jazzycazzer
New Member
Hello all
I have only been keeping tanks for about 4 months. I bought a couple of new plants and about a month later I had snails and fish started behaving oddly (swimming at surface). The ones doing this developed a red vent with tiny bristles on. The bristles were so small I did not immediately think they were worms but I have since concluded (from researching) that what I am seeing is Camallanus worms.
I obtained some Beaphar bird wormer which contains Levamisole HCl. I used the frequently referenced "Loaches" page on the subject to calculate how much I needed to bring the dose to 2mg/litre in the tank. For my 160 litre tank this was the best part of 4 bottles. I left it in for 2 days but was not convinced it worked 100 % because after this time whilst the worms were hanging out the fish a lot further, they were still hanging on in there and were still red, suggesting to me that they were still feeding on the fish. Three guppy fish had already died before adding the wormer and four guppies continued to die after the wormer was added, but as I understand it if the infestation is advanced then the fish may still die even after you start treatment. I lost a cherry shrimp a week after the treatment but could have been unrelated. Apart from the shrimp there were no further deaths since about day 2 of the Beaphar treatment, but at least one guppy continued to have worms showing out of the vent 2 weeks after treatment.
So, 2 weeks later (yesterday) I obtained Harker Verm bird wormer, which is a lot more concentrated. Much better value for money if you have a big tank but harder to measure out (I imagine) for smaller tanks). Again using the calculation I added it to achieve 4mg/litre tank concentration. That was about 20 hours ago. So far so good in that no fish have died (2 guppies, 2 endlers guppies, 3 rainbows, 1 pleco, 1 shrimp, a billion pesky unharmed snails). All fish look fine. Again the worms in the guppy that has them visibly are hanging out much further but I have not seen a single one get passed completely and they are still looking pink to me. Does this mean it is working...or is it not working?
I am in the UK and it seems to me that treatment options are limited. I think I can also get Panacur, which is a dog wormer, which has a different active, but will it kill the shrimp?
What would you all do next?
Thanks a lot in advance, Caroline
I have only been keeping tanks for about 4 months. I bought a couple of new plants and about a month later I had snails and fish started behaving oddly (swimming at surface). The ones doing this developed a red vent with tiny bristles on. The bristles were so small I did not immediately think they were worms but I have since concluded (from researching) that what I am seeing is Camallanus worms.
I obtained some Beaphar bird wormer which contains Levamisole HCl. I used the frequently referenced "Loaches" page on the subject to calculate how much I needed to bring the dose to 2mg/litre in the tank. For my 160 litre tank this was the best part of 4 bottles. I left it in for 2 days but was not convinced it worked 100 % because after this time whilst the worms were hanging out the fish a lot further, they were still hanging on in there and were still red, suggesting to me that they were still feeding on the fish. Three guppy fish had already died before adding the wormer and four guppies continued to die after the wormer was added, but as I understand it if the infestation is advanced then the fish may still die even after you start treatment. I lost a cherry shrimp a week after the treatment but could have been unrelated. Apart from the shrimp there were no further deaths since about day 2 of the Beaphar treatment, but at least one guppy continued to have worms showing out of the vent 2 weeks after treatment.
So, 2 weeks later (yesterday) I obtained Harker Verm bird wormer, which is a lot more concentrated. Much better value for money if you have a big tank but harder to measure out (I imagine) for smaller tanks). Again using the calculation I added it to achieve 4mg/litre tank concentration. That was about 20 hours ago. So far so good in that no fish have died (2 guppies, 2 endlers guppies, 3 rainbows, 1 pleco, 1 shrimp, a billion pesky unharmed snails). All fish look fine. Again the worms in the guppy that has them visibly are hanging out much further but I have not seen a single one get passed completely and they are still looking pink to me. Does this mean it is working...or is it not working?
I am in the UK and it seems to me that treatment options are limited. I think I can also get Panacur, which is a dog wormer, which has a different active, but will it kill the shrimp?
What would you all do next?
Thanks a lot in advance, Caroline
