Camallanus Worms - Treatment 7/23/05
Hello, I am currently having a problem with treating Camallanus worms (red worms hanging out of the anus) in my 75 gallon aquarium.  I know that there are several articles throughout your website, but none of them seem to answer the questions that I have.  My aquarium currently houses three semi-adult Bolivian Rams (Microgeophagus altispinosa), ten of their fry, and ten Otocinclus affinis.  Sadly I had to have two of the other Rams put down, and I have lost a countless number of fry.  I have tried treating them with Piperazine citrate by treating the tank water and through their food to no avail.  Since then I have tried treating them with a newer product on the market called Gel Tec Ultra Cure PX, which is supposed to treat internal parasites, and contains Praziquantel (.0057%),
<Not enough>
Metronidazole (.30%), and Flubenol (.03%); this did not get rid of the worms either.  I have been reading a lot of literature from your website and others, as well as from numerous books.  Many of them said to treat with Piperazine citrate (which didn’t work), Levamisole, or Fenbendazole.  I have finally found and purchased Fenbendazole, but it is for dogs and I am unsure of the dosage as there is little literature about dosing, and it usually is conflicting just like anything in fish keeping is.
> Ed Noga's "Fish Disease, Diagnosis & Treatment", prolonged immersion calls for adding 2 mg./l (7.6 mg./gal.) once a week for three weeks, orally 25-50 mg/kg body weight (11-23 mg/pd.) for two weeks>
  My fish and I would sincerely appreciate anyone who could tell me how to dose the Fenbendazole granules, as the vets here don’t treat fish.  It is in 1g packets, and contains 22.2% or 222mg/g Fenbendazole.  I would prefer to treat the water due to the fact that I have the Bolivian Ram fry, but my three large Bolivian Rams will take medicated chunks of broken up frozen bloodworms.  These worms are basically eating my fish alive.  As of right now they only have a couple of worms protruding, but the two that I had to have killed were suffering and badly infested.  I don’t know how they have gotten Camallanus worms.  These fish aren’t wild caught, nor have they been fed live foods, and they haven’t been in contact with any unquarantined fish.  This is a new tank for my five juvenile discus, and the Rams were supposed to be cycling the tank for the discus.  With the addition of Bio Spira the tank cycled within a few days with only .25 NH3/NH4, and I never detected any nitrites, so they never experienced anything overly traumatic, and this is obvious to me because they were breeding a week later.  The tank is now only one and a half months old, and I don’t know if I’ll ever move my discus to this tank as I have heard that you basically have to, as another website stated, “nuke the tank”.  These fish are my pets, and I care for them immensely.  They rely on me for care, and I will do anything to provide the best for them.  I perform frequent weekly water changes of 30% or more’ making sure it is of the same in temperature, pH, etc. although I’ve upped this and am doing it every two days due to the way this worm spreads through the fecal matter.  The current parameters are pH 6.6, Nitrate 0, Nitrite 0, Ammonia 0, Buffering 70ppm, and Hardness 90ppm.  I would like to thank anyone who is able to give me this information,
<Welcome>
and if my fish parish due to this new medicine I will hold no one responsible because my fish will die without being medicated anyway.  Any information on the origin of this worm, treatment, and if it is safe to add other fish eventually, if ever, would be appreciated.  Having these fish killed is a last resort, and I would only be willing to do so if they were suffering.  Thank you in advance for any words of wisdom.  Sincerely, Angela
<If the "Panacur" doesn't kill off these nematodes, I'd look to the product "Prazipro" next. Good life to you. Bob Fenner>

De-worming fish in the hospital tank (11/22/03)
<Hi! Ananda at the keyboard tonight...>
Hi, I had some bad luck with internal worms, so I decided to start a nurse tank to minimize my losses.
<Good idea.>
My mother who is also a fish lover advised me to medicate the tank.
<I always try to avoid medicating the display tank -- much easier/cheaper to medicate a hospital tank. Some courses of medications get so expensive with a big tank that you'd actually save money if you bought a small tank and treated the affected fish in the small tank.>
She said not to use the full dosage but wasn't sure what meds to use or how much. What would you recommend in such a situation.
<For internal worms and similar nasties, Discomed is a good one to use. Since you soak food in Discomed + water, you just follow the directions on the box.>
I want to make sure the fish I put in my tanks are disease free. All of the tanks are fresh water community-semi-community. Thanks
<Ah, that brings to mind an image of a town full of fish driving tractor-trailers.... Your desire to keep your fish healthy via a hospital tank is a good one. Do check out our freshwater forums at http://wetwebfotos.com/talk . --Ananda>

Leeches
For the reader that was trying to control leeches, Dimilin or Formalin will work, but care must be used in selecting dosage. Be careful!  Formalin will cause problems in bio-filters if applicable. Also try: http://www.state.me.us/dep/blwq/doclake/leech.htm
Craig>