Intestinal parasites - nematodes???

[mordor]

I guess I found why my Bolivian rams are dying one by one. I got them
for almost year and I thought that I am loosing one fish every couple
weeks because of fights. There are no symptoms until it starts to
remain aparts from others. After couple days it is visible that fish
is losing weight and becomes apathic. Other fishes can almost push it
around. At this stage the anal area gets red and swollen and seems to
have something like red fiber sticking out of it. It looks I brought these worms with rams and slowly one by one is gone. It seems fish can live more that half a year without any symptoms.

I went thru Untergasser's charts and it seems to be Camallanus sp.
AKA roundworm. Quick search give me more questions than answers. It
seem none of aquarium product manaufatures really got product would
fight these worms. Most people were using some cattle medication -
Levamisole Hydrochloride. Some people suggest metronidazole, others
say that it is not effective. During last year all my fish must have had an contact with these rams, are they all atacked? Any suggestions?

 

[Z Man]

I have just one question. Do you feed your fish any live blackworms?

 

[mordor]

Only flakes, frozen food (Hikari or SF Bay) and sometimes live brine shrimp.

 

[Z Man]

The reason I asked is because a few years back I fed large amounts of live blackworms to almost all my dwarfs and they came down with the same thing. I always thought those worms had to come from the food but with what you are feeding there is nothing there live except the shrimp. Now I'M confused.
Z Man

 

[mordor]

I guess rams came already infected by warms. Why for long time there are no symptoms I do not know.