Midas Posted June 12, 2002 Report Share Posted June 12, 2002 Has anyone ever had problems with roundworms (Camallanus) before? When I had a breakout of these worms about a year ago no one at LFS had heard about it and no local vets had a clue either. So I thought I would post about it for those interested and to see what others had experienced. You know if your fish ever get these worms as they hang out the anus and look like thin red hairs hanging down 1-5mm (I know it sounds pretty yuck). They can be very serious and can kill. Aparently they can spread from fish to fish without an intermediate host as well, so potentially the whole tank can be infected. From what I have read they most likely come from when the fish are bred outside overseas in open tanks or from live food such as daphnia, which can act as an intermidiate host. When I realised what these things were that my fish had I found some info on the net about treating them: http://www.thekrib.com/Diseases/nematodes.html http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/CamellanusTreatment.pdf A good treatment seemed to be a drug called levamisole hydrochloride. It used to be widely used as the active anthelmintic (anti worm) ingredient in cattle drenches for roundworms, but seems less popular now with only a few drenches containing it. To treat my tank with levamisole I could either put some drench in (which apart from the cloudy mess it makes is aparently safe to do) or try to get some of the active ingredient. As the smallest amount of drench I could buy cost $100+ (20L) and I only needed a few ml's, tracking down the active ingredient looked the best way to go. After much running around I managed to track some down from Ancare. By the time I got the stuff some of my fish (especially keyhole cichlids and surviving tetras (several had alreadly died from the worms) were looking quite bad with heaps of worms sticking out. I mixed some of the stuff up and added it at 15mg/l, and hoped for the best. When I had a look the next morning not a single worm could be seen and the fish seemed much happier. However, it took a couple of weeks for the fish that had been really badly infected to heal up completely (quite a bit of damage done). After a couple of days I started series of 50% water changes to get rid of the stuff and everything seemed fine. Overall I really rate this drug. It doesn't seem to have any toxic effects on fish from what I have read and seen and it works really well. I think the only thing that you have to worry about is that the pH is not alkaline (preferably less than 7), so that the drug dissociates correctly. It seems a lot better than other treatments like stripping the tank and treating with salt etc, while feeding the fish some kind of anthelmintic drug in a seperate tank. Before I got the levamisole, I actually tried to treat my my fish by feeding them some bird dewormer that had tetramisole as the active ingredient (an isomer of levamisole) mixed up with bloodworm and gelatine. However, the fish that were the most badly infected didn't want to eat much of it, so didn't get enough drug to cure them. Have a look at the links above if you want more info. and I'd be curious to know if anyone else has had a run in with these worms before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajbroome Posted June 12, 2002 Report Share Posted June 12, 2002 Midas said... > Has anyone ever had problems with roundworms (Camallanus) before? Last time I visited Len Trigg in the Waikato he was having problems with these in some Aphyosemion scheeli. He tried a couple of things and eventually got a vet to make up a treatment that worked well. He's writing an article, to be published in the NZKA journal and I'm sure he'll be happy to tell you what he did. Contact Len at [email protected], tell him I sent you if you like. Andrew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted June 12, 2002 Report Share Posted June 12, 2002 Yep - I've had a run in with those worms before. I treated with Curex (an aquarium medication for internal parasites). Can't say I was overly impressed with the performance of Curex - I had to do two consecutive treatment regimes (each of 9 or 10 days) before they all seemed to have gone. My LFS new about them - but then he's been in the business more than 20 years so there's not alot that he hasn't come across. I had recently heard about the treatment/drug you mentioned (it was mentioned in the ANGFA bulletin), saying that it was safe with a wide range of fish including scaleless ones such as loaches. They said that in some cases within a few hours of treatment you could see the fish expelling the worms - they did recommend a follow-up treatment 5 days after the initial. How did you go about getting the active ingredient from Ancare - could you do it directly or did you have to do it through a vet? What was the price like - you can contact me off list if you prefer. Rob ps ANGFA = Australia and New Guinea Fishes Association. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted June 13, 2002 Report Share Posted June 13, 2002 Added the links to the "Useful links section" Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted June 13, 2002 Report Share Posted June 13, 2002 Well done Midas! I've never heard of a water additive for deworming. It's normal to have to ingest the worming agent for it to be effective. This cure is especially important as it can be used on fish that do not want to eat. Can you tell us more. 1. Where did you get the stuff and exactly what was it called (brand name / active ingredient name)? 2. What size packet did you get? 3. How much? Thanks Warren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midas Posted June 13, 2002 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2002 Finding somewhere to get hold of this stuff is one of the problems. The name of the chemical is levamisole hydrochloride. As far as I know it is not available as a formulation of any kind (not for fish anyway, its in some in cattle and sheep drenches). At the time I was lucky enough to know someone in the right place at Ancare that I could get some through from their lab. Presumably places like Ancare would have to get it off some kind of chemical supply company so I guess chemical supply companies could be looked at as a possible source. Although I could imagine the minimum quantity that they sell would be large (like kg quantities). Alternatively vets may know where to get some (they would probably know someone at a animal health company like Ancare too, as I did). As far as cost goes I got about 100g for less than $5 (thats enough for a single treatment of 6000-7000L). So its pretty cheap really considering the amount it would cost to treat even a large tank. Price would vary though I guess depending on the source and the markup. I suggested to my friend at Ancare that they should make a commercial formulation with levamisole as the active for fish. Apparently the market is far too small however (compared to cattle and sheep etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted June 13, 2002 Report Share Posted June 13, 2002 Cheers Midas, I'll root around the local labs and chemical supliers. If anything turns up I'll post the results here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted June 13, 2002 Report Share Posted June 13, 2002 Does this mean we've gotta start breeding bigger fish (since we're too small compared to cattle and sheep)? :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatman Posted June 15, 2002 Report Share Posted June 15, 2002 Itried to obtain this chemical levamisole by phoning around chemical supply /drug companys and even the local vets and chemists, even went to the effort of getting infomation about bringing into NZ a small amount ( through MAF ) and what I learnt was, Cant get it from anybody I tried and prohibitivley (sp) expensive to get imported legaly into NZ as it has not been registerd as a chemical by itself, but can be imported if it is a component that is pre/mixed product, that is worming paste etc :-? But I only tried 3 or 4 chemical suppliers, 5 vets, 3 chemists and the government agency that deals with drug importation, sombody else may have better luck if they have the right contacts rgds Terry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flipper Posted July 17, 2002 Report Share Posted July 17, 2002 Have any of you tried obtaining levamisole hydrochloride(camallanus worm killer) as a birdwormer (for canary,parrots,pidgeons,etc). I have just bought a bottle of Elliots bird wormer(in Aus) active constituent 12g/l levamisole hcl.I can't seem to be able to obtain it in any other form here . I currentlyam trying Sterazin on two wormy angels but I will have to finish the complete coarse to see if it works . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted July 17, 2002 Report Share Posted July 17, 2002 Hi Flipper, Welcome to the NZ Fishroom. There's a couple of links here that you might find interesting reading. CAMALLANUS ROUNDWORMS. CURES AND CONTACTS. http://www.thekrib.com/Diseases/nematodes.html http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/CamellanusTreatment.pdf Would be nice to hear about your fish in the "Welcome" section if you find time. Hope you find the forum interesting and enjoy your visits. Regards, Bill (Pegasus) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted July 18, 2002 Report Share Posted July 18, 2002 Another drug which is effective on camallanus is flubemol 5% at a dose of 200mg/100litres. Although it doesn't work as quick as levamisole appears to. It is marketed as a treatment for nematodes in poultry and pigs. I obtained a sample from a company called Nutritech. I keep the container at work so I can accurately way out the required amount. I'm sure it has contact details for the company on the label so I will post those tomorrow. It is also a good treatment for flukes, capillaria and I recently discovered it is also very effective against hydra. One major drawback (depending on your point of view) is it kills snails, all except those very small ramshorn types with the translucent shells. (does anything kill those?) Flubenol 5% does not have any effect on eggs, does levamisole? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midas Posted July 23, 2002 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2002 not sure, didn't have any eggs around when I used it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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