Parasite?

[Sir Guppy]

Looked at one of my oldest female K-Class Endler’s Livebeares, and i found this:

Sorry about poor quality of photos, can only use phone camera.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Camallanus worms... I'm so sorry!! They're very distinctive, with looking like the bristles from a ruined, red paintbrush protruding from the vent

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

The right meds for certain health conditions can be hard to get in Canada, I know which meds in the UK would treat these (although with any sign of worms in livebearers, I'd treat for both round and flatworms, since it's entirely possible, even likely, that they have both).

But whether levamisole and flubendazole are available there, I'm not sure. Tagging @CassCats and @GaryE who are also in Canada, and I know Cass at least has had similar issues before.

I'm confident this is camallanus worms in this fish. But the eggs are easily spread between tanks, other worms also, likely, and these can be persistent unless you're ruthless in medicating every tank, cleaning and disinfecting equipment, and treating all the tanks at the same time, since spread is so likely, and it's too easy to pass the worms back and forth between tanks and keep the worm infestation going.

 

[MaloK]

Search for Discus-X products all where legally delivered to my door, WormerX, FlukeX, Bactocide1. Do I really have to verify if the company is compliant with anything. But I did a search amazon.ca before posting. And...

Use WormerX for round worms, FlukeX for flat worms and Bactocide1 for... Bacterial infection... This is professional stuff and is a little hard to dose... But it's really effective.

Also there are Fritz Aquatics Metrocleanse and Paracleanse you can check out, That will take good care of internal and external parasites. and was delivered with no problems.

 

[CassCats]

I can link you to some fenbendozole in Canada, it's effective for camallanus in most cases. Levamisole is better, but not easy to find here.

But I know where to buy fenbendozole

 

[Sir Guppy]

Thanks! I just noticed this parasite in my favourite Endler.
The thing is the first female of these fish and is probably the mother of over half my tank.
We call her “The Queen”.
She is old however, so even if she survives this she won’t last long.

edited for grammar

 

[fishorama]

Can you get flubenazole in Canada? I used to know. It doesn't have to be ingested (eaten) to be effective, unlike fenbenazole. (similar names are confusing).

Good luck, camallanus worms are very difficult to treat

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Thanks! I just noticed this parasite in my favourite Endler.
The thing is the first female of these fish and is probably the mother of over half my tank.
We call her “The Queen”.
She is old however, so even if she survives this she won’t last long.

edited for grammar

It's not just a problem in her though. If she has them, they all have them. The protruding worms drop eggs that the other fish eat, grow their own worm burden. Many can survive for months, even years while carrying worms, but not always, and fish suffering from the lack of nutrients and internal damage caused by the worms will become skinny and listless, waste away and die.

I found that it hit my guppy fry hardest at about 2 months old, and I was losing a ton of fish in that age range. Newborns hadn't picked up worms yet, the older ones had, and didn't have the body condition or strength to handle it the way the adult fish initially could.

This isn't just one guppy that needs treatment. It's every tank you have.

 

[Colin_T]

Camallanus thread worms. Get some Levamisole or Flubendazole.

Section 3 of the following link tells you how to treat them. Make sure you do all your tanks at the same time so you don't cross contaminate them.

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

 

[MaloK]

DiscusX WormerX is Levamisole Hydrochloride: 1 gram treats 132 gallons of water.

It's the part that makes it difficult to dose in small aquarium, you really need a precision digital scale.

 

[Sir Guppy]

After some complications I have managed to get ahold of some fenbendazole.
3 1-gram packets. Fenbendazole Granules 22.2% (222 mg/g)
Assuming this is something that can kill Camallanus worms, how would I do that with this?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Mixing it into food is supposed to be the best delivery method - repashy foods are good for that. Could mix it in with repashy gel and coat an item of driftwood/stone/whatever with it, with the meds mixed in. Fish go nuts for the repashy foods anyway, so you'll know they've all eaten it, and the food will be stable in the tank without breaking down too fast and risking an ammonia spike or anything.

Watched a good Rachel O'Leary video about that once, and I do this with the soilent green for my ancistrus and plecos, but all the other tanks and fish get it and enjoy it too.

 

[Sir Guppy]

Thank you!
Though I was wondering-
Am I supposed to use a specific dosage, or does it not much matter?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Thank you!
Though I was wondering-
Am I supposed to use a specific dosage, or does it not much matter?

I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that, and was wondering that too!

Fortunately, I do know someone here who has an amazing aquatic veterinary book... @Seisage , hi! Hope you don't mind the tagging and request for some guidance?

 

[Seisage]

Please look at your product's dosing instructions first, but one recommended dosage of fenbendazole for use in food is 2.5mg per gram of feed. Feed the medicated food for 2-3 days, then repeat that feeding regimen again in 14 days. So what you would do is get or prepare the amount of food that these fish typically eat in 2-3 days, weigh that, then mix in the appropriate amount of medication. A gel food would be easiest. Ideally, you want to prepare only the amount of food that is normally eaten in the given time frame, to avoid waste and to ensure appropriate dosage.

You will also want to take into account any additives in the medication. The dosage listed above is assuming 100% fenbendazole is being used. If your product contains other additives and you still follow dosing that assumes 100% medication concentration, then you will end up dosing less medication than you intended and may not see results. Because of this, I also recommend reading any instructions and dosing guidelines that come with the product you've purchased. You can compare them to the dosage rate above, if the product provides instructions for dosing in the feed.

You may have to do some additional calculations to ensure proper dosage if your product is not pure fenbendazole. If the product has other ingredients and does not list the concentration of each ingredient (on the package or online), then you should default to the package instructions because in that case, you won't be able to accurately calculate an appropriate dosage yourself.

Edit: I just saw that your fenbendazole granules are listed as being 22.2% fenbendazole, so take that percentage into account when you calculate dosage. For example, if you were to prepare 50g of medicated food according to the dosage listed above, you would need 125mg of 100% fenbendazole. But because your meds are only 22.2%, you would need 563mg of your granules to get 125mg of fenbendazole. I recommend getting an accurate scale if you want to use this method of dosing! If you can get a jeweler's scale, those are best because they're meant to measure small amounts of weight with accuracy.

As always, please compare this with your product's instructions! The dosing I'm using here is just one recommended dosage out of a handful, and it is out-of-context for this particular product and these particular fish (most fenbendazole dosing recommendations are actually for food fish like trout and catfish). I'm not a vet, so I can't guarantee that this dosage is the most appropriate for your specific fish. We typically have to be the ones to play vet for our own fish, and that comes with a certain amount of unavoidable risk.