Guppy And Worms

[omega59]

Hello.

My male guppy who i received from my local shop 2 months ago, has developed internal worms. The last few days I have noticed he was swimming sluggish and this morning he was sitting on the sand. I placed him into a breeder box for isolation and no one to bug him and shut the lights out. Arriving back home from work he died. I noticed he had tiny red thread like things sticking from his bum, So i will presume he had worms of sort. My question is, now that he was removed from the tank should i worry about the remainder healthy fish. i have raised 4 of my females and they are doing so well, I have their fry currently in a net growing as well in this very same tank. I do a water change once every 2 weeks or so, feed them twice a day morning and night. This is a 10 gallon aquarium with fry, 2 female guppy, 1 female platy, 1 male guppy, some tiny snails for cleanup. It's been running since the summer or so. Thanks!

 

[AstonN24vantage]

any parameters?

 

[omega59]

yes.

ammonia 0
nitrate 0.25
nitrite 0
ph 7.6 or so

 

[AstonN24vantage]

.25 nitrate seems extremely low, especially if you are feeding twice a day.

 

[omega59]

Yup okay so back to my question. Is there any concern of my healthy fish to get these worms as now and what can i do about it, keep in mind this is the only tank that i have now and there are fry in there too.

 

[AstonN24vantage]

im not sure, but i would watch them carefully. im sure somebody will come by to give more info, but i reckon that the low nitrates have something to do with the worms.

 

[omega59]

I though water stats should be low as it's a sign of a cycled healthy tank. What do you mean 0.25 nitrate is low makes no sense to me.

 

[AstonN24vantage]

well nitrate is safe up to about 40ppm, and .25 seems very low. i just did a water change and my nitrate is about 15ppm. true, low nitrates are a sign of a healthy cycled tank, but yours just seem awkwardly low. idk if its a problem though.

 

[omega59]

I don't believe this is the problem. I am just wondering about these worms and current fish... someone else respond please.

 

[Curiosity101]

Red worms could well be callamanus worms. Callamanus are infectious so you will need to treat the whole tank with a suitable med. Are you UK or USA based? If you're in the UK sterazin should clear them.

Aston advantage is right to mention your nitrates though. For one thing I can't think of a single nitrate test with is even as accurated as being able to test for 0.25ppm. So it definitely seems suspicious. Any chance you could test again? What kit are you using?

 

[omega59]

I use API one I am in Canada. Will the mess harm the fry and filter media? Sorry it's the nitrite I read wrong.

 

[Curiosity101]

Well API doesn't go down to .25ppm for nitrates. Are you sure you aren't confusing it with the test for nitrItes? That one goes down to 0.25...
It wont have caused the death if you saw red worms sticking out of the guppy. But it's worth adressing as it is a problem if you have nitrites in the water.

The meds are perfectly safe with regards to the filter, and I couldn't see it causing any harm to fry. Do you have waterlife in canada? If not I could try to find a diff med? Or you could just google 'Callamanus worms treatment' or 'Callamanus worms medication'.

Edit: Just saw your edited post, fair enough. Well just keep an eye on it to make sure it goes back down to 0. Although it does raise another question... 0 nitrates? It's easy enough to get a false result for nitrates with API, you have to make sure you shake the bottles really really well and follow the instructions exactly. May be worth re-testing just to be sure.

 

[Curiosity101]

Sorry just noticed I've been saying callamanus. Sleepy brain must've kicked in already. It's Camallanus I think, although alot of people refer to it as Callamanus, and also some people spell it with only one L.

Thought it was worth mentioning for when you're looking up treatments.

Good luck with it all, hopefully you've caught it early enough to avoid anymore deaths.

 

[omega59]

I will re test tomorrow it is late now to mess with the tank lol, I believe the guppy I got and had for three months was not healthy to start with. He was in a tank with two other dead fish but he seamed healthy going about. Perhaps with time his true illness showed which was the worms. For another note, is it normal for platy scales to appear shedding. I know what dropsy is and it's not the case. She is a tuxedo platy very dark so I'm wondering if it's normal as they could be loosing the colour as they are painted fish.

 

[Curiosity101]

Tuxedo platys aren't painted. They were line bred to give the 'tuxedo' pattern.

Is she being hassled by any fish, most likely a male platy? They tend to nip at the undersides of females, sometimes dislodging a few scales.

But no, shedding of scales generally isn't normaly.