Lupin
Registered Member
- Sep 21, 2006
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- Paul
Camallanus cotti and Camallanus lacustris
Symptoms:
Red worms protruding on the fish's anus, inflammation in the vent area, whitish slimy feces
Causes:
Camallanus worms can be found protruding out of the fish's anus. They are actually transparent but gained the reddish tint which is actually their victims' blood. Female camallanus worms are over a centimeter in length whereas males are about a third fraction of the females' size.
According to The Skeptical Artist website, most species of Camallanus and its close kin shed eggs, and their life cycle needs an intermediate host, often a copepod or perhaps a cladoceran (such as daphnia); their reproduction gets disrupted in the aquarium, though copepods are everywhere, especially in planted tanks. But C. cotti and the less-common C. lacustris are viviparous: their larvae develop within the adult female worm who sheds them into the water; several successive generations can infect aquarium fish.
The young worms are as likely to be eaten by a copepod as by another fish, but either way they get passed to the next fish host. In the severest cases maybe the best thing you can do is net out the sufferer, gently euthanise it, and concentrate on the other fishes that are infested but not so far gone. Don't try to net the fish and pull off the worms with a tweezer; they are deeply embedded and you'll just tear the intestine wall. Parasitic nematodes weaken the host; what kills it usually are secondary infections.
In retrospect, you may realize that the victim had been showing some inflammation in the vent area and might have been passing whitish, mucusy feces. Too often we let symptoms like these pass unnoticed.
In the wild most fish harbor some parasitic nematodes. Fish populations are diffuse enough that the chances of a nematode egg being successfully transfered are low, and besides, a healthy fish can usually live with the normal range of its familiar co-evolved parasites, just as many humans harbor Giardia without suffering significant ill effects. However, when fish are caught and transported to exporters, then flown from wholesaler to wholesaler, shipped to retailers and at last to hobbyists, they have been put through enormous stresses. To a fish with stress-impaired resistance, even a modestly benign and familiar parasite may become serious. How much more lethal, then, is an alien parasite that has not had time to "learn" not to damage its host.
Camallanus cotti was first described in Japan in 1927, but has been distributed throughout the world, largely from the fish farms of Singapore and Malaysia, especially after 1980.
Treatment:
Levamisole hydrochloride (effective as anti-worming agent), fenbendazole, fresh garlic extracts
Notice the worms protruding on the fish's anus.
Symptoms:
Red worms protruding on the fish's anus, inflammation in the vent area, whitish slimy feces
Causes:
Camallanus worms can be found protruding out of the fish's anus. They are actually transparent but gained the reddish tint which is actually their victims' blood. Female camallanus worms are over a centimeter in length whereas males are about a third fraction of the females' size.
According to The Skeptical Artist website, most species of Camallanus and its close kin shed eggs, and their life cycle needs an intermediate host, often a copepod or perhaps a cladoceran (such as daphnia); their reproduction gets disrupted in the aquarium, though copepods are everywhere, especially in planted tanks. But C. cotti and the less-common C. lacustris are viviparous: their larvae develop within the adult female worm who sheds them into the water; several successive generations can infect aquarium fish.
The young worms are as likely to be eaten by a copepod as by another fish, but either way they get passed to the next fish host. In the severest cases maybe the best thing you can do is net out the sufferer, gently euthanise it, and concentrate on the other fishes that are infested but not so far gone. Don't try to net the fish and pull off the worms with a tweezer; they are deeply embedded and you'll just tear the intestine wall. Parasitic nematodes weaken the host; what kills it usually are secondary infections.
In retrospect, you may realize that the victim had been showing some inflammation in the vent area and might have been passing whitish, mucusy feces. Too often we let symptoms like these pass unnoticed.
In the wild most fish harbor some parasitic nematodes. Fish populations are diffuse enough that the chances of a nematode egg being successfully transfered are low, and besides, a healthy fish can usually live with the normal range of its familiar co-evolved parasites, just as many humans harbor Giardia without suffering significant ill effects. However, when fish are caught and transported to exporters, then flown from wholesaler to wholesaler, shipped to retailers and at last to hobbyists, they have been put through enormous stresses. To a fish with stress-impaired resistance, even a modestly benign and familiar parasite may become serious. How much more lethal, then, is an alien parasite that has not had time to "learn" not to damage its host.
Camallanus cotti was first described in Japan in 1927, but has been distributed throughout the world, largely from the fish farms of Singapore and Malaysia, especially after 1980.
Treatment:
Levamisole hydrochloride (effective as anti-worming agent), fenbendazole, fresh garlic extracts
Notice the worms protruding on the fish's anus.
. Slightly overdosed with 5g into 72g tank (he said 5g should treat 88g). According to him, I should see results in two days. (Crosses fingers)
