Camallanus worms.

[gkuzel]

My tank has quite the infestation, and I'm really not sure how to get rid of them. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Shadowraven]

These little monsters can be a right nightmare to get rid of once you get them. They have become resistant to almost all things that you can throw at them, but it seems that there is one treatment that works.

Fenbendazole, marketed under the name Panacur. It is a broad spectrun dewormer for pets and livestock.

To use for fish dose as follows:

Dissolve 3cc (3/5 teaspoon) of powdered Fenbendazole into 100ml (3-2/5 oz) of water. Mix well, then add as many bloodworms as you need to feed your fish. The bloodworms will seem to enlarge and turn a grayish color. Soak them in this for 30 minutes to 1 hour, then dump the entire container in the tank, water and all.

Feed your fish twice a day for 2 days on this mixture. You should see a major difference within 36 hours. 48 hours later they should have disappeared entirely. Repeat this treatment in 2 weeks to ensure that they don't return. Repeat the treatment again 2 weeks after that. The fish may appear slightly stressed during this treatment.

Camallanus worms have a 30 day life cycle, so it is important to complete the treatment as directed above to ensure they are gone. This treatment is effective against larvae and eggs.

An alternative treatment can be found at this link. The one given above appears to be the most effective.

 

[gkuzel]

How hard is panacur to get? I used to work for a vets office, and I know some of the meds need to be prescribed? I don't think we have a local fish vet around here, anyway.

 

[DragonFish71]

It actually isn't as easy as that article makes it seem to get rid of them. I've been feeding our fish using 10% Panacur, which is horse dewormer strength for a month now and we're just starting to see improvement.

There are different strengths of Panacur and different forms. We have the paste, which we mix twice daily with blood worms and some garlic juice.

 

[Shadowraven]

It actually isn't as easy as that article makes it seem to get rid of them. I've been feeding our fish using 10% Panacur, which is horse dewormer strength for a month now and we're just starting to see improvement.

There are different strengths of Panacur and different forms. We have the paste, which we mix twice daily with blood worms and some garlic juice.

Good to know. I just know that I've heard of this being cured with Panacur. The problem of course is that this parasite has been resistant to almost all other treatments. The course I posted about may have been different. Just something I had in my library of stuff.

I imagine it is possible that the treatment may need to be made even stronger now. I know that it came in the powder, I didn't know that there were other forms. I thought the one used was the one for dogs in a capsule form. It looks like it is still available over the counter or online.

If anyone has something that would work any better, please post about it. Panacur was the only thing that I had heard of that killed them, but I'm not an expert or a vet.

 

[DragonFish71]

I am actually going to be making an article for the forum about this. Once I have healthy fish I'll post the processes we've gone through.

One definite thing about this worm is that by time you see that your fish have it, it's a short time before their health declines. We lost all 6 of our GBRs (which is extremely heartbreaking since we finally had some that lived for more than 5 months)

 

[gkuzel]

thank you guys so much! i'll be calling a fish vet tmmorrw (seems i do have one locally) so i can share any input that they've got. also, any idea what effect this will take on the two adf's i have in the tank?

 

[Shadowraven]

I can can look it up for you real quick, but I've never kept frogs. I'll get back with you.

 

[Tasha]

Gl to you, im sorry you have to deal with this. Im new to aquariums, and my whole tank got infected and fish stated dying, I treated with everything, and then even a couple rounds of panacur... I ended up euthinzing my whole tank I since have purchased a qt tank, and am very carefull.... I wish you the best.

 

[DragonFish71]

Gl to you, im sorry you have to deal with this. Im new to aquariums, and my whole tank got infected and fish stated dying, I treated with everything, and then even a couple rounds of panacur... I ended up euthinzing my whole tank I since have purchased a qt tank, and am very carefull.... I wish you the best.

Oh dang, I'm sorry to hear you had to euthanize everyone. That had to be rough.

 

[Shadowraven]

OK just checked on a couple of sites that talk about keeping frogs an it appears that they have used it on them with no ill effects. According to them it won't hurt them.

@Tasha, I'm truly sorry to hear that. I don't know what I would do if I had to do that. That would be awful. I'm sorry that you had to go through that.

 

[Tasha]

being new to the aquarium thing, I never could have imagined, |I was bawling, my middle daughter (12yrs old) was crying with me, I have only named 3 of the fish in my tank now because of it, and Im always terrified looking for those red fibers....

Oh dang, I'm sorry to hear you had to euthanize everyone. That had to be rough.

 

[gkuzel]

I thought it may have been from a rock, I introduced. But I went back to the fish store where I bought them from, and they're all infected. So, I've been trying to do some research, and they're actually a nematode?

 

[Tasha]

after I purchased my infected molly, I called the pet store and sure enough there tank was infected as well... she INSISTS she cured all hers with melafix!!

Not sure what a nematode is but I do know there nasty!!!!

 

[Shadowraven]

It actually isn't as easy as that article makes it seem to get rid of them. I've been feeding our fish using 10% Panacur, which is horse dewormer strength for a month now and we're just starting to see improvement.

There are different strengths of Panacur and different forms. We have the paste, which we mix twice daily with blood worms and some garlic juice.

DragonFish, this has been bothering me ever since you wrote it. I don't want to be giving anyone any potentially bad advice if I can avoid it. I want to help, not hurt them.

Please bear with me, just so I can get a handle on this, is the strength of the Panacur you are using stronger in that form than powdered stuff available at pet stores or online?

Thankfully, I've never had deal with this directly myself, but I know what anightmare it can be. I helped a friend find this solution on the net a few years back and saved it. Fenbendazole got rid of the buggers, but it took a month. I believe that he used the powder from capsules for dogs. Is that a different strength than what you have?

I don't want to suggest this to anyone else if it is not working!

 

[DragonFish71]

DragonFish, this has been bothering me ever since you wrote it. I don't want to be giving anyone any potentially bad advice if I can avoid it. I want to help, not hurt them.

Please bear with me, just so I can get a handle on this, is the strength of the Panacur you are using stronger in that form than powdered stuff available at pet stores or online?

Thankfully, I've never had deal with this directly myself, but I know what anightmare it can be. I helped a friend find this solution on the net a few years back and saved it. Fenbendazole got rid of the buggers, but it took a month. I believe that he used the powder from capsules for dogs. Is that a different strength than what you have?

I don't want to suggest this to anyone else if it is not working!

I don't know if the form: powder vs paste makes it any stronger but I know mine being 10% compared to the smaller percent does. What I have is for deworming horses, where as the smaller percentages are for dogs/cats.

We got ours from our LFS. I just did a google for Panacur 10% paste and found lots of places to get it. If you just google Panacur you can find the different percentages.

To be honest, I also had great luck using the Jungle Anti-Parasite food and fizzy tabs when we had this problem with our bettas.

This is a nasty worm for sure, it takes patience to deal with. We're finally seeing improvement after a month.

 

[DragonFish71]

after I purchased my infected molly, I called the pet store and sure enough there tank was infected as well... she INSISTS she cured all hers with melafix!!

Not sure what a nematode is but I do know there nasty!!!!

She's full of it too. There's no way she cured it that easily and with such a weak medicine.

 

[gkuzel]

Melafix doesn't have a de-wormer. That's essentially what you need. I'm trying praziquantel in my tank right now, I did my first dose 36 hours ago, I have to wait another twelve hours to do a PWC and another dose the swelling around my fishes vent seems to have gone down, and they're more active now. I'm hoping it did the trick. But its too early to tell.