Cammalanus treatment update

[CanuckFish]

Hi Everyone! Thought I'd give an update. You can refer to my post "Levamisole Alternatives" for my history.

So I put the dose of Fenbend in both tanks today (the 10g community, and the 2g QT). I started at half dose in the 10g due to the 2 loaches, but put they seemed fine, so I put the other half of the dose in around 8 hours later. I've seen both the yo-yo and kuhli swimming about and they seem fine. The tank water looks like perma fog. It feels good seeing the medicine distributed throughout the whole tank though; feels like there's nowhere to hide for the worms.

I was watching the tank for a few minutes this evening when I saw a worm come out of one of the original guppies that I cycled the tank with. I didn't see any worms protruding from his anus before, but I watched as a worm about 3/4" long appeared of his anus and fell down out into the water. I'm hoping this is a good sign, as I imagine the worms would prefer to stay inside the host. The guppy seems fine, and has showed no signs of lethargy yet. The worm looked just like the type that was in the body of the dead guppy I found yesterday in the QT tank. That particular guppy wasn't showing any protruding worms from the anus either, but definitely had a good sized worm exiting his body (1"+) upon death.

I've noticed that one of my guppies (whom my son named Fireball) has had a perfect record of "smelling out" the parasites. He was constantly following the first guppy around as if smelling him. This was the first guppy to die. He then started following the guppy that died yesterday in the QT tank. Fireball also started sniffing a third guppy (named Dandylion by my daughter) who had the visible red strand from his anus. He was put in the QT tank right away upon noticing the worm. He is in treatment and I'm hoping he'll survive. I read somewhere that when you see the worms protruding from the anus, the fish is already chock full of them. If that's true it might take longer for this guy to get better. I still see the worm out of his anus. This is the fish I got from the LFS, who showed signs the following day (obviously that LFS is selling infected guppies).

The latest fish that Fireball is sniffing is a male platy. I'm hoping that the treatment will work expeditiously. I'm encouraged that on the first day of treatment I've already seen a worm exiting a fish and leaving the fish intact.

Someone please let me know however, if I'm reading too much into the worm's exit. I'd hate to think that this is just a normal course of the parasite's reproduction and is not a fortunate turn of events at all.


CanuckFish

[mikev]

Did the worm that exited die?---I think this would tell you what you want to know.

[CanuckFish]

Hi Mikev!

Well I'm not sure how the worm is supposed to look, but it looked to me like it was dead. It was just slowly falling in the current of the tank like a piece of debris. I should have taken the thing out, but I lost it in the midst of a large plant. Do the worms usually swim about or snake around? There were no observable forms of activity to it. It was sort of twisted and folded back randomly, with no change in shape or orientation.

One other thing Mikev, I was looking through a product catalog of Big Al's (www.bigalscanada.com) which is a large fishstore in Canada (not sure if they have stores in the US). There was an anti-parasite medicated food made by Jungle (catalog #8557) that claimed to "aid in control of internal flagellates, trematodes, and cestodes which includes hexamita, spironucleus, intestinal worms, tapeworms and nematodes e.g. cammalanus." Have you heard anything about this stuff? It doesn't say what the active ingredient is in the stuff.


CanuckFish

[mikev]

Hi CanuckFish,

probably dead. You should try to take it out, in fact, you should do extensive gravel cleaning a day after each treatment. The thing is that even if a worm is dead, you may get reinfection if a fish eats it: some nematode species have ready-to-go eggs inside adult worms, or even larvae. With Loaches around you can be certain that a worm of any kind on the ground will get quickly eaten.

On Jungle Anti-Parasite food (If it is the one I'm thinking about): it is mostly prazi, but includes some levamisole. The amount is insufficient to make much of a difference. Once I had a fish with several worms sticking out (from a cut in the belly, not anus), eating this food with no effect on the worms whatsoever.

I may have an idea for you to explore: if you go to Aquabid, into the medication section, you will see ads like this one:

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/ ... 1159999221

This is for Kanamycin, but observe that the vendor sells lots of drugs, including antibiotics, and says: Will Ship Internationally. They have a tel. number, maybe it is worth it giving them a call and asking about levamisole.

Good Luck!

[CanuckFish]

I'll definitely look into the link. Thanks! I'm optimistic about the Fenbend though. I figure even one dead worm is a good start (especially for the fish it came out of!) The vet gave me enough for three weeks of treatment. It's good to have a backup plan too of course.


CanuckFish

[mikev]

Most certainly, continue with Fenbendazole and complete the course.

But -- if I were in your place -- I'd still try to get Levamisole and do that too. Levamisole has a spotless record, Fenbendazole is less certain. Since the mechanisms are different, it is likely that both can be used at the same time.

Also, it would help you to read on the nematode live cycle, you will see clearer how the treatments must be structured.

Good luck, it is great see you trying to make the best effort

[CanuckFish]

Just a quick note to all that I saw another dead worm exit a fish this morning (a female platy). It was about 1/2" long. I was able to net and bag it. This Fenbend seems to be working!

CanuckFish