Something Is Wrong With My Female Platy...?

[fry_forever!]

Hey guys. My fish had these dumb worms living in their bodies for months, & they stopped having fry. So, I treated them with some anti-parasitical medicated food, ( <a href="http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...fm?pcatid=12788" target="_blank">http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...fm?pcatid=12788</a> ) and almost all of them got better. (except for the ones that were old & couldn't heal anymore.) There was one platy in particular that did MUCH better. She got plump, and had her first batch of fry a month later. But, right after she had her fry, she started going downhill again. She started clamping her fins when she wasn't swimming, and excreted these white & clear poop/worms. I also saw these red worms poking out of her rear end from time-to-time. I know these are camallanus worms, so I used that anti-parasite medicated food again, but she just got worse & worse. Even though she was ready to have another batch of fry again, all of a sudden, she just got really skinny, like she just dropped, but there were no fry found in the tank. (And I have TONS of hiding places.)

This is what she looks like now:
(Before she got skinny all of a sudden)
103E3014.jpg (1.0 MB)
(After she got skinny)
103E3087.jpg (1.1 MB) (One on the right.)
103_3088.jpg (1.2 MB)
The MALE is bigger than her.

So, does anybody know what is causing this? What should I treat her for? I've tried several external & internal anti-parasite medications, and while it seems to make most of my fish better, she only gets worse.
And, the worst part is, I don't have anywhere to put her at the moment, because I'm waiting to get that 55 gallon. So, all my other fish are free to get what she has.

Also, another peculiar thing I noticed: It always looks like she has the birthing tube sticking out, but she never had fry. (I always find fry if there are some born in that tank, because it is heavily covered.)

Thanks in advance for any help. PLEASE answer!

 

[fry_forever!]

It looks like she's not eating anymore. I watched her for a couple minutes, and she didn't show any interest in the food. Maybe that answers my question....
I just hope she doesn't infect the whole tank....

 

[EricaInPurple]

It's definitely Camallanus worms.... My mother's 55 gl is currently infested with them and she accidently spread it to my two tanks by borrowing my net. From what out LFS and internet research has told us they are extremely hard to get rid of, we live in Canada and we can't even get the worming medication (that actually works) here.

Anyway once you've seen the red worm sticking out of your fish, the whole tank is infested as this is the female and what she is doing is releasing eggs and larvae into your tank. If you see one fish with it, assume that all your fish have it. We're trying out a bunch of anti-parasite medication to see what works since if we can't get rid of the worms the tanks are all going to die off anyway. It's horrible!!! I've even noticed some of my 2 month old molly fry with signs of the worms and have had to euthanize about 5 of them already because they kept getting skinnier and were obviously not doing well. The bigger fish seem to be able to handle it for a longer period of time but will keep getting thinner and thinner until they die. Also it seems to affect our livebearers, the platies and mollies, much quicker than it does the large fish.

My advice is do some research on the internet on Camallanus (an alternative spelling is Callamanus) and see if you can get any of the recommended wormers in your area, otherwise you can pretty much write off your tank. I also wouldn't remove or add anymore fish has you're either going to spread the worms to another tank or sentence new fish to a horrible, wormy death.

 

[fry_forever!]

Thank you very much. I have done a lot of research about these worms already, so I know the damage they can cause. I live in Canada as well, so I got someone who was visiting the States to pick up some medicated anti-parasite food from Petsmart.
It worked for most of my fish, but it didn't help that platy at all, so I unfortunately had to euthanize her.
The rest of the fish are fine though.
Thanks!