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I recently had several deaths in my fish family. I lost 1 Angelfish, 1 copperfire Gouramis & my Pleco. Thinking there was problems in the water, I have done my tsting all was well. That was when I noticed that my other Copperfire Gouramis had Camallanus. For those who do not know what Camallanus is, it is thread like worms that protrudes out of the anus of the fish.

I have treated my aquarium with Parasite Clear & have put all fish on Anti-Parasite medicated fish food. I have also quarentined my infected Gouramis in my hospital tank.

If any one has had this problem before, I could really use some advise on how to treat & eliminate the parasite. I have never had this problem before & I dont know what else to do. I understand internal parasites are difficult to get rid of. Please help!

Just in case you missed it, Zachf92 has suggested the following link for similar problem (see Illness):

http://fishpalace.org/disease.htm#Worm
Be sure to also look at the link in the roundworms section.

Two of my fishes also got this parasite and I'm struggling to save my other fishes too..
Good luck.

Hello there,
I have had a serious, long battle with these worms,
which cost me a small fortune trying every med on
the market for internal parasites in fish.
Not one of them worked.

Youve done the right thing by quarantining
any fish with it. Keep an eye on the remaining fish
in the tank, often a whole tank can become infested
rapidly.

Here is a link to an article I have written on Camallanus worms, and my long battle with, and eventual success over it. The med I finally found to kill the worms is called
Fenbendazole, sold under the brand name Panacur. I got it through a vet, you may need to also.

http://www.petfish.net/kb/entry/12/154/

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Hey Everyone

I appreciate the advise but what do I do if I cant get a vet to prescribe Panacur. I cant get anyone to help. They either dont know what Camallanus is or they dont have anything that will help (in the LFS) & the local vets wont prescribe anything & most vets dont deal with fish. What do I do now???? HELP

Just find some info online on Camallanus worms,
print it up, and take it to any vet.
Just simply tell them, this is what my fish has,
I need some de-wormer, and Ive heard panacur is
safe for fish.
Heres a good article you could print:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/FA/FA09100.pdf

pages 7-8 in particular are about camallanus.
Also, any fish health book will likely have a pic
of camallanus and article - check your library
and take the book with you to the vet clinic.

And heres a good picture you could also print:



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Ok...
So get this....I have Panacur coming to me via "Petmeds" thank goodness. It took a bit but I should have some in a few days. Now here is my new delimma. The Panacur is in a tablet form @ a 1 gram dose but it says "1 tablet for 10 lbs" my fish is no where near 10 lbs or even 1 lb. What would be the dose? If I crush it into powder & mix the powder in 1ml of water then I dilute 3cc (panacur solution) into 100mls of water would this be correct in the dose for the fish? I'm a little rusty on my Chemistry. Help!

Hey there,
Yeah crush the pills up.
Mine is granular, 22.2% fenbendazole.
Your idea should work.
It may take more treatments if its a lower dosage.
To completely kill it in my tank, It needed 2 dose
rounds of 2 days each 14 days apart.
I did a 3rd dose just to be sure.


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Ok well wish me luck...I really hope this will work.

& thanks for the help

Good luck Jasmine. And I need that too - I still haven't get hold of my vet..

GREAT NEWS......

My meds came in! I felt like a kid at Christmas. I could not wait for this package to come in.....Ha Ha

So I dissolved my Panacur in 100mls of water. I bought Brine shrimp instead of Blood worms since I believe they were the cause of the infestation. I am currently soaking them in the Panacur solution. I will then re-freeze the Brine & start my treatment. With a little luck I will see an improvement in the health of my fish. Cross your fingers.

A quick note the 1 gram dose of the Panacur was 22.2 % Fenbendazole.

Thanks again....I really appreciate the advise & the help!

Bloodworms do not carry camallanus worms,
not even in the wild do the midges carry them,
not in larvae form or in mosquito form.
Also, frozen bloodworms have been frozen,
and freezing kills 99% of all parasites.

The camallanus would have come in on either
a fish that had it (can take up to a year
for a fish to show signs of camallanus, and many
die before you even see it at all),
or it came in with used gravel or aquarium plants.

Brine shrimp will work ok, just they do have the
hard little shells that may make it harder for the
meds to absorb.

Good luck and keep us posted!
I hope it all goes well and you see improvement
soon!

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I know what you mean (about feeling like a kid at x'mas). I got the Panacur 10% Fenbendazole solution from my vet yesterday. Starting to treat my 30G tank today. And keeping my fingers crossed tonight..

Ok ....

I have started my treatment & now I am wondering what am I looking for. Will I actually see the worms being "pooped" out or will it look like a "white mucus" like tissue.....I have been watching my fish like a hawk & I dont know what I am looking for or at. I am so eager to help my fish I am growing impatient, eventhough I just started. LOL

Basically, if you watch the fish where the red
worms are poking out, once the meds kill the worms,
you will see the worms turn white, stop moving,
and will fall out of the fish.
Its important to do a good gravel vac
after each treatment to remove worm corpses
and possible larvae in the gravel.


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TFH covered Camallanus way back in the 1970s.

As well as other infected fishes, there exists a second route by which Camallanus can enter your aquarium. These creatures are digenetic - they have two different hosts during different stages of life - and one of the stages inhabits the digestive tract of Cyclops.

So if you feed live Daphnia, first of all, check to see if there are Cyclops present. Cyclops quite often ends up being netted along with the Daphnia. If you have Cyclops in your live food, then it's time to exercise some caution.

In my case, the live food I obtain from my LFS is sourced from a specially constructed Daphnia pond, and no fishes have ever lived in it, so any live foods I obtain are relatively safe. But if you don't know the provenance of your live foods, it's worth going to the trouble of segregating the Daphnia from the Cyclops if you think that the Cyclops could pose an infection threat.

Of course, the other way of solving this problem is to cultivate the live foods in a pond of your own, and let them multiply in the pond. Don't harvest them for at least 6 months, give any resident Camallanus in any Cyclops time to die off. If Camallanus cannot find any fishes to infect, then they can survive in a Cyclops population for up to three generations, but after that, they need to find a fish to infect and subsequent generations die.

Once you have a supply of live food ticking over in a pond of your own, with Camallanus safely withered away into extinction, you can resume normal feeding.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Hows it goin with the Camallanus worms
Jasmine and Ricky?


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I have 6 fishes got the worms. Three of them responded well after the first treatment - One completely got rid of the worms. The other two are still with some dead worms. They seem to regain their energy and appetite.

Not so sure about the other three. I guess they need another round of treatment. I'll give those 3 a stronger dose, and the others a follow up treatment the coming weekend.

Thanks.

Excellent Ricky!
Im so glad to hear it, and super glad
my vet recommended this med.
Im glad youre having good results.
How bout you Jasmine?


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