Camallanus - roundworms in Guppies

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Heres what you could do. Dump the substrate, set the tanks up and running. Raise the salinity to a little below brackish, and dose the heck out of levimasole
Camallanus cannot survive high salinity, filter pad and tank should be stearlized by the levimasole, after a few days she could go buy a bunch more guppies!!
Dont loose heart, it is a struggle but its worth it! Dont mess around with sick pet store fish, buy some healthy ones from a good store, local breeder you can trust or aquabid.
they got some nice guppies up north of you in singapore
 
Thanks Matt!

I've had a couple of days break from the site. Been so busy but... here's what I've done, which included a 45 minute discussion with a vet of an exotic pet veterinary place.

1. Removed all substrate and deco from smallest tank, to be my treatment tank.
2. Added my guppie there, added 0.1ml of levamisole per 10 litres.. Yes apparently it is a very strong medication I bought!
3. Allow to treat for 24 hours, then do a 50% water change
4. Allow dead worms to drop...at this point the are eggs still alive. The levamisole won't treat that.. But there are other things to do for that. Clean and salt.
5. While treating dish in hospital tank, I'm cleaning all other affected tanks, really vacuum the substrate Etc. While these tanks have no fish in them, I'm still dosing these tanks with the levamisole, although she thought that was pointless given the biology in the tank will reduce the 'meds' - even though carbons removed.

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Oh and .. Just to help get rid of the eggs from your main tanks, add 5gm salt per 1lt.. It creates enough reverse osmosis action in the water to kill the eggs.
So I'm dosing the tanks while treating the fish in hospital tank.


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Sounds Good!
Its what im gonna do if i ever see those little buggars again.
Maintaining bare bottom tanks, using salinity, feeding food with garlic, getting guppies from reputable breeders, are all steps that can be taken to avoid exposure to this deadly pest.
 
... feeding food with garlic...

Huh? How do you do this?
Do you suggest not having any substrate? Isn't that a really good thing to keep your tank biology better balanced? And, yep, lesson well learned about where I bought the fish from.


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Some high quality foods have a garlic added, for taste to encourage fish to eat, but garlic is a natural worm repellants.
Camallanus worms will live in the substrate. So will other parasites such as tetrahyemena
Almost all guppy enthusiasts eventually switch to bare bottom tanks. Almost All pro breeders do Other messy high food req. fish such as fancy goldfish are often kept bare bottom as well. Its a lot cleaner, healthier for the fish. There should be more than enough Good Bacteria on your filter pad or sponge. A typical setup for guppies is a ten gallon tank (IMO 20 gallon is better tho, 10 gallon for fry) and a large round sponge filter, and ofc heater. If you dont like the looks, you can use picture backdrops, paint the back and or bottom black or blue, pot plants, real or fake, and put them on the bottom, theres a lot to do to make a tank look cool. Im not saying you have to not use substrate, but since your fighting parasites, it might be a good idea for the present. After awhile it grows on you, you get use to it. Much easier to take down and clean as well (no stinky gravel or sand to make it heavy and possibly brake the glass)
Heres an example of a pro breeders fishroom (not mine)
 
Oh and .. Just to help get rid of the eggs from your main tanks, add 5gm salt per 1lt.. It creates enough reverse osmosis action in the water to kill the eggs.
So I'm dosing the tanks while treating the fish in hospital tank.


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That's a great tip - was there any info on how long for?
 
That's a great tip - was there any info on how long for?


Yes there is actually. The lifecycle of camallanus is up to a month. It's can take two larvae stages/2 weeks to transfer to fish thus why re medicate tanks with fish in them after two weeks. I'm holding out with the high salt for 3 weeks to be VERY sure!! Then a second levamisole treatment during that 2 - 3 week period to the tank with fish in it. Got to stop the cycle!
 
Copied from Fishchannel site:

Life Cycle
The life cycle of Camallanus worms passes through three key phases, a free-living stage, a series of molts during which time the worms infect an intermediate host (a crustacean) and then another molt that takes place in the final host (the fish).

After mating, mature females begin the cycle by producing large numbers of first-stage larvae. When the fish defecates these will be carried out into the environment. These larvae quickly settle out onto the substrate where they wiggle about in an enticing way, thereby tricking small crustaceans into eating them. Once that happens the larvae move into the host’s gut where they feed and grow. Known intermediate hosts include Cyclops and Gammarus, but Daphnia have not (yet) been observed to carry the parasite. Brine shrimp (Artemia) don’t normally carry the parasites because they’re reared in high salinity environments that Camallanus worms cannot tolerate.

Within about a week they will have molted twice to form inactive third-stage larvae that sit inside the host. Should the crustacean be eaten by a fish, the third-stage larvae become active and start feeding again, eventually molting twice to form the sexually mature male or female adult worms. These are the distinctive red worms aquarists see protruding from the vents of infected aquarium fish. The length of time it takes the life cycle to complete varies with temperature and for different Camallanus species, but in the case of Camallanus cotti it takes less than a month at 77 degrees Fahrenheit.

Most Camallanus species cannot complete their life cycle without an intermediate host, but Camallanus cotti is unusual in being able to skip this stage, and mature females produce first-stage larvae that can infect other fish directly if they do not find a suitable crustacean host first. Possible pathways include cannibalism and ingestion of feces produced by infected fish.

ImageUploadedByAquarium Advice1474805604.254034.jpg
 
My guppie jumped out of the tank today :(

How he did it I can only assume it was skill on his part. So, at least I can go crazy now with no surviving fish cleaning all tanks..


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My guppie jumped out of the tank today :(

How he did it I can only assume it was skill on his part. So, at least I can go crazy now with no surviving fish cleaning all tanks..


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Darn it - that is sad news :( Great you can make sure now it is completely gone. I hate it when they are lost to jumping out like that and find some small gap. I've lost numerous yoyo loaches that way.
 
Had it happen to me. LOL
Now i Always leave a 3-4 inch gap. Had a pregnant female jump out of a tank that had a breeder net and no lid.
Thats how us guppy people get so good at diseases and fish care, they are downright sucididal, and frail sometimes.
:banghead:
Inbreeding bad, survival of the fittest, good.
 
Little buggers! I thought they were supposed to be easy to keep!
Back in the day, yes. Hybrids are always vigirous. Wild guppies are somewhat virgours.
The offspring of hybrids,then they inbreed them.....this leads to weak fish.
 
I do find live bearers are not always that hardy. It's just fry keep showing up. Even some that I reckon I've kept to old age haven't lasted numerous years or anything.
 
And if there is anything at all wrong with water parameters, or any type of parasite or bacteria that is just a little too much, for me at least, the fry will clamp "pintail" and die, unless i use an antibiotic or ick med. (and AQ salt)
 
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