Worm invasion!

[Nick]

Hello fellow loach addicts...

I am so shocked after doing my water change today to see these small white worms - about 0.5mm x 4-5mm crawling around on the glass above the water level! This has probably been covered before but what would be my next best course of action? Antibiotic tx then use Levamisole?

A little history... over the past 3 months or so, at least one or two loaches in my tank have been "sick"...lethargic, off food and losing weight. It usually would happen to the healthiest loach at the time. I have increased frequency of water changes and have nursed each loach back to health but it would always strike again to another loach. This was my first sighting of these worms!

I spoke to a retired vet re. Levamisole and he said he could get some but thought that it was in a powder form that was not very soluble in water. Is this true? I read that it is what is used here frequently to de-worm new fish and boost their immune system. My latest addition was that weird loach with the folded tail...hmm. and I did not quarantine!

The affected tank is my small loach tank (25G) and my other concern is for my bigger tank (150G) where all my fat clowns are. I have only recently in the last 3 weeks bought separate buckets, siphon etc. for each tank. No symtpoms of poor health in the big tank thankfully but would it be wise to treat all my tanks?

Thanks

[shari2]

Check out this link and see if it helps:
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article1.html

[Nick]

Thanks for the reply! (blood pressure drops)

Yep, it seems like the 'worms' are nematodes

Took a pic of one while it was squirming on the glass...



Yeah, guilty of overfeeding! I will be moving these guys to my new bigger tank once it is set up...I'm sure they'll love the 2.6m stretch!

But does this mean that there are always some nematodes present in most fish tanks that only gain in numbers if there is overstocking/overfeeding?
Does this type of parasite cause the chronic wasting syndrome?
My fat loaches in the big tank always have a huge appetite...in the small tank the affected ones go through phases of being off food and sometimes just look dazed.
I'll probably obtain and dose with Levamisole as a precaution.

Thanks

[Mark Janssen]

"Both types of worm are totally harmless to fish in themselves"

maybe to fish but a friend of mine had planaria and they killed most of his shrimp and snailes. the planaria wriggeld themselfes under the plating of the big schrimps en started eating it from the inside.

the Trichogaster trichopterus sumatranus loves them and he got rid of most of the worms (unfortunatly this fish also likes shrimp but with the worms he couldn't save the shrimp because in some were the worms)

but getting rid of them is really hard, they will go any where in your filter in the filterpads, under the sand of other substrate where fish of medicine wont reach them...

[shari2]

Yes they can be bad for shrimp and snails. I've also read in one place that it's possible for them to get into the gills of the fish and cause flashing.

Unfortunately, they are part of an aquatic environment that is difficult to eradicate. Their presence in high numbers indicates an imbalance. They can come in with live foods, live plants or anything moved from an active aquarium that has them.

Some fish will eat them, some won't. My angelfish used to eat them when young, but now don't. Planaria will feed on old fish food, dead fish, fish eggs and even immobile very young fry.

Gravel vaccing, frequent water changes, and feeding less (or even fasting fish for a time) will help lower the population.

[Nick]

I was about to say that I saw a couple of loaches flashing...but all in all they look o.k. It appeared like they had an itch on the side of the face that needed a scratch on the gravel. I've been increasing my frequency of water changes and they all seem happier .