Bilbo Posted February 17, 2010 Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 I hate this bug. I estimate the losses from this little monster are in the hundreds if not the thousands of dollars. Once again I am using Levamisole but this time I am nuking everything including bleaching all the unused tanks just in case. All data I can find says that this cannot survive in a dormant state lurking in old gravel or driftwood but I am not about to take any more chances with it. Treatment schedule and effectiveness will be posted later. It only looks like 1 in the photo but I have seen at least 4 sticking out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moya Posted February 17, 2010 Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 Eurgh, what is that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted February 17, 2010 Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 Callamanus worm http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/callamanus-worm.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted February 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 Thanks Ryan. I should have put that in sorry. Camellanus (Camel-Anus) worm http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/CamallanusTreatment/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 how do you guys get these things? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 can come in in new fish, can take a month or more to show, so can get through a short quarantine period that a hobbyist might do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 Also introduced with live food cultured outside like daphnia etc.. They are very very common in fish in shops angels in particular seem to have a reputation for being vulnerable to them and able to carry them for long periods with no ill effects but transmit them to every other fish.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 yes ryan saw a couple of cichlids in a lfs the other day thay were in an asvanced stage so all others in the tank would possibly be infected Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 Yeah the danger of it is the fact the worms can stay inside unseen and sometimes the fish show no external signs of it.. I treated all of my tanks for it a few years ago and will probably do the same again soon more as a just in case than anything else, usually by the time you see the worms the fish is pretty well screwed anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted February 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 Some research suggests that by the time the worms are visible they may be 3 - 5 months old. I don't know if that is true or not but I know I lost a pile of apistos a few years ago before I knew what this was and don't plan on loosing any more. The big male cockatoo is eating whiteworms tonight and I cant see any signs of worms sticking out of him but I cant see any on the bottom either so either they came out and he ate them again or they withdrew back in. Pleased he is eating because that will help him push any dead or paralized worms inside him out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 Also introduced with live food cultured outside like daphnia etc.. You're kidding! I didn't know that....can daphnia be the intermediate hosts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 pretty sure camellanus doesn't need an intermediate host The transmission is faecal, so usually through ingesting the worm larvae or eggs i could be wrong though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 pretty sure camellanus doesn't need an intermediate host The transmission is faecal, so usually through ingesting the worm larvae or eggs i could be wrong though Yeah, that's waht I thought too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 Info is hard to find.. But I did find this. I am pretty sure it can and probably does infect daphnia etc as birds eat fish that carry it and then poo in our daphnia buckets, I also suspect that rainwater (collected off your house roof covered in bird poo) would also do a good job of spreading the bug.. As you guys have pointed out it can and will just keep infecting fish but I think it can also go through your live food.. The parasitic fish nematode Camallanus cotti has been reported from a number of freshwater fish species around the world. Its wide geographical distribution seems mainly to be the result of anthropogenic dissemination due to extensive ornamental fish trade. In most reports it is assumed that C. cotti's life cycle involves cyclopoid copepods as intermediate host and various freshwater fishes as final host. However, the species' relatively frequent and persistent occurrence in aquaria worldwide strongly indicates flexibility in its life cycle, i.e. the ability to infect the final host directly. The present study has shown that under aquaria conditions, without any presence of copepods, C. cotti is able to infect various phylogenetically distant fish species directly for at least three generations. It was further shown that the infective free-living first-stage larvae may survive for more than three weeks in the host-external environment and that their host-attracting behaviour is not precluding direct transmission to the final fish host. Any treatment for C. cotti under aquaculture or aquarium conditions should be directed towards both individual infected fish hosts as well as the free-living larvae on the substrate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 fish eating birds in nz would be kingfishers and the odd pukeko putting waste tank water into your daphnia cultures may help to spread it there though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/fa/fa09100.pdf Page 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 an excellent article Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted February 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 Update. 30 hours on from 1st medication. Sorry for being so vague before but I had though my post would be. "That was easy I solved it and the fish is happy and healthy and this is how..." sadly this isn't the case. The tank is 500x500 and has 200mm of water in it. I dosed .5ml of aviverm (24% levamisole)which is slightly above the recommended rate of 2ppm. Earlier I posted The big male cockatoo is eating white-worms tonight and I cant see any signs of worms sticking out of him but I cant see any on the bottom either so either they came out and he ate them again or they withdrew back in. I had done a 100% water change and the fish seemed quite happy but it turns out the worms had gone back inside him and they were definitely not dead or paralyzed. Tonight I dosed again 1.25ml which is about 5ppm, massively over recommended rate but the fish will die if I don't clear him out. In the mean time a female guppy gave birth to heaps of babies which the cockatoo was happily munching on until I put the aviverm in and he stopped eating almost immediately. He did the same thing last night with the 2ppm dose also. I will be culling everything else in this tank once this is over anyway but at the moment nothing else seems to be affected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 Clinically we have used levamisole baths of 2mg/L (2ppm) for 24 hours and followed it by a 100% water change. Then redosed in 2 weeks. The worms will become paralysed within 6 hours and believe it or not will eventually die (even if they remain visible for several days afterward). Using a higher dosage is safe (the LD 50 is around 250mg/L for most animals) but it is not more effective with camallanus worms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted February 19, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2010 Thanks jenniferh. I should have known that but I paniced. Still no worms out on the bottom of the tank but another 100 % water change and everything seems happy. Will wait and see if they pop out over the next few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted March 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2010 All worms seem to have gone and the fish looks happy and healthy. He is eating anything put in front of him and has coloured up again. Will do a followup treatment this week but I am happy that levamisole has worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted March 1, 2010 Report Share Posted March 1, 2010 Glad to hear it Bilbo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simian Posted March 2, 2010 Report Share Posted March 2, 2010 Levamisole FTW Its great stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redracer77 Posted March 9, 2010 Report Share Posted March 9, 2010 I think my some of my fish may have this, I was cleaning the filter last night from the hospital tank and found a worm that looks the same as these, it was still alive, Can these live in the filter for 24hr? as the fish were removed and put back in the main the previous night. Can I treat my whole tank? if so will I need a 100% water change? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 If you have recently carried out an antiparasitic treatment and the worms are passing it is possible to see internal parasites outside of the body, however, they usually aren't alive for long. Therefore, I would be inclined to think that these are just environmental worms rather than internal parasites. I had an infestation of red worms in my tank once when I fed too much cucumber. They were all over in the filter and throughout the plants. I just cut back on feeding and vacuumed the substrate and eventually they went away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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