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For a few days, I have noticed that one of my male sailfin molly has some hair like stuff (red in color, 1-2 mm long, no movement) hanging from his anus. This doesn't seem to bother him - yet. Could it be a kind of parasite? Is it contagious? Please help.

Hi there,
what you have here is a worm called Camallanus.
It is one of the hardest parasites to get rid of.
Yes, it is highly contagious.
I spent hundreds of dollars in meds trying to cure
an outbreak of this that was in both my 10g and 75g tanks.
It spreads rapidly.
There are only 2 drugs I know of that actually really
kill this:
Levamisole HCL - a bird or goat/sheep wormer. Comes in a
liquid injectable form, thats the one you want.
Fenbendazole (brand name Panacur)- comes in a granular
form. Must be mixed 3cc to 100ml water, and soak frozen bloodworms in this for 1 hour, then feed them to the fish.
Feed for 2 days straight with medicated food
and then repeat 2 weeks later. You may need to get
Fenbendazole from a Vet, I had to.

After each treatment you must do a really good gravel vac,
fast the fish for 2 days (no food), then feed only
vegetable based items to clear worm carcasses out of
the fish.
Your best to remove any affected fish to a quarantine tank,
and treat all fish.

Camallanus worms live in the intestines of the fish,
and drink their blood, thats why the red color.
They will kill fish if left untreated,
and despite treatment you may lose some fish anyway.
Often when the worms are killed they bite down and
tear open the intestine of the fish,
causing infection and death.

Good luck.


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Thanks very much for your detailed info. This Camallanus sounds very scary..
How did it get into my tank in the first place?
I'm really worry about my other fishes now.

Forgot to mention that I've fed my fish with frozen bloodworms twice weekly for a few weeks. Could this be the source of the problem?

Hi there,
your fish did not get it from bloodworms.
It came from an infected fish.
It can take a long time, sometimes as much as year
for the worms to be large enough to be noticeable.


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Camallanus is a genus of nematode native to Asia, and so the majority of fish infected are those bred in Southeast Asia or those who have had close contact with Asian-bred fish.

Mollies and most other livebearers you see in stores were probably bred in Asian fish farms, so it is extremely likely your fish just got shipped over here already infected.

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Just to mention,
all the fish I have gotten who had Camallanus,
all came from Seagrest Farms in Florida,
which stocks a good many of the fish stores
all over north america.
I will no longer buy any fish at all that come
from that fish farm, I ask and if a store buys
from there, I dont buy my fish there.
Its quite likely they became infested with it due
to getting breeding stock from Asia.
It seems to affect most livebearers and labyrinth
fish and cichlids and plecos.
Loaches and catfish seem immune to it.


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