intestinal parasite? worm?

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Karlsbad

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Sep 23, 2003
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Yesterday I gave my oscar freeze dried tubiflex worms for the first time. Today he has a small white string like material protruding from what seems like his anus. It's very small, maybe 1/8" long and very thin.

He hasn't had anything like this before, but he has become a pickier eater over the last month or so, though still quite gluttonous when offered his favorite foods. He decided he didn't like Tetra freeze dried Krill at all and doesn't think much of new life spectrum, both of which he used to devour. But I attributed this to the fact that he was getting one Krill a day and he got bored with it because the first time he wouldn't eat it was the day after he first had Beefheart(which he acted like he would walk to the freezer for if he knew where it was)which he gets twice a week and the introduction of his new staple of Hikari Cichlid gold and Cichlid bio gold mini pellets which he still goes nuts for. I had been gradually replacing the New life with the Hikari. Also in this time he decided he wants to fight the catfish for his wafers.

I'm very dilligent about not feeding him for more than a couple of minutes and not leaving any food floating in the tank.

He's acting fine, but he hasn't grown in like 4 months, he's about 10 months old and only 7"-8" long and not very "tall" and he's pretty skinny despite having 4 (short)feedings a day for the last 3 months or so, so I'm wondering if he's possibly had something for quite a while.

I guess I can watch this for a day, my girlfriend thinks it could be skin, I'm more of the mind to treat it right away because of his growth situation, if this external symtpom goes away I'm not necessarily going to be convinced that he still doesn't have something.
 

Leopardess

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Aug 13, 2003
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I might try dosing him for internal parasites. Maybe try to find a food like Pepso food (medicated) since pepso is WAY too small for an oscar to eat. Meanwhile, get a jar of minced garlic and soak his food in the juice before you give it to him. Garlic is an appetite stimulant and can also help clear the intestinal tract of worms. This in combination with a medication like Jungle Internal Parasite Guard should get rid of any intestinal nasties.


As for the white thing in the fishy butt...it's awfully hard to tell. Could just be a piece of half digested tubifex.

Most of the internal worm meds aren't *too* harsh (kind of like worming a horse or dog, I suppose) and it can be so hard to tell when the disease in question is internal....

If he has it, however, there's a good chance that the other fish in the tnak have it as well, so a whole tank treatment would be required...
 

Leopardess

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It's just an Anti-Intestinal parasite medicine that you feed your fish in conjuction with treatment to get to the inside of the problem (literally). You can even use it once a week to help ward off parasites...

Id list the ingredients but there are way too many...
 

Leopardess

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Does anyone know if they make a bigger sized one? The one I have is smaller than most betta bites....
 

Karlsbad

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Sep 23, 2003
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I know I've seen internal parasite guard on some LFS/chain shelf but I went to petco, petsmart, and petland and called one LFS and none of them had either, or any medicated food at all for that matter. I did pick up Jungle Parasite clear fizzing tabs(praziquantel, N-[[(4-Chlorophenyl)amino]carbon 1]-2, 6-difluorbenzamide, metronidazole, acriflavine) cause it was only 3 bucks and I guess I'll order internal parasite guard and pepso and have this stuff on hand if he starts to look or act bad. The white string thing is gone though. Bigals only has parasite guard, not internal parasite guard and no pepso, drs foster & smith only has pepso and parasite clear, no parasite guard at all, and pets-warehouse has internal parasite guard in only the small package but they do also have pepso. Maybe tomorrow I'll call some more LFS's
 
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Karlsbad

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Sep 23, 2003
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Originally posted by Leopardess
Does anyone know if they make a bigger sized one? The one I have is smaller than most betta bites....
It doesn't look like it.
Jungle labs

It would be nice if they told you what's in their meds though, I'm wondering what the difference is between Internal Parasite Guard and Parasite Guard, maybe I should use Parasite Guard?
 

Karlsbad

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Sep 23, 2003
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Originally posted by JSchmidt
Sounds like camallanus. See the Skeptical Aquarist page that describes this condition: http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/nematodes.shtml .

HTH,
Jim
hmmm that does sound like it. That article says to use Levamisole and you need to get pH below 7.0, mine's 7.5.

Then there's this thread on ezboard which I'm not familiar with(though they do seem to have barbecues together :rolleyes:, we're such slackers) That says that DiscoMed is 'Levam', and the water that you mix the drug in to then soak food in is all that needs to have pH <= 7.0 I'm not really comfortable trying to adjust my pH with some crap anyway, though I'll do it if need be, I don't think I can safely adjust it that much except over some period of time, right? I really hate the idea of him being sick and me shocking him too.

So what's the real deal, do I use the Disco Med and soak his food in it which will definitely p**s him off? Do I just do the internal parasite guard(btw the picture of 'parasite guard', not 'internal parasite guard' on Bigals shows a bottle that says "helps clear external parasites", so that answers that)and find some food like pepso? I'm soaking some food in garlic for him right now.
 
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