red worms

[quack]

hey some of my fish have red worms coming out of there bums. they are tiny and are the thickness of a red bit of cotton.

i was told that formalin would fix this problem, and ive been trying it but with no luck.

does any one know what i can use to cure this?

any help appreciated

[sharn]

oh bummer, you have whats called 'camallanus'

levamisole is most redily available for it and is safe for your bio filter and sensitve fish. i wrote a little thing on a post titled camallanus or something further down the page. formalin will not do a thing to them, fenbendazole (panacur) may also work if you can find it but it didnt work as well IME.

the bad thing about these nematodes is they not only feed off blood (which can lead to aenemia), they can create big tears in the intestinal lining which is where they attach which can leave the fish open to infections. they are live bearers which means if one fish in the tank has it everyone else does regardless of whether you can see the adult worms hanging out. fish will sometimes have problems passing the worms after treatment if they have a large load and it will sometimes block them up which is why a dose of epsom salts is reccomended with both doses (you need to do two, one-two weeks apart).

they seem to hit rams the hardest in my experience but i successfully erradicated them from my tank. you need to make sure you do not swap gear from tank to tank without it being sterilised first nor touch the infested tank before others without washing your hands well.

if you need any extra help with this feel free to pm me, they are nasty buggers but easy to wipe out IME and i can probably send you a bottle of levamisole if you like (really cheap too and will do a large amount of water) if i can still get it.