Camalanus worms

[sammiesam]

Hey guys,
So I am having an issue with what seems to be only my Gouramis in my 20 gal tank.

I was in Golden for a week to help out my sister and when I came back one of the Gouramis wasn't doing well, completely pale and pineconing, I don't expect him to live all that long regardless of what I do. But I didn't noticing any other symptoms at all but this morning I noticed a burst of red spikes at his anus, which really had me worried.

So I inspected every fish in the tank carefully and it seems that the other gouramis also have this, but as much just one or two where as the very sick fish has a cluster. But only the gouramis.

I did some research and I figured it was a parasite but I have never heard of this until now and what I got was Camalanus worms, and all I've been able to google so far is what it is, but not much of how the heck it appeared or what to do with it.

Either way I was hoping you guys could help me out. The tank was due for a cleaning today since I just got home last night and I plan on doing that today but the levels are all good anyways nitrates and nitrites 0 ammonia 0. I have the very sick fish in one of those vented breeding boxes since I wasn't sure if he would make it through the night and I have also given him a methylene blue bath last night.

I was planning on treating the whole tank, as I can not find any info on how contagious this is and what the chances are that other fish in the tank may have this as well but I was hoping you guys can give me some info and help.

Oh I should also add that about 2 months ago, my smallest gourami I had bought died unexpectantly, very quickly he got very pale and skinny and then just died, none of these spikes however but I am assuming he had the same thing. I feel like they may of had this when I bought them, but I've had the gouramis since the summer so I am not sure.

Anyways Thanks for your help guys, I hope your holiday season is starting off well and good luck to any students writing exams (Sooooooooooooo glad I am done with that this year WOOHOO)

[sammiesam]

Also I was reading your article on meds Carl as well as what I found elsewhere online and I can seen that Levamisol is the best way to treat this

I was just wondering if there were any brand names I should be looking for or where to find this ingredient, as I have read it is very difficult to find>

I am also going to purchase some of the jungle parasite food today when I am out doing my shopping.

[Carl]

Assuming that these worms are the correct diagnosis (which I am not doubting at this point), I would use the Jungle Parasite Food if you can still it (it is discontinued for the time being).

Otherwise I have had the best results with worms such as these that reside in the end of the intestinal tract with Clout

Camallanus worms are very difficult to treat, so isolating and performing Potassium Permanganate Baths may help too

See Also:
Fish Parasites

Carl

[sammiesam]

Thanks for the link Carl, for some reason I find it difficult to navigate on your information website so it's always helpful when you send me a link. Not sure why, it might just be me and my preference.

So I went to my two closest stores today while christmas shopping and neither store any anything useful at all.......so I am going up north to the fish store tonight to get the proper meds.

I am wondering how this occured? Is it possible that I bought this batch of fish with the parasites already? I have had them for approximately 6-7 months. One died after about 2 months and I never noticed any cause, so there were no worms showing at the time. But it does seem like my dwarf gouramis are the only ones showing these worms right now.

Also I am wondering how contagious this could be or is? I read somewhere that when the parasite reaches the stage where they protrude from the anus, this means they are coming out so that they can disperse eggs? Is that correct? In that case a whole tank treatment seems to make the most sense. Also, does temperature effect this parasite at all?

Thanks for all the info Carl, I read the parasite link and I am still on the hunt for the drugs I need. Here's to hoping these stores up north have what I am looking for, they usually do.

[sammiesam]

Oh I also found this article
www.petfish.net/kb/entry/154/

I was wondering what you guys thought. He talks about his infestation of these worms and how nothing worked at all until he tried "fenbendazole" and that seemed to be the only thing that worked and he had struggled with it for a long time.

[Carl]

Dec 12, 2011 19:20:26 GMT -5 sammiesam said:

Thanks for the link Carl, for some reason I find it difficult to navigate on your information website so it's always helpful when you send me a link. Not sure why, it might just be me and my preference.

Aquarium Answers is a bit more difficult to navigate, however I now have moved all posts/articles to the home page and as well their is a search box as well of which "fish worms" brought this up to the top.

For my main website, the search box is better (for one it is a non freebie), as well everything is listed ins a quick drop down menu.
Hopefully this helps..

As for the article you sent, I have read this and while it is very interesting and helpful, I do not agree with his end statement that nothing works but for "fenbendazole"

I have had good results with Levamisol IF you can find it.
As well Clout can work when the worms are in the laying stage which you have theorized correctly IMO.
As for temperature, I have never experimented with this nor researched it so I cannot say yes or no.

Unfortunately some fish brought this in at some point.
Keeping the gravel clean, baths, in tank treatment, and even UV Sterilization will help bring this back under control, however any seriously infected fish may not make it in the mean time.

Carl

[sammiesam]

Thanks again for your quick responses Carl, always here for me! I love it.

So my hunt for drugs has brought some interesting conclusions.

Clout can not be found anywhere as well as the Jungle Parasite like you had thought.
The only thing I was able to find in all 5 stores I tried today was Tetra parasite guard so I am going to give a whirl along with metro.

The Levamisol I have been told by a awesome guy at Big Als Fish store, that it is a controlled substance in Canada so I have to go to a vet to get it as well as the fenbendazole

So I guess I will give this a try along with baths and frequent water changes. I don't have UV sterilizer, I don't think it's in the budget this close to christmas so that will have to hold out for now.

Anyways, I will keep you posted. I don't expect the worst one to live much longer than another day or so, poor thing. And so far the gouramis are the only ones showing any sign of an infestation so I will just have to keep a close eye.

[Carl]

The Parasite Clear can be used as a medicated fish food soak where it will much more good for these worms than as an in tank only treatment.

See the listing here for further instructions:
Tetra Parasite Clear

Carl

[sammiesam]

Thanks Carl, I did that this morning.

It seems like the gouramis have all stopped eating though, but I guess this will help the other fish if they are infected as well.
All the gouramis are getting their baths and swabs today though so we'll see how that goes.

Another dilemma though, before this even popped up I have a trip scheduled for 2 weeks starting next monday, I am flying to the coast to spend christmas and new years and family. I can't cancel or change flights. I have my older sister doing a water change for me and my grandma is feeding them for me while I am gone. But neither of them know enough to be able to medicate this tank for me.
So I guess I will treat the tank this week and see what happens but if this isn't cleared up by monday....which I am having my doubts about with the lack of drugs I need, then I am unsure of what I need to be doing at this point I feel horrible

[Carl]

Do you have a Medicated Wonder Shell available?

While this will not kill off such an infection, it will certainly help check the spread (in similar ways to level 2 sterilization)

Either way, I would not let this affect your enjoyment of family over the holiday IMO

Carl

[sammiesam]

It's kind of funny that you just asked that because I was actually just on your website debating if i was going to order some lol. I think you just convinced me ha ha

[sammiesam]

Update for you guys:

So the originally really sick gourami kicked the bucket last night. Kind of glad, the poor guy was suffering enough.

Two of the remaining 3 gouramis are starting to pale in color and all three gouramis have stopped eating....so the medicated soaked food won;t do any good for them, just the rest of the fish.

I have not noticed a change in the parasite showing, no less, no more. Kind of discourages me but today is water change day and fresh treatment so we will see I suppose.
Thanks for all your guys help. I'm kind of hoping all the gouramis die off before I have to fly out on monday but I have also prepped my grandma for what is to come including counting all the fish in the tank and making sure none of them are dead at least twice a day.

[Carl]

So the originally really sick gourami kicked the bucket last night. Kind of glad, the poor guy was suffering enough.

I have to agree with you Sam; sorry he died, but it was for the best IMO

In fact since you are going away and even if you were staying, this is very difficult to treat and it is best to put any sick ones out of their misery since without eating, most treatments are doomed to fail.

Hopefully your grandma can remove any dead fish in a timely manner and add the medicated wonder shell when it arrives as some extra protection.

Try and have a fun and safe trip and to not stress too much

Regards;
Carl

[sammiesam]

Another update:

So I did the potassium bath and it appears that one of the gouramis had a reaction to it ?!? is that even possible. The other two were fine with it but this guy was swimming fine when he went in and now hes kind of tipped sideways and having trouble swimming. I noticed this starting to occur when I was watching their bath and pulled him out right away, so he only had a 5 minute bath but he is still struggling to swim and is just kind of floating in the breeder cube at an angle and only rights himself every now and then. The poor guy I feel horrible, is this a reaction to the potassium because I have never seen this happen with other baths before?

Also I don't know if this is wishful thinking or what, but it appears that the red spikes/worms seem to be turning brown and aren't as pronounced. So my guess is that they are either going back inside if they finished dispersing eggs or they are dieing off.

[Carl]

Sam, unlike Methylene Blue baths which outside of the stress from handling will actually sooth a fish by increasing oxygen availability in the blood and other factors as well, Potassium Permanganate is an oxidizer (like bleach) and this is hard on fish.
However this is necessary too in cases such as your Gouramis.

The brown color is a good sign as Potassium Permanganates caustic action also oxidizes the cell walls, which at the very least has severely weakened exposed worms.

Carl

[sammiesam]

Hey another update:

My largest male kicked the bucket last night, he was the one who had the reaction to the PP bath. Poor guy I am glad he went fast, he was having so many issues swimming.
My largest female is next to go, she was swimming okay last night, bloated but swimming and this morning she can't keep herself upright and is barely breathing so I expect her to go before I leave for work today.

The last of the gouramis, the smaller male is holding on, he doesn't have this nearly as bad as the other three did, only has 2 small worms sticking out, unlike the massive painful looking cluster the other guys had. I had them all in this large breeder quarantine so I can get them easily for baths and keep an eye on them and he jumped out at some point and refuses to be in there and is still swimming around strong, but again not eating. So I guess it's only a matter of time for him as well.

I am kind of glad that the 3 have gone quickly so far as it'll be easier for care while I am away and I really don't see me winning this battle with this parasite so it's better for them.

[Carl]

Are any remaining fish able to eat the fish food soaked in Parasite Clear?

Carl

[sammiesam]

everything else in the tank is eating and healthy...looking...
Theres 2 silvertip tetras, a pork chop, 3 white cloud minnows and 4 yoyo loaches

there is one remaining gourami, who doesnt look all that worse for wear, just not eating.

[Carl]

Dec 16, 2011 23:35:03 GMT -5 sammiesam said:

everything else in the tank is eating and healthy...looking...
Theres 2 silvertip tetras, a pork chop, 3 white cloud minnows and 4 yoyo loaches

there is one remaining gourami, who doesnt look all that worse for wear, just not eating.

Eating the food soaked in medications will yield the best results, so just make sure the rest get this so as to prevent any issues with them (you can do this when you get back if need be)

Carl

[sammiesam]

Sigh - I think I was being too positive. So This morning I go to get the food prepared and I noticed my second oldest yoyo loach was out of hiding....which I will say at that time is weird, unless they are chasing each other these guys hide and they hide well.
He was leaning against the back of the tank in the corner and when I went to see if he would move he kind of lazied out of the corner. Now these feed are usually, crazy fast and very twitchy if you get too close to them to fast.

But I was able to litterally just pick him up with my hand and put him in my breeder cube so I could take a look at him without really much of a struggle. I can't find anything wrong with him, no worms, he's not skinny, hes not palling in color, he's nothing except docile and lethargic. But I don't have any doubts about it being this stupid parasite My yoyo loaches are one of my babies, this particular one, Paddington, I've had for around 3-4 years now. I am sad, I was really hoping it was only the gouramis