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Thread: Camallanus Worms Again!!!

  1. #1
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    Camallanus Worms Again!!!

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    Hi, fellas,

    For a long time, I've been battling Camallanus Worms in my tanks. Frankly, I feel like giving up

    I discovered this afternoon that almost all the Simp magnificus in my cube tank have been infected also. I've cured many fish of the worms but it can be damn tiring doing it over and over again. The thing that puzzles me is I haven't been feeding tubifex or bloodworms to the Simp magnificus. They are fed with baby brine shrimp only. Inspite of that, they were infected which could only mean the worms somehow or other got into the tank, either through plants or their eggs were hibernating in the gravel.

    I thought about tearing down the tank and disinfecting it with bleach but it would be such a pity as the plants are growing well. If you have any good ideas or know something about how to kill off all the worms, I would appreciate it very much if you share your experiences with me.

    Just the other day, I cured a Fundulopanchax gardneri of the worms. I transferred the fish into a hospital tank and dose it with Levamisole. I have to say the medicine works like a charm. In a matter of a few hours, I saw a few Camallanus worms at the bottom of the tank. Here's a picture:



    I also took a picture of the worm, up close and personal.



    The worm has become my greatest enemy. It's so tiring to see my fish get infected over and over again.

    Loh K L

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    Dear Mr Loh,
    May I know if Levamisole is available in local fish shop. Although I just started to keep killies, I would like to keep all the medication ready just in case of the same disaster hit me.

    Thank

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    Mr Loh,

    I suggest you deworm all your tanks & repeat a few more times over the weeks before you can rid all the c. worms. If they are in your planted tank, it will be very difficult. Not sure if the plants can take such treatment. I've successfully rid the gardneri of c. worms & it never happen again. It's in a bare tank though. Good luck!

    Sounds like SARS!


    Gan.

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    Gan,

    If mine had been bare tanks, it would be an easy matter to get rid of the Camallanus worms. But I have substrate in all my tanks and some are heavily planted. I can't dose the medication into such tanks as it would kill off all my plants.

    Poh San,

    Levamisole cannot be bought from the fish shops. Neither can you get it from a pharmacy. As far as I know, it's a controlled drug which means, in this case, you need a vet's prescription before you are allowed to buy it. I got the medication from someone who's in the forum but he asked me not to disclose his identity when he gave the medication to me. So I'm afraid I can't tell you who he is.

    But should your fish get infected with Camallanus worms, you can always give me a call and I will give you some Levamisole. I can't give you any now because I have only a little left.

    Loh K L

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    Hi there Mr Loh,

    was just wondering....what are the symptoms for these worms ?

    Thanks.
    Mervin

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    Quote Originally Posted by mervin
    what are the symptoms for these worms ?
    Mervin,

    In the early stages, it's hard to tell but sometimes, infected fish have sunken bellies. In advanced stages, the worms can be clearly seen protuding from the anus of the fish. My eyesight is bad so usually by the time I discover the worms, it's always in the advanced stages of infection.

    I checked my fish manual and it doesn't say anything about the worms reproducing themselves by laying eggs. According to the book, the Camallanus usually come with Tubifex worms and after they are eaten by the fish, they will grow and release juvenile worms through the fish faeces. Other fish get infected when they eat the faeces or if they eat dead infected fish.

    Here's a picture of how a Camallanus looks like when it's sticking out from a fish anus.



    Prevention is better than cure so if the worms scare you, don't feed Tubifex. But frankly, I have more problems with the worms than others because I keep my killies in tanks with substrate. In bare tanks, it's actually quite easy to eradicate the worms completely. Just bleach everything. Sia Meng and Lily Choo once encountered the Camallanus in their tanks too but now, they no longer have this problem.

    Having said all that, I would encourage everyone to take up Ronnie's offer of free Grindal worm starter cultures. They are a good alternative to live Tubifex.

    Loh K L

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    Thanks there Loh.

    Those slimy fellas are really nasty !!!

    I have a problem with one of my fishes......its anus seem to be proturding and it is red in colour.
    Don't know if it is these worms or something else......

    Fish seem to be very healthy....eating, flaring and swimming about.
    So I'm not sure if it is really sick or not.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mervin
    I have a problem with one of my fishes......its anus seem to be proturding and it is red in colour.
    Don't know if it is these worms or something else......
    Uh oh, that's another symptom of Camallanus worms. Take a closer look and see if you can spot anything protuding from the anus. Usually, it's easier to see the worms in females than in males.

    What fish do you have, Mervin? Where did you get them? I know you didn't get them from me but you could have got the fish from someone whose tanks are infected.

    Loh K L

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    It is a Apistogramma which I bought about 2 weeks ago.
    Didn't see it till it was in my tank.

    So how do i go about this ??? Deworming medication ?

    Have been treating the fish with HueyHung H6 for the past 4 days and hoping that will work.....

    Lastly, are Camallanus worms the same as tape worms ???

    thanks,
    Mervin

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    Mervin, you have to be sure it's a worm infection before you deworm the fish. The only way to be sure is to see the worms sticking out from their anus. I suppose they don't call the worm "Camallanus" for nothing. The last 4 letters of the name should tell you something.

    As for whether they are the same with tape worms, I don't know the answer to that. I've been battling the Camallanus for so long I really don't care what worm it is as long as it's a dead worm

    Loh K L

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    Hi folks,
    I know I am late on this subject.... But there is a good article written by Charles Harrison on camallanus worms on his site at www.inkmkr.com/Fish/.
    I,too, lost fish from those creepy crawlers! When I came across that article I was tickled, with having farm animals we have wormer on hand for them,so it was handy to just use a big old cattle pill!
    Deb Bear
    AKA#08746
    SAA#175

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    Quote Originally Posted by Debbbear
    I know I am late on this subject....
    Welcome back, Deb. It's good to see you around again :wink:

    Does your big old cattle pill work for fish too? I read Charles' page about the Camallanus worms and it seems like they spread like wildfire through the tanks once they get into one tank. Hmm, I have to be more careful about using the same nets and transferring the plants from one tank to another from now on.

    Loh K L

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    Loh K L,
    It is good to be back!! Changing internet servers was a mess. We changed to characterlink so the children can go on line without us parents always looking over their shoulders.Characterlink had to add this site to their okay list before it could be access.It passed much to my delight!
    Yes,It was levasole. I treated all tanks,for sometimes I am not careful. I haven't seen any worms for a good 7 months.
    Now,I am wondering if it would be a good thing to worm all fish once a year,especially after the summer months when they have been fed wild caught insects?
    Deb Bear
    AKA#08746
    SAA#175

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    thanks all for the information.

    i will try to get my hands on some of this deworming medication.
    even if it is not camallanus......it will still get rid of any other worms in it.

    thanks again,
    mervin

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    Sorry to bring up an old topic but I had another encounter with the Camallanus worms again. I thought I had the worms eradicated but I took a close look at my australes the other day and found that almost all the females were infected. Some had one more than one worm sticking out from their vents. Here's a picture of one of the infected females.



    Can you see the worm sticking out of her vent? For some strange reason which I cannot fathom, the females are always the ones that get infected first. I was really discouraged when I saw the worms. I thought it would be "the hospital tank" thing all over again. But I discussed the problem with my wife and she suggested I do not transfer the fish into a hospital tank. Why not dose the medication straight into the tank, she said? I've always been reluctant to apply medication directly into my planted tanks as I think it will kill the plants. There's also the other reason that medication works best in clean water without filtration.

    But I was so sick and tired of fighting the Camallanus, I decided to accept my wife's suggestion. I took out my Levamisole but the medication has melted into some sort of a paste. When I got it from a fellow forum user, it was in powder form. Here's how it looks now:



    Although I thought it wouldn't be very effective in paste form, I took some and dissolved it in clean water. I then poured the solution into the tank. Incredibly, it was very effective. Within about an hour, the worms began to stick out more from the vents and in another hour or so, they were all gone. The plants were unaffected.

    My question is this - Does Levamisole kill the worms or does it only deworm the fish?

    Loh K L

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    Loh K L,
    Sorry to hear thar you are having problems again.
    Yes, I believe that the Levamisole kills the worm,but I wonder if your problem lies in the fact that you have a planted tank and the camallanus worm is a livebearer, which can be find in the fish feces that are in the gravel. So you may want to worm them again in a few weeks and then again a few weeks later to get rid of everything in your gravel. The Levamisole should not harm your plants.
    Just my $.02.
    Deb Bear
    AKA#08746
    SAA#175

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    "One for All" deworming tablets
    http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/fi.../Dewormer2.JPG
    http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/fi...Dewormer2a.JPG
    http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/fi...Dewormer2b.JPG

    Super Dewormer MQ4 & MQ5 (bought from P*tm*rt)
    http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/fi...Dewormer1a.JPG
    http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/fi...Dewormer1b.JPG

    Gotten these a while back but hadn't the opportunity to try it out... yet (touchwood!), therefore can't comment on effectiveness.

    BTW, Flubendazole shouldn't be used regularly, lest one creates a treatment-resistant strain...
    I'm back & keeping 'em fingers wet,
    Ronnie Lee

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    Ronnie,

    I couldn't see a single picture. What with our gallery and all, I thought we had this problem solved

    Why use Angelfire when we have 2 GB of space? I think perhaps we should re-examine the solution I offered - Let every moderator have the password to killies.com server so you all can upload all you want.

    Loh K L

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    Kwek Leong, please excuse my moment of tardiness and well... plain laziness (since they were already uploaded to Angelfire).

    Here are all the clickable images...

    Do note that the above is meant for creatures with fur, not scales



    Quote Originally Posted by timebomb
    Why use Angelfire when we have 2 GB of space? I think perhaps we should re-examine the solution I offered
    There's nothing wrong with the present arrangement but at the rate new albums were created and even more images uploaded, I was feeling somewhat self-conscious

    Neither is there an urgent call for mods to have passwords to hosting server. Let's leave things as is for now... "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" (I can also do with one less chip on my shoulders :wink: )
    I'm back & keeping 'em fingers wet,
    Ronnie Lee

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    Quote Originally Posted by timebomb
    Having said all that, I would encourage everyone to take up Ronnie's offer of free Grindal worm starter cultures. They are a good alternative to live Tubifex
    Dear all, I didn't take note of the thread's 'age'. Thought it was new and was reading through and noticed Kwek Leong's grindal reminder (dated Dec 22 2003 ).

    It's bad timing if anyone wants any starters now for I am going through a bad patch with these. Aparently, the grindals don't take kindly to the warm weather we've been having and have the most crashes when kept in the 'utility closets' outside my home.

    I'm desperately trying to revive what I can and would loath to lose all of them.

    Will update when there's sufficient to go around again.
    I'm back & keeping 'em fingers wet,
    Ronnie Lee

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