a case of a camelanus - HELP

[cutecotton]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum - but my fish has come down with a case of camelanus and i can't fin dthe proper medicine to help them at all! I have some of this internal parasite guard but its' the 3rd day of treatment and no one's better, in fact one of hte victims just died today. I have 2 guppies ( a male and a female, the female just passed away after treating with internal parasite guard for 3 days, i think she was more infected), and a betta with a snail and 2 khuli loaches. I suspect that everything in the tank has the disease now, although i only visibly see the worms in my male guppy and not on my betta

Should i continue with treatment and hope for hte best, or should i take everything tha'ts alive out of my tank and scrub my tank down iwth 100% water change?

These things are so hard to get rid of!!!

Thanks for any help!

 

[TLH]

Found this on Plecofanatics.com.Dunno if it will help but here goes anyway.

Mate that is camelanus worm and it is a turd of a thing to get rid of, each female lays 50 or so eggs pr day and they take it in turns to hang out of the fishes butt and lay eggs.

The only way to get rid of them is to brake to cycle. This is what works for me and I have used it a number of times is, you need to get some Bird wormer with ,now the spelling will not be right on this buy here goes . pep-uar-zen there broken down to how you say it for you the higher the concentration the better, any way defrost and drain some blood worm, place the worm in a container and cover it with the pepeurazan and stick it in the fridge over night.
The next step is to starve the fish for two days so they would eat the crotch out of a rag doll, then feed them the worm and nothing else.
Repeat this in 5 days and 5 days again, do a heaps of gravel siphons in that time as this is where the eggs lay waiting to be picked up by the fish when they are picking at the gravel.
Hope it helps see ya mate.

Taken from this thread http://www.plecofanatics.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-18081.html

 

[cutecotton]

Hi, thanks for the help - but the only thing i don't undersatnd from that threat is "Bird wormer" what's that and where can i get some?

Repeat this in 5 days and 5 days again - so i feed the bloodworms to the fish for 5 days and nothing else? or 10 days? And then after 10 (or 5 days) i do a water change?

I guess the only thing is i have to get a hold of hte medicine...but my LFS is very limited in medication stock and hardly has anything useful...

Can snails get camelanus?

 

[TLH]

I read it as feeding once every 5 days with the treated bloodworm.I suppose any pet store would stock something like that,maybe dog wormers would contain the same active ingredient.You'll have to examine the packets very well to work out the dosage which is why I guess he suggests bird wormer as birds are generally small therefore the dose per tablet would be small.

Do water changes all through the treatment.You're trying to get rid of all the eggs that the worms may shed into the water.The eggs would get lodged in the gravel so you need to vacuum the gravel lots.Even then you're not likely to get every single last egg so you may get another outbreak later.Maybe a vet could give you something along these lines that you'd treat the water with aswell.

As for snails suffering the same parasite I wouldn't know.I'm going on common sense and what I've read.I've never suffered stuff like this before.

 

[cutecotton]

Hi, thanks a lot for your help, i think that makes sense. I'm going to go to a local pet store and see if they have some bird wormer - the active ingredient that the guy was talkinga bout...pepeurazan, do you have any idea what's the acutal spelling of the wrod? I can't figure it out.

I also heard that stuff containing levisomle is good - camelanus is a type of roundwormr ight?

How often would you suggest i do the water changes? I usually do them every week, i thought cahnging the water too much woudl cuase stress to the fish, but i guess i'ts necessary if i watn to vacuum the eggs out of hte gravel...could you give me an idea of how freqeunt? (a few days, everyday?)

Thanks again!

 

[TLH]

I'd do 30% changes with vacuums every 3-4 days.

Read this thread also. http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/disease-forum/35578-camelanus.html#post324101

Please describe your tank and its inmates aswell.Have you any expensive fish,plants and another tank you can use as a hospital?

After getting the right spelling I found a few more links.Have a Google for Camallanus yourself.This is a good read plus has the correct spelling of that drug in the bird wormer. http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Worms.htm

 

[cutecotton]

Hi, thanks for the links, i checked out them and read through it. It seems like "Levamisole Hydrochloride" is an effective medicine against camellanus, i beleive it's the ingreident in pig and bird wormers...

I would really like to get a hold of the medication but I have no idea where to get it. I doubt local pet stores will carry any - would it be safe to get a bird wormer that has levamisole hydrochloride in it as ingredient and then use it on the fish?

I'll go with your advice and do the 30% water hcange every 3-4 days, hopefully that'll get rid of the eggs from the worms

You wouldnt' know where i can get some levamisole do you?

Thanks a bunch

 

[TLH]

Concurat L (10% Levamisole): Mix 1 gram Concurat into 100 grams food. Give once daily over 5 days. If the fish are already weakened and refuse to eat then you can try 30 mg/L of water dissolved in a little water beforehand. After 3 days do a 50% water change and dose again. After another 3 days repeat the waterchange.

Ivermectin 1%: Some studies have shown that Ivermectin added directly to aquarium water has been useful in treating camallanus worms in fish. The dose used was 0.7 millilitres of a 1% injectable solution per 76 litres of water. The dose was added over a period of four days (0.1, 0.2, 0.2, and 0.2 millilitres). A solution of 1 part Ivermectin 1% in 19 parts distilled water can be made and administered as a split dose of 2 ml on day one, 3 ml on day two, and 3 ml on day three followed by a water change on day four. However, because this drug has a narrow margin of safety, some veterinarians advise against any use of Ivermectin for aquarium fishes.

All I can suggest is you try the larger pet stores first and if you don't find anything suitable go see the vet for something.

 

[Lotus]

I belive levamisole is sometimes available at feed stores, or you might be able to get it from a vet.

You will need to drop the pH in your tank for it to be effective, also.

There's some info on dosing, pH, etc. here, in relation to using it as a treatment for loaches: Loaches Online - Loaches "Wasting Away" - Internal Parasites

Some fishkeepers I've talked to have said sometimes it's better to destroy the fish in the tank, and then start it over again.

 

[cutecotton]

HI guys, thanks a lot for the help - i havent' had much luck and is now down to my last resort.

The last male guppy is too sick...i torn down my etnire tank adn disinfected the whole thing today, not putting the male guppy back...i will go find some clove oil tomrrow...i have my betta isoalted in hopes that he'll survive, not showing symptoms yet os he might survive...i even took out all the gravel and *everything* to disinfect...even thinking of tossing my plants (i acutally tried to disinfect them wtih a very diulted solution of bleach....they may or may not be severly damanged)

But ia gree that this is VERy hard to get rid of...espiecally completely, down to teh last worm. I don't want to kill al lmy fish..it seems so...harsh, i don't know if i can do it...but worse comes to worse i may have to

wish me luck...camallenus 1, me 0

 

[TLH]

Well,yes,good luck.If you don't have expensive plants it may be better to just get rid of them especially now you've gone the whole hog and stripped down the tank.Eridicate every last bug with no remorse rather than have this come back to haunt you again.

Sorry to hear it beat you this time,this Camallanus sounds particularly nasty.Atleast you have some experience of it now though so if there is a next time you can get on top of it earlier.

 

[cutecotton]

Hi there,

Well i threw out the gravel and my plants (i miss them) but i guess it's better than taking the risk. I have basically restarted my whole tank, new filter and everything...the water is slightly foggy i wonder if this is normal?

Also, i have isoalted my betta but noticed that he's slightly constipated (and maybe becuase of that his stomachi s quite bloated) - I dont' see any camallanus coming out of him but i'm worried that they might not have matured yet and that's the only reason why i'm not seeing hte mature form of hte worms.

He's still very active and eats and still stares at me while i work...i can't get a hold of levamisole anywhere around here..which is very disappointing but id id maanage to find some piperazine tablets on ebay that i can buy, do you think it's still worth it? I can't even tell if my betta is sick, nor od i know how effective the piperzine is, i realize he actually has to eat it for hte medicine to be effective...

Any advice? or should i just wait it out and hope he's not sick - any ideas how effective piperzine is? I have a feeling levamisole hydrochloride is the most effecitve med...but i may have to settle for 2 nd best

 

[Lotus]

According to the book I have, the piperazine should be effective against camallanus. It does need to be mixed in with the food, apparently. You'll need to feed it for 5-10 days, and possibly do a second treatment.

Good luck with the treatment

 

[cutecotton]

i thought it came in a tablet form that needs to be mixed with food? bahhh i dont' know, waiting for ebay person to tell me about shipping, while hoping that my betta will go to the bathroom soon!