Diary of my battle Camallanus in Canada

I sent you a PM about a medicated fish food made by Jungle that contains Levamisole. Its the only medicated food out there to my knowledge which contains the drug.

the question is does it contain the drug in enough of a concentration to get an effective dosage...

but its worth a shot..

I hate camallanus..and yes, it is becoming more and more common out there..just look for it and its out there, seems to be common in south american cichlids lately..I have seen a few geophagus and discus as of late in store tanks with this unmistakable parasite... :(
 
I sent you a PM about a medicated fish food made by Jungle that contains Levamisole. Its the only medicated food out there to my knowledge which contains the drug.

the question is does it contain the drug in enough of a concentration to get an effective dosage...

but its worth a shot..

I hate camallanus..and yes, it is becoming more and more common out there..just look for it and its out there, seems to be common in south american cichlids lately..I have seen a few geophagus and discus as of late in store tanks with this unmistakable parasite... :(

I had an incident with camallanus last year, and it was started by either a S. jurupari or a red hump eartheater. I used the levamisole (although not in the food), and eventually it worked. My fish refused the Jungle pellets, but I'm convinced it doesn't contain enough of the drug. FL Guppies PLus has a flake food with albendazole, but I don't know its effectiveness.
 
Keep an eye out for secondary infections. Camallanus attaches to the intestines then moves to a new spot, leaving wounds bacteria can infect.

You may want to feed peas or daphnia to help clean out any detached worms, sometimes they have problems passing them. Good luck.
 
good call fishorama

one problem is levamisole kills the worm and it may not flush from the digestive tract.. they will then decay in the inestings casuging a serious infection( I lost a beautiful male angel this way)

using dahnia or peas to help flush is a good preventative measure.
 
update

Hi All,

Time for an update.

My Farm de-wormer did seem to slow things down - but it did not clean it up.
The ram was eating during this treatment.

On advice of someone I do trust (even though he is a LFS employee - I found one of the good ones) I tried "General Cure" - I thought that something called "general' would never have any impact - but I was running out of options.

I dosed the tank - after a large water change and waited....watched....waited.... watched.... No one seemed to be too upset by the treatment.

The next morning everyone seemed fine - but I noticed that the Ram was not too interested in food. Same problem in the afternoon....and evening. He just stopped eating. Worms were still visable although they were pale instead of bright red. I think the treatment killed the worms, but the Ram was too weak or too damaged internally to pass them.

General Cure says to dose one day - then wait a day - then dose again.
The second dose came last night. The Ram had very dark coloring - not normal at all. Then when I checked on them this morning the Ram was gone.
On a brighter note - all three little Angels should now be fully 'wormed'. I figure 6 to 8 months and I will give them a clean bill of health and maybe let them in with my other fish - but not for some time. It is only 3 little Angels in a 30 Gal tall - so they should be good for a little while anyway. I have just heard storys of these worms laying dormant for months and then suddenly appearing. As long as they stay in their own tank - if I comes back at least it is contained.

No sign of any problems in my other tanks - so far. Even though I use a QT I got lazy one week and used the same python end on the QT as the rest of my tanks. I try to keep the QT equipment totally separate. Now I have a complete python for the QT - and everything else I need for the tank - all totally separate from the rest of my equipment.

I guess this was just another lesson learned. Of course there is always a 'silver lining' if you look hard enough - now when I want new fish I will just cycle the filter on one of my existing tanks, move over some substrate and fully stock the tank. That way they are QT'ed together and I can deal with any issues contained.
 
good news - very happy for you and thanks for the thread which is very informative and will no doubt help someone else who is put in a similar position.
 
Sorry to hear about the loss of your ram but glad to hear that the treatment seems to be working. Keep us posted with updates as this is a very informative thread.
 
I would just like to say thank you to everyone who has helped me along the way - from not knowing anything about 'cycling' or anything else. I have come a long way - but it is with the support and advice of great folks like you.

I just hope that perhaps I can save someone else from the worry, grief, etc. that I went through. I know that they are 'only fish' but they mean a lot to me - all creatures do - but that is just me.

Hopefully the Angels will have a long and healthy life - they are quite the characters already. They watch TV and my dogs if they come near the tank. Very inquisitive and fun. Since there were 3 of them and are always together they have been named:
Bippity, Boppity, and Boo - it just seemed to fit them.

Thanks everyone for all of the support and advice. It is really appreaciated.
 
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