Callamanus worms

As mentioned the water changes and carbon should remove all of the med. Feeding daphnia and offering peas also good to help expel the dead ones. It certainly sounds as if you did everything correctly, so my only guess is that you had a massive infestation of these worms and they are especially terrible on small fish. Sucks!

As far as the stringy white poop - that can be a symptom of stress and also a symptom of the worms as well. At your fish's weakened state, I would be very hesitant to medicate them until they are healthy/eating well. It is also a strong possibility they have bloat like symptoms from the dead worms inside as well.

The fish can go quite awhile without eating, but you must do what you can to help them pass any dead worms. The suggestions you rec'd here are good ones - but if they are not eating there is not much that can be done other than Epsom Salt. I would certainly get Dr. Harrison's opinion on this before undertaking that.

For the record my fish ate a little within a few hours of treatment and continued to do so while under treatment. After the 90% WC their appetites were completely back to normal.

I would definitely not bypass the second treatment in 3 weeks no matter what happens.

I would just do exactly as Mr. Harrison recommends to the letter. Afterall, he is more qualified than most when it comes to these worms. Please keep us updated and also let us know what Mr. Harrison suggested.


boxercrazy said:
I told him the size of the tank and he sent me pkts of 5g each. Put 1 pkt in on Sat around noon. By the eve I had lost all the tetras, sun all of the cories were gone along with the plecs.
Didn`t think to cut open the dead ones.
No other meds were in the tank
I noticed red spikes hanging out of the anus of 1 black angel last week, didnt see any on other fish.
The gouramis are hanging at the top, angels are at the bottom back of tank, rams are black and havent moved from the bottom of the tank. No one has eaten or even acted like they are hungry. How long can they go? a week?
Not feeling very hopeful about these guys.
Click to expand...

boxercrazy said:
Mr. Harrison is a very nice guy. I have kept in touch with him and he has responded with suggestions also.
After your 1st dose, how long till they ate? I have done 1 water change and will do another tomorrow.
It seems now a couple of the rams has white stringy poo. Should I treat with a different med? I can put them into my 10g qt tank. Don`t really want to dose the 90g again.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
I just looked up my old notes, and it says 5g per 80 gallons for levimisole- so the dose was spot on. Also, levimisole is very very gentle. I didn't notice ANY adverse effects on my fish.

If the fish won't eat, be careful feeding them and remove any uneaten food right away. You want to keep your water quality as good as possible to help the fish recover.
 
Hmmm?

My fish ate the day after the water change, after the first dosing. Again, try a second water change. Even if only a partial water change. I keep remembering the dosing 5mg, per 100 gallons, but I don't have the directions in front of me. Medicating as a precautionary measure might be a good idea. My worms showed up out of nowhere. I hadn't bought any new fish for a while, and had been feeding live, wild caught foods for some time(several months). The jungle foods didn't work. I tried the flakes, and the tablets, with no effect. I dosed my cherry barbs in a 20H with no gravel, few decorations, with a fully mature bio-filter, right after a 100% water change, and I lost all my cherry barbs. I can't see what I did wrong. All the parameters were fine, heat was fine, no stress, no problems. I don't know. Try the water change, and I hope you have no more problems with it. With any medication there is risk. Keep us posted.
 
Thats whats so frustrating about my case. All I see is good replies about the treatment. My tetras were very colorful and ate well as did all of my fish. My tank parameters were spot on and always are. Frustrating, just frustrating.
Did a water change today, still no interest in eating.
 
Any one have any idea whether or not Paraguard works on these things? I've been using it as a prophylactic dip on new fish but now I'm thinkin' maybe Mr. Harrison's meds are a better way to go. I feed black worms quite frequently but no other live foods.

Where do you think you got them in the first place?
 
Paraguard is useless for Camallanus. The following can be used in order of preference for Nematodes:

1) Levamasole
2) Fenbendazole
3) Flubendazole
4) Paracide-D with De-Los combo. (Fish dealer I talk with has used this with success).
5) Piperazine

There are probably more, but these are the 'Go To' meds that I'm aware of.

No reason to pre-treat for these worms IMO unless there is a very good reason to i.e. wild caught discus, unreliable source, etc.

foolishfish said:
Any one have any idea whether or not Paraguard works on these things? I've been using it as a prophylactic dip on new fish but now I'm thinkin' maybe Mr. Harrison's meds are a better way to go. I feed black worms quite frequently but no other live foods.

Where do you think you got them in the first place?
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
boxercrazy said:
Well, I have lost every fish in the tank. Not sure if the blockage got them or the fact that no one ate since the treatment.
Click to expand...

Did you ask Dr. Harrison about the Epsom salt or try it?

Did you take a razor blade or scalpel and cut a fish or two open in order to see if the fish were impacted with dead worms? If not I guess we'll never know for sure.

http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/CamallanusTreatment/experience.html

To quote Dr. Harrison, "The dead worms in the gut of the fish are the greatest cause of loss of fish after treatment. I am watching a young man now in CA with a Cichlid tank struggling with this. The Nematodes are dead but the fish are really having a hard time of it. Their guts are full of dead clinging things and they are rotting inside the fish. Bacteria, septicemia, gas bloating - all the nastiest one can think of. Feeding the fish lots of live foods will generally move the stuff through the gut. Newly hatched brine shrimp is my best remedy for these small fishes."

"[FONT=Helvetica, Geneva, Arial, SunSans-Regular, sans-serif]The Camallanus Nematode is a really vicious parasite! I have had request after request for help and have been able to save a lot of fish, but the parasite grows so fast and multiplies so fast that it kills the fish before the aquarists has the opportunity to do anything.[/FONT] [FONT=Helvetica, Geneva, Arial, SunSans-Regular, sans-serif]Normally, neither the plants or fish are affected by the medication. The death of the worms however can kill the fish. So very often the water changes do in the fish as well."[/FONT]


[FONT=Helvetica, Geneva, Arial, SunSans-Regular, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
 
what the heck does he mean by:
"so very often the waterchanges do in the fish as well"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom