Ok I have lost a few fish now and think i may have some sort of parasitic worm or something. Mainly lost tetras and a ram. They seem to get a pointy red thing sticking out their bum. When the ram died i cut him open and it definately looked like a red worm.

Kinda freaking out as one of my apistos has kinda gone off her food and i dont wanna lose her. Any info, help, advice, diagnosis, treatment, whatever... would be much appreciated as i have just about had enough

cheers guys

Shane

bummer, you got camallanus there bud

its a nematode that sits in the lower intestine, what you see hanging out its rear end are the females behinds which are constantly dropping live young out. they are red because they are full of blood and they are securely anchored by little grinder looking things inside so dont try and pull them out. make sure you dont use any of your equipment on any other tanks if you have them without sterilising them first- its extremely easy to contaminate other tanks with it

i battled it for a while- rams were the most suseptable to dying off from it, their tummies went hollow then theyd die. i did two treatments and i havent seen it back since

i used levamisole for treating, it worked wonders and it doesnt kill your bio filters. it is also ok on sensitive fish- my wild apistos were in the tank and they were fine. pm me if you would like to try it, i can try and get some for you (its not that easy to get but my vet sells it and its cheap as chips!), i can also give you my dosing method if you wish- a few others have used that dosing method and it worked well for them and their fish.

as far as i know the only other meds that have a decent effect on camallanus is fenbendazole (not that readily available) and piperazine (dont even know if we can get that).

piperazine is the active ingredient in most 'party pills'

Could whack (pop) a few charge or silver bullets in there you reckon?

Thanks Sharn, much appreciated