disease info? Experience PLEASE

FishyMatty

FishyMatty

FishKiller
Jan 30, 2007
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Milford,CT
I think something brought a disease into my three tanks. It could have been one tank then I transfered it or some plants I got were infected so it ended up in all three tanks.
Recently I noticed two of my juvenile Discus were hiding a lot and not really eating. Today one of my apistos was drunk swimming and I noticed he had tiny red worms hanging out of his anus. I removed him and started treating him in a bucket. He died after a few hours.
I have an order of prazipro coming tomorrow and it will probably be a few days till the Metronidazole gets here.
While reading this 12 page fact sheet about fish diseases
http://www.simplydiscus.com/library...cine_cabinet/freshwater_parasites_intro.shtml
I came across something about gill flukes, I never noticed anything visible but I've had a problem for a while with some of my fish breathing heavy but with all the aeration possible it was always the same, before and after water changes and so on.
But this is a possible sign of gill flukes as well as only using one gill. I noticed this on one discus, But not one that isn't eating.
Also one of the two that are hiding and not eating I noticed white poo.

Question.
Will these two medications do the trick?
Should I treat all my tanks just in case?
Can I use at the same time?
Which should I use first?
 
Sounds more bacterial than parasitic to me except for the "worms" with the apisto. Could it have been bloody tissue? That would be the case with bacterial infection. Tissue gets broken down rather quickly.

I'd use Pimafix and Melafix together in this case.
 
no I could actually see the worms moving and when he died I pulled them out with tweezers.
I have melafix and I put it in along with salt and raised the temp. To hold them over until tomorrow when I get the meds.
 
I have a uv sterilizer but that only kills certain free floating single celled parasites. I think
 
the red worms are camallanus worms (do a search on the forum on this) and the only really effective drug for these guys is called levamisole.


the white poo is likely a sign of hexamita, which your metronodizole will do the trick, although be warned it is not always so easy to treat. Metro is the drug of choice, but it is still a very difficult disease to treat.

hexamita is also known as "hole in the head".

Personally, I would euthanize the apisto with the camallanus.

Camallanus is notoriously difficult to treat and can be spread quickly in an aqarium.

I don't take chances when I see a new fish with one of these.

but thats me..

I can't get levamisole in my area, and I have tried every other dewormer out there (eg. piperazine).

there are some good threads on camallanus on this forum that can be of help.

good luck!
 
Yea I read a huge scientific article about that disease and its treatment and I did put my aggie down, he was going to die anyway. I need to know if any of my other fish are infected. How do I know if I there are any other sick fish? I'm going to treat with metro and prazipro and see where that gets me.
Does anybody know if those meds can be used together or one at a time and which one to use first?
 
I would not mix the two meds.

you can treat them one at a time, but give the bacteria in your filter a week to recover from the stress in between and run a carbon in the tank for a few days to take out the first med you use first.

the problem with camallanus that makes it so evil is it is very difficult to tell if the fish is infected or not.

often, infected fish do not shows signs of infection (clamped fins, hiding) until the female worm is visible out the anus.

by this point, though, the fish may have been infected for up to 6 months.

thats why quarentining is not practical against this parasite - it can remain hidden inside the infected fish for months before it is visible.

the worm that you see is the female worm releasing live larvae into the tank.

When I have had it in new fish in the past, I have got the infected fish out ASAP and been lucky - no one got the parasite.

but the first time I ever had it, I didn't remove the fish and tried to treat it..next thing I know 3 months later I had the worm in 3 different tanks in my fishroom...

thus, you know why I don't take a chance with this one.

get the infected ifsh away from your other fish ASAP in my opinion, or at least into a quarentine tank where you can try and treat.

Metro will not be effective against camallanus, but may help with the white feces - the hexamita.

but the Prazi may work on the camallanus.

you might want to treat with the prazi first (since it is crucial to stop spread of the worms) and then do the metro later on.

hexamita is generally a slow progressing disease, so I would concentrate on preventing the possible spread of the worms first.
 
Thanks. Man I've spent all day reading about this diease and how to treat it. Like I said I removed the apisto right away and he died shortly after. I bumped up the temp too. This all started with two of my baby discus hiding a lot and then not eating.
Do you suggest I remove the discus and treat in a hospital tank or treat the whole tank bc it could be free swimming or in other fish?
Are either meds bad for plants, shrimp, snails or bio filter???
 
Well I got the prazi today but while observing my other tanks I noticed my 38g has at least 8 fish with camallanus worms. I am going to try to get that one medication but if I am unable to find it is my only option to let all the fish live until they die of it or remove them and kill them just so I can wait to see that a month or more down the line more fish have it and they will die. I can never get any new fish. How long does that disease last with out a host?
 
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