Camallanus worms

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Pictures of the fish so we can see if they have white spot?

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Fish can live with intestinal worms for months or even years. If you feed the fish 3-5 times a day it will help the fish produce more blood and they won't suffer as badly form the worms. This will give you time to work on other problems first but we need to know what the fish have before suggesting treatments.

If the fish do have white spot, that needs to be treated first. To treat white spot in tropical fish, just raise the water temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks.
Before raising the water temperature, do a 80-90% water change and complete gravel clean. Clean the filter too. Increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels in the water.

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When treating fish for intestinal worms, they need to be treated once a week for 3-4 weeks to kill any baby worms that hatch out in the fish. Do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treating. Clean the filter too.

It's so helpful that you know so much about disease and treatment, thank you.

I found so much conflicted info about how to use the eSHa-ndx for camallanus worms when I had them. The fish (guppies) were seemingly healthy for months, then the odd one would get skinny and lethargic, and pass away. I tried general wormers and hoped they'd worked. Eventually, I spotted one fish with worms protruding, and was told camallanus, so got the eSHa-ndx. I can't remember the exact routine I followed, but I know I was advised to black out the tank with the eSHa product in it for three days, then resume daily gravel vacing before repeating treatment after two weeks. Then to add some aquarium salt after the blackout and for two weeks after to reduce the chance of bacteria infection. Was I ill-advised?

I was also so worried about potentially cross contaminating the meds to the tank with shrimp in it and used Cuprisorb in the filter after treatment. I do want to continue to have fish with shrimp, but the idea of getting any worm, let alone camallanus again with shrimp in the tank terrifies me.

 

[seangee]

eSHa-ndx is fine with shrimp at the recommended dosage. IIRC no blackout needed - just gravel vac after 24 hours and repeat treatment after 1 or 2 (can't remember) weeks.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

eSHa-ndx is fine with shrimp at the recommended dosage. IIRC no blackout needed - just gravel vac after 24 hours and repeat treatment after 1 or 2 (can't remember) weeks.

I was told that UV light renders levamisole inactive/ineffective, and to blackout the tanks, but the instuctions with the eSHa-ndx don't say anything about blacking out the tanks or even keeping tank lights off, which they surely would if that was the case. Also the instructions say dose for 24 hours then 50% water change, so the three days I was told to leave it for was excessive.

So much bad advice out there, it's really easy to go overboard, or treat the wrong things. I'm so much more careful about longer quarantine periods now, but it's good to know that if the worst happens again, I can treat the tanks with shrimp. Thank you.

 

[Essjay]

The instructions do say to turn off UV lights which some people use either in a filter which also has UV or as a separate UV steriliser.

The instructions are to add the dose then do a 50% water change 24 hours later (or a 20% change and run carbon in the filter). Repeat after 14 days, and if necessary, again after another 14 days.

eSHa gdex is a lot more complicated than ndx!