camallanus AGAIN!!!

[Tasha]

Hi Jim, actually I haven't started treatment yet, had some problems here at home but plan to start in a day or two, my fish hated the antiparasite food, and didn't work fir me, I really hope I have good luck with the interceptor!!

Best of luck to you and keep me posted, I'll do the same once I get underway with treatment.

[Tasha]

Originally Posted by jimenezlee

Okay cool, that blood sucker was still wiggling so I know he was still alive. I got the fish with the obvious infestation and two others in bare bottom tanks; so cleaning those was easy. Don't know how to deal with the three in the planted tank. Perhaps move them to a bare bottom before treating? How do you treat the whole tank? I had a hard enough time finding the medicated flake.

The food treats only the fish you need the antiparasite tabs to treat the water etc, plus alot of vacuuming if you have the substrate, jungle makes a tablet.

[Tasha]

Ok I started treatment and wanted to post updates for those following since this is such a nasty worm to deal with just incase my treatment works.

may 4th,7pm I crushed my interceptor tabs and disolved completely in 3/4cup tank water, lowered my water level (only to make the dosing correct) and put it in the tank. (if you have carbon take it OUT)
At the time my fish that has the noticeable camallanus worms, had 2+ worms hanging out of her. I kept close eye on my fish for a few hours then went to bed...

next morning about 7:30 all fished looked good, NO worms showing on infected fish, put carbon in tank, and did and few hours later did a gravel vac. Will watch fish closely, and re dose in one weeks time....

so far im hopefull!!

[gkuzel]

Tasha, What size interceptor tab did you use? And how big is your tank?

[DragonFish71]

A trick to getting your fish to eat medicated food: garlic juice.

Seriously, it worked great for us.

We buy the pre-minced garlic at the store, it comes in a jar with juice.

A few drops of the juice into the food and let it soak. I also added some multi-vitamins for fish. I let everything soak, medication, garlic juice, liquid vitamins for half and hour then fed the fish. They devoured the food. We did this twice a day.

We are now on week two of no visible infestation.


Also, if you can't find the Jungle fizzy tabs for parasites, Clout works just as well. Remember, some fish are highly sensitive to meds, use at half dose.

[gkuzel]

I've tried the food, and the tabs (at the same time) They ate the food just fine, it just didn't work. Nor the tabs. I tried Fenbendazole, and that looks like it's to no avail, also. I'm at my wits end, I've already lost A lot of fish.

[DragonFish71]

One thing you have to remember about this worm, it takes more than one shot at treatment to get rid of it.


We battled for well over a month and finally have been 2 weeks clean.

[gkuzel]

Yeah, I get that. But, I saw no improvement, what so ever. I did two treatments of the food. Some strains of the worms, are just immune to the drugs, like praziquantel (Jungle tabs) and Fenbendazole (Panacur). The only other things that I'd even consider trying are Levimasole (If I can get my hands on it) or Interceptor.

[Tasha]

Originally Posted by gkuzel

Tasha, What size interceptor tab did you use? And how big is your tank?

Hi, Im using the 2.3mg tabs, brown pill, and thats 2.3mg of milberbycin oxime (active ingredient) per tab. they treat dogs up to 4.5kg and cats up to 1.2kg in body weight. The site I found that gave the dosages was using the HUGE tabs, so I had to do a little math to figure out what I needed in my tank.

My tank is 20 gallon... but my pack of interceptor has 6 pills at that 2.3mg dosage.... so to be able to get 3 full dosages I had to lower my water level by about 3-5 gallons.

This medication will kill any invertabrate so snails, shrimp etc must be removed from tank first. this medication also treats the fish and water together, however you need to do regular substrate vaccums...

Today is day 4 and still no red worms showing on infected fish XXXfingers crossedXXX

[Tasha]

Originally Posted by DragonFish71

A trick to getting your fish to eat medicated food: garlic juice.

Seriously, it worked great for us.

We buy the pre-minced garlic at the store, it comes in a jar with juice.

A few drops of the juice into the food and let it soak. I also added some multi-vitamins for fish. I let everything soak, medication, garlic juice, liquid vitamins for half and hour then fed the fish. They devoured the food. We did this twice a day.

We are now on week two of no visible infestation.


Also, if you can't find the Jungle fizzy tabs for parasites, Clout works just as well. Remember, some fish are highly sensitive to meds, use at half dose.

I also tried the garlic juice and the fish came around more to it, but it just didnt work for us.

Originally Posted by DragonFish71

One thing you have to remember about this worm, it takes more than one shot at treatment to get rid of it.


We battled for well over a month and finally have been 2 weeks clean.

My interceptor treatment is used by reef enthusiasts, to kill a "red bug" they have in their tanks... I was told by a marine biologist to try it as our camallanus worms are in the same speicies of worms that interceptor treats... It is a 3 dose treatment. first two are a week apart, and the third will be 1-2 wks after the second... more of a insurance plan dosing we'll see..... Congrats on winning your battle. These are nasty little worms...

[Tasha]

Day 5, not sure if its coincedence but the last couple days ALL my fish are going crazy at feeding time, they are acting starving!! Everytime I go by the tank they think its food time. I have one baby ballon molly in a maturation tank and I like to keep it fresh and clean, so whenever Im at the tank I swoosh it out (the old food from bottom, or poop etc) well I rarely can do this without all the other fish nibbling and sucking on my fingers!

still no red strings showing on infected fish... couple more days until second dosing...

[gkuzel]

I'm so glad for you! I lost three fish today, I'm trying to figure out the dose for my tank with the interceptor.

[Tasha]

Originally Posted by gkuzel

I'm so glad for you! I lost three fish today, I'm trying to figure out the dose for my tank with the interceptor.

what size tank are you treating? sorry for you loss

[gkuzel]

29 Gallon

[Tasha]

Originally Posted by gkuzel

29 Gallon

Have you found pages online re: treating with interceptor on reef tanks? its where I found dosing instructions, then had to do some math to calculate for my dosage of pill and size of tank... if you need some links let me know i'll try and find them for you

[jimenezlee]

Tasha, I'll post a little update here on my end. I've had the hardest time getting these fish to eat the medicated flake. But I've fed them nothing else until now and just today the little female that had the most obvious infestation is looking clear. I saw the worm hanging out earlier today and I swear I almost wanted to pull it out with tweezers!

But I can see about three different pieces of worm on the bare bottom tank, and I don't see anymore on her. So I'm hoping things are turning around. Its been good sharing this thread with you and feeling support through the ordeal.

I'm going to go vacuum my tank!

[Tasha]

Hi Jim... Lol I too have wanted to pull them out with tweezers. I'm glad to hear you may be having luck as well. Each time I go to my tank I swear I hold my breath until I see no worms then I breathe again. I'm anxious to do my next dose, that will be on Wednesday the 11th. Glad to hear your update. Hopefully we can all be red worm free soon with no more losses!!

[Tasha]

Ok last night I crushed up the second dose of interceptor, added it to tank without carbon, and again lowered water level to adjust for correct dosage. All fish look good. Scarlett (the infected fish) has had ZERO worms showing since the first treatment 1 week ago. I hate to think its this easy, and I euthanized my whole tank with my first infestation, when all attemps including panacur failed .... so knock on wood, fiingers crossed... I will do one more treatment, 1-2wks from now.... this morning I put the carbon back in, and will do a gravel vac later today.

[Tasha]

For all of those following, I treated the tank with the third/final/assurance dose of interceptor last night, (other than my fish with swimbladder that I had to euthanize) tank appears to be perfectly healthy. ZERO!!! camallanus worms seen since the first treatment. Scarlett, the fish that was infected has even delivered a batch of fry just a couple days ago since this, however there were complications, no survivors found and one fry sticking/stuck out of her... she since has been pooping normally etc...

am I camallanus free?!!?!? FINGERS CROSSED, but it appears to be.... that just seems too easy, makes me regreat not finding this treatment prior to euthanizing my whole tank prior to this one, with no success of treatment....

how are the others doing with camallanus doing??

[jimenezlee]

The fenbendazole flakes did the trick for me. I have nit repeated treatment as I have a bare bottom tank that I cleaned well after the treatment. I may repeat if needed.