck and he couldnt push it out but cant confirm this.

Thanks Darrel I hope you never see it again either but I am now starting all over again with a female that has it.
I cant seem to win with this bug.

 

[Rod]

Levamisole doesn't kill the worms....it paralyses them so the fish can pass them......sometimes they get caught in the gut.....die and go septic.....with terminal consequences

I have found that fish need a couple of treatments with a Good gravel vac between treatments.....

Need to treat the tank.....if you remove the fish and treat them.....there may still be eggs in the tank or worms in another fish that aren't yet apparent and the cycle can start again!

 

[Chris S]

I agree with Rod. When I was breeding rams, I ran into this devilish bug too.

Basically, to get rid of it, I did the following:

1. Remove all inhabitants from the original tank into seperate 5g quarantine tanks (bare bottom, sponge filter).

2. Bleach original tank

3. Treat fish with levamisole at x2 the dose (I actually just dosed for a 10g, instead of 5)

4. 50% water change, ensure tank is clean, clean, clean.

5. Treat fish with normal dose

6. 50% water change, etc.

7. Treat fish with half dose, keep a close eye on them and see if they pass any other worms. If they do, do another dose. If not, carry on below:

8. 100% water change, keep the fish quarantined for 2 weeks to ensure no reoccurance.

9. Bleach 5g quarantine tanks =)

Fun stuff.

I found when I didn't use this method (I dealt with them three times!) they would reoccur, often times within 2-3 days.

I also found that steady live foods, such as bbs, would make passing the worms easier - often times I think the worms die inside the fish because they get stuck. This, I believe, causes the fish to die due to sepsis or fungemia. I've never taken the time to dissect, so I can't be sure what exactly the cause it - it could be just the worms themselves were too far along.

Good luck. Remember to clean your nets too =D

 

[Bilbo]

Thanks Chris and Rod.

I still cant get rid of it. Have a female with 2 clearly visible worms sticking out.

2ppm has never worked so I went back to some old information that is linked to from the loaches page

I have dosed at around 13ppm
2.5mls of 24% in 50 liters.
http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/CamallanusTreatment/TreatmentProcedure.html

This was for 36hrs on a clean tank with only a sponge filter.

Next I purchased some Panacur 100 which is fenbendazole at 10%. Used 3 mls in a bowl with 2 blocks of blood-worms soaked for 2 hours and fed that. They ate that mixture twice over 3 days with no other food but the worm is still visible 2 days later.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Yo-han]

Same problem here, lost 3 A. nijsseni, and a N. anomala already and a number of tetra's as well. Treated the tank 2 times already, but the problem is, it is a tank with aqua soil and the bottom is fully planted. I guess there will always survive a worm in there, and I can't get all fish out without turning over the whole tank (100 gallon). Is there nothing that kills the damn worms instead of only paralyzing them?

 

[raymond82]

The first time I had a Camallanus infection it was also in a planted tank, I treated the tank 3 times with Colombo Dactycid and took all the plants out and rinsed them in a bleach solution (which only part of the plants survived). It was quite drastic but I did get rid of the worms...

 

[Yo-han]

How about the gravel/substrate?

 

[raymond82]

I vacuumed it, with one of these commercially available aquarium vacuum cleaners. I think that's an important component of the treatment to get rid of the larvae.