Update on the Plague

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fearlessfisch

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jan 13, 2004
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Location
Northern Virginia
I have posted here occasionally about my problems with parasites (well, I don't have them...the fish do).

I fought camellanus and also some horrible little white worm that would burrow in or out of the fish's sides......attacking one fish at a time, for months. Also, the fish had red gills, suggesting gill flukes. What a mess.

I think my medication treatments were as horrible for the fish as the illnesses...both have killed.

I am hoping that the camellanus worms are gone after extended treatment with levamisole, following a regimen I found online.

I am hoping that the burrowing worms and gill flukes are gone after sequential treatments with Rid-Ich (unsuccessful), then Coppersafe (unsuccessful), then Fluke Tabs (possibly successful?). In between medication trials, I always waited at least a week (to see if the worms would come back, which they did until this last regimen, knock on wood) and also did huge water changes.

I have not seen any worms for a couple weeks now. However, the fish seem traumatized, and I am afraid the meds themselves may have done internal damage, even though I used less than the recommended dose.

I now have living in my tank:

a single german blue ram
a gold gourami
and some corycats.

The corycats are slowly becoming their old color after having turned red as a result of the skin condition the Fluke Tabs caused (destroying slime coat, which was described in the instructions). They are not very active, but are more active than the others in there now.

All of my neons were lost, I think from the medication rather than the worms.

The gold gourami spends all his time sitting at the bottom of the tank in a cave, only coming out briefly to go to the surface for air--then returning to the cave. I wonder if his labyrinth organ was damaged.

The blue ram just sits at the bottom of the tank.

They have been like this for two weeks, despite daily 70 percent water changes to make sure I remove all worm carcasses and because the meds messed with the bio filter. I see the corycats eat, but not the others, but they must be eating something, because they are surviving, and their condition hasn't changed in two weeks.

I feel so guilty, but everyone was dying of the parasites when I wasn't medicating. They are not getting better, though. I am concerned they may have been damaged internally.

And I am concerned that--even if I do confirm that the parasites are eradicated now--it will be hard to add new fish to the tank. I am afraid new, healthy fish would target the ones I have in there....who appear to be living but weakened by the med. experience.

I don't know what I'm looking for. Just wanted to share this. I hate fish meds. I have rarely had a good experience with any of them. This tank looks so lonely, and the fish look so sad.
 
I'm sorry to hear that. Levamisole usually works wonders on camallanus worms. Unfortanetly, both Rid-Ich and Coppersafe are a little on the intensive side. I have no experience with Fluke Tabs.

Remember though, that the worms are parasitic, meaning that they need a host in order to survive. I don't know the lifecycle of these worms, but I bet if you got 4-6 weeks without seeing them, then you pretty darn well can be sure they are gone.

About the current fish (which are quite sensitive, suprised they lived), how is your activated carbon? It may be worth adding some (new, unused) of that to the tank to absorb any possible inorganics left over. Is the ammonia okay?
 
I remember your other posts about the worms. I'm sorry to hear about all your fish. You did the best you could - you did very well with the situation! You were very persistent to try all those meds. I know I wouldn't like the thought of worms in my fish either.

I know it was necessary to do big water changes to remove the parasites and keep the ammonia down as a result of the meds. I can't think of anything to add to Devilishturtles' excellent post. Carbon can help get rid of some lingering meds. How is the ammonia level now? If the dead parasite carcasses are gone now and the ammonia is lowering enough, maybe do your big water change every other day or a slightly smaller one every day. That may help ease some fish stress. But if you're still removing dead worms or the ammonia is still on the high side, then do your changes daily if necessary.

I haven't kept the fish you have, but maybe a veggie slice will perk them up a bit. Good luck and keep us posted.
 
Devilishturtles and An t-iasg, thanks for the commiseration and ideas. I picked up some new charcoal for them. I hope it helps. It hadn't occurred to me that some of the meds might still be hanging around after all those water changes.

Re: the veggies, I put in a tiny piece of cooked broccoli, which the gourami used to love, but he ignored it. This morning I took it out and tried a bit of a frozen seaweed/krill? cube, and the ram did pick at that a little bit when some of it fell near him, so that is good.

There is extremely slight or no ammonia registering, but I had a nitrite level close to .5 when I checked this morning, so did another change.

I still don't see any worms, and this is a little over two weeks. They don't look better, but they don't seem to be getting worse.

Thanks again.
 
How are you changing the water? Don't use a vaccum on your substrate, and don't clean the filters. Simply change the water.

.5 Nitrite isn't good, but it isn't AS bad as having a detectable amount of ammonia in thet tank. Wait until it fully cycles again, then you should see the fish perk up much more.
 
Thanks for the reminder about not vacuuming. They are still hanging out at the bottom, but they do eat. I will keep watching the levels and keep my fingers crossed. I hope you are right that they will do better once the cycle is complete again.

I'll post an update when/if things change. Thanks again.
 
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