Camallanus. AGAIN!!

[Spiskits]

I just cannot get rid of this pesky nematode. I've tried treating, gravel hoovering, treating again to catch any hatched eggs etc etc. Now my last three Colombian tetras all have it and my remaining female red rainbow has it.
This disgusting, organ destroying worm is running rife in my tank for the third time and I've tried every remedy my local LFS's have recommended. NT Labs, Kusuri, esha, API, you name it I've tried it The only remaining treatment is copper sulphate (sulfate?) but I know this can be very dangerous for fish.
Has anyone else tried it? Was it successful?
I have also read that Camallanus will take every fish in my tank no matter what I try. It will just return again and again and the best thing to do is clear out the tank, throw everything away including filter media, and let it sit dry for a few months.
I cannot bring myself to euthanize my gorgeous fish without trying everything possible to help/save them. Surely there's a treatment somewhere that will eradicate this vile parasite? Fish keepers in the USA seem to have different medications that work, we don't seem to have them here in the UK.
Any help is much appreciated.

 

[Colin_T]

Copper does not do anything to intestinal worms so do not use copper for worms.

If you treated the tank correctly, you should be able to get rid of the worms with one dose. You then do follow up treatments at 1, 2 and 3 weeks later to kill any worms that hatch from eggs.

Levamisole or Flubendazole should do the job.

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Did you have carbon in the filter when you treated the fish?

Was the medication still within expiry dates?

Where was the medication kept before you got it?
Medications tend to break down very quickly in warm or bright conditions. If the medication was kept in a fish room, near a heat source, or by a window, it might have gone off.

How did you treat the tank?

Did you work out the exact amount of water in the tank or just take an estimate?

Did you treat all of your tanks at the same time?

Do you feed live foods like Daphnia?

 

[Spiskits]

Hi Colin.
Thanks for your reply.
I bought the medications new from my local store and all were well in date. I know the volume of my tank and filters combined and worked out the dosages. I only use carbon to remove medications, otherwise I never use it. Foods are blanched peas, bug bites, and frozen foods but I never feed live. Frozen is mainly artemia, the odd bloodworm cube, and Cyclops.
Water parameters are spot on (liquid API test kit), and I only treat the main tank as its the one with the problem. Because my tank is fairly large I usually only get one treatment from a bottle of meds so I rarely have the need to store them.
My LFS tells me to store them for a very limited time, so if I need to I keep them in the cupboard under the stairs.

Levamisole and Flubendazole are proving extremely hard to find here in the UK. I've tried many websites that have sold out. Vets are no help at all, I've called many and they will not help me.

 

[Colin_T]

The information below comes from Section 3 of the following link and is about treating fish for intestinal worms and provides a number of brands of dewormer found in the UK.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

Test kits and medications last longer if they are kept in a cool dry dark place. I kept mine in an icecream container with a lid, and put that on the bottom shelf of my fridge. Just make sure children and animals can't get the medications or chemicals because they are hazardous.

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Intestinal Worms like tapeworm and threadworms cause the fish to lose weight, continue eating and swimming normally, and do a stringy white poop. Fish can do this for months and not be too badly affected. In some cases, fish with a bad worm infestation will actually gain weight and get fat and look like a pregnant guppy. This is due to the huge number of worms inside the fish.

Livebearers like guppies, mollies, swordtails & platies are regularly infected with gill flukes and intestinal worms. If the fish are still eating well, then worms is the most likely cause.

You can use Praziquantel to treat tapeworm and gill flukes. And use Levamisole to treat thread/ round worms. If you can't find these medications, look for Flubendazole, which treats both lots of worms.

In the UK look for:
eSHa gdex contains praziquantel that treats tapeworm and gill flukes.
eSHa-ndx contains levamisole and treats thread/ round worms.
NT Labs Anti-fluke and Wormer contains flubendazole.
Kusuri wormer plus (contains flubendazole) - sold mainly for discus, comes as a powder which is quite hard to dose in smaller tanks
Sera nematol (contains emamectin)

Remove carbon from filters before treatment and increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels in the water.

You treat the fish once a week for 4 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second, third and forth treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish's digestive tract.

Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time to prevent cross contamination.

You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment. Clean the filter 24 hours after treatment too.

Do not use the 2 medications together. If you want to treat both medications in a short space of time, use Praziquantel on day one. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate on day 2 & 3. Treat the tank with Levamisole on day 4 and do a 75% water change and gravel clean on day 5, 6 & 7 and then start with Praziquantel again on day 8.

The water changes will remove most of the medication so you don't overdose the fish the next time you treat them. The gravel cleaning will suck out any worms and eggs that have been expelled by the fish. Repeating the treatment for 3-4 doses at weekly intervals will kill any worms that hatch from eggs. At the end of the treatment you will have healthier fish.

 

[Essjay]

To add to Colin's list of medications in the UK, Maidenhead Aquatics own brand AquaCare Anti Fluke and Wormer also contains flubendazole (and I suspect it's actually the NT Labs product under the AquaCare label given the similarity of the name and contents)

 

[Spiskits]

OK update time...

Sorry for the delayed reply, I've been a little busy snapping my cruciate ligament. That hurt a bit.

I decided to rip the gravel, wood, and plants from my tank before treating my fish so any worms could be vacuumed on sight. The tank looked terrible, just a glass box, water, and fish, but I thought it was the best way to combat this horrible parasite. So...
I used the NT labs anti fluke and wormer for the second time (I used it a while back) and the worms stayed firmly attached to my fish, it did basically nothing. So I added new carbon to the filter, carried out some water changes as per the norm, and decided to hunt down Levamisole. The drench powder used for livestock was sold out everywhere and the only way I could find it was in a bird wormer meaning it was very diluted, however, I was willing to try anything to save my fish. I took my water level to 50% making it cheaper to add the meds, worked out the water volume, and went for it.
Long story short, worms have gone. They were excreted and hoovered up within 24 hours, and all but one of the affected fish (a female Rainbow) are eating and pooping normally. The female Rainbow is eating very tiny amounts but I never see her have a poop. There are no worms from her vent but I suspect she was affected badly and may not survive. I will treat the tank again in a week or two to clear up any remaining nasties that may hatch from missed eggs.

 

[Ichthys]

Sterazin works, if you’re in the UK.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I wish I'd been here to see this when you first posted! I battled camallanus worms too, they're the worst!

Too late now, but for anyone else who reads this and needs the right worming meds in the UK, I used eSHa NDX (levamiasole) an eSHa gdex (flubendazole) (praziquantel) in a series of treatments to wipe out a bad case of camallanus infecting all of my tanks. It's important to treat every tank, since the worm eggs are so easy to spread via shared equipment, moving fish between tanks, even putting your hand in one tank then another can spread them, so it's crucial to treat them all, or the infestation just passes back and forth, cropping up and becoming obvious once the worms have grown large and are really damaging the fish.

During treatment I also bleached or replaced all equipment that could have worm eggs, like the buckets, syphons and nets I used. After months of battling it using ineffective meds and not treating every tank the first time around, I wasn't taking any chances!

ETA: To correct my mistake, see posts below.

 

[Essjay]

an eSHa gdex (flubendazole)

From the eSHa gdex leaflet -

Composition
1 ml contains: 66 mg of praziquantel.

Just don't want to confuse members and readers

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

From the eSHa gdex leaflet -


Just don't want to confuse members and readers

I stand corrected! My bad, it's been a while and I should have double-checked, thanks for catching that!

I remember now - it's because levamisole is the best for killing camallanus and other round worms, and eSHa-NDX is a med containing that, that we can get here in the UK. The gdex was to wipe out any flatworms that might have been hidden away, which prazi is good for, so I used both in separate, ongoing treatments.

Handy for if the cause seems to be worms, but the type of worm is unknown.

 

[Essjay]

Flubendazole, which you mentioned, is supposed to kill both but Siskits found it didn't work for his fish. Flubendazole is in NT Labs Anti Fluke and Wormer and also Maidenhead Aquatics own brand AquaCare Anti Fluke and Wormer (which could well be the same product under the own brand label). And it's in Kusuri Wormer plus which is a powder and hard to dose in smaller tanks.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Flubendazole, which you mentioned, is supposed to kill both but Siskits found it didn't work for his fish. Flubendazole is in NT Labs Anti Fluke and Wormer and also Maidenhead Aquatics own brand AquaCare Anti Fluke and Wormer (which could well be the same product under the own brand label). And it's in Kusuri Wormer plus which is a powder and hard to dose in smaller tanks.

The NT Labs Anti Fluke and Wormer didn't touch the worm problem I had either. That was one of the first ones I tried, and I think it was you who suggested eSHa products to me when I was at my wits end

 

[Essjay]

When flubendazole does work it saves having to buy 2 different meds when you don't know which worms the fish have. But using two different ones, one for round worms and one for flat worms, also works. It's just a case of juggling the two round each other

My fish had camallanus worms a few years ago (red threads protruding from the anus) and eSHa hadn't brought out ndx at that time. i used Sera Nematol which did work - that contains emamectin (I think that's how it's spelled )

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

When flubendazole does work it saves having to buy 2 different meds when you don't know which worms the fish have. But using two different ones, one for round worms and one for flat worms, also works. It's just a case of juggling the two round each other

My fish had camallanus worms a few years ago (red threads protruding from the anus) and eSHa hadn't brought out ndx at that time. i used Sera Nematol which did work - that contains emamectin (I think that's how it's spelled )

Given the different meds that are available/unavailable in each country, it could be really handy to have a list of these meds, their active ingredients, and what they treat, perhaps sorted by country or by the illness as a pinned comment perhaps? Something easily linked to when people are asking for medication advice.

E.g: Worming medications

US - brand names (active ingredient) round or flatworms
UK - eSHa NDX (levamisole) roundworms such as camallanus
- Sera Nematol (emamectin) Both round and flatworms

Something like that? I know that I'll never remember these meds and their ingredients/uses, but it's valuable info, easily lost. I realise that would be a lot of work though and require some time and thought.

 

[Essjay]

I know a lot of meds in the UK and what they are intended to treat (whether they do or not) but it would need input from members in other countries as well.