Advice urgently needed to treat nematode infection

[parkap]

Hi all,

I just posted this in the Emergency room area, but am putting it here as well, in case there's any apisto specific things I need to worry about.

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Hi All,

Can anyone advise what treatment to use for a nematode infection? It looks to have come into my 6x2x2 display tank via my Apistogramma bitaeniata's and ahs now psread to at least my angels, if not more of the apisto's. The male bitaeniata died on the weekend, but I managed to fish him out before then. The female is stillin the tank avoiding capture.

She has little red tubicles/fibres sticking out of her rectum, so am sure it's a nematode infection.

What do I use to treat this and where can I get it from?

Regards,
Peter.

[Noddy65]

Hi Pete
Sounds like calamanus worms to me...usual treatment is to use a liquid Levamisole at 1ml per 7 liters of aquarium water...
There are many products available, you may be able to get it from your LFS or a stock feeding shop. Try and keep away from any of the products for birds if you can, it usually has extras like sugars etc added...

Also do a search here for Levamisole,,,the info on this forum is good and mostly accurate.

Good luck

Mike

[antwan]

Hi there, it sounds to me like what you have is camallanus. I too had this in my bitaeniata, but was able to fix them with levamisole (this is a bird dewormer, and can be found at your local vet).

Do a really big water change; 90% or so making sure to vacuum the bottom of the tank well. Add the amount of levamisole needed for your sized tank (1mL per 20L) (pays to get a cup of aquarium water and mix in the levamisole to that, then tip it into the tank). Make sure to monitor your fish well throughout the medication, you can do a 48 hour treatment if the fish look fine, but 24 hours will suffice. After the 24/48 hours do another massive 90% water change making sure to vacuum the bottom really well again. Wait two weeks, then repeat the whole process.

This process worked for me and my apistos really well, they didn't look unwell at all during the whole process.

How long have you noticed the fish having the camallanus? They are nematodes, and feed on blood from the inside of the fish (that's why they're red). This means they're doing damage to the insides of your fish, a small infestation can be fine, but a larger one will require furthur treatment to heal the fishes insides.

Make sure when you do your gravel vacuuming, that you do it VERY well, this point cannot be stressed enough, as this is where the eggs of the worms are.

Good luck, I hope you find some levamisole (I would send you some, but it would be a bit difficult) and get these fish of yours cleaned up.

[Sime76]

Theres heaps of stuff on this condition on this forum. As the other guys have said, levamisole is the go. Look for Big L by Sykes - its a wormer for poultry and pigs, I got mine from a stock feed joint and its pretty cheap too about 20 for 500ml.

[Merrilyn]

Mike, I know you're a vet. I wonder if you would confirm the dosage rate of Levamisole please.

I've also asked this question of Andrew (fishgeek) who is also a vet.

I've always recommended a dose rate of 1 ml per 7 litres of tank water, with a repeat dose in 7 days.

If you have other suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated. :P

[wickedglass]

sometimes the suggested period of 24 hour levamisole and then water change isn't enough as I've recently found with some of my apistos. The most recent thing I tried is a 7 day treatment of the whole tank (my holding tank) at 1 ml per 7 liters ... I've also had success at double the dosage for 3 days.
I've treated Apistos with levamisole several times now at varying doses and time spans and had no ill effects. It seems levamisole is pretty gentle on the fish. I also have cories and livebearers in my holding tanks, and they were ok, too, every time.

The one I've found to be a lot more aggressive is praziquantal tapeworm and gillfluke treatment ... one time I used it it ate up my glass cats' fins until the cats were just transparent red stumps ... and that was at half the dose with the catfish in mind :/ my cacas died during that treatment, too.

[Noddy65]

Hi Merrilyn

The 1 ml per 7 liters is generally OK as long as your using the Levamisole which has the 16 mg/ l concentration.
The recommended dose is 1 - 2 mg liter of aquarium water. Since Levamisole seems to be pretty safe lets go for 2 mg per liter.

To make things easier assume the tank is 50 liters therefor you want 50 (liters) x 2 (mg) which gives a total of 100 mg required.
Now divide that by the concentration on the bottle, lets assume its 16 mg / ml (or 16 gms per litre) which gives 100/16 = which will give the total number of mils required for the tank, in this case its just over 6 mls.

To check the 1 ml per 7 litres just divide 50 litres by 7 and multiply by the 16 mg/ml concentration. this gives roughly 114 mg which again is pretty close to the required dose.

As far as I know this is an effective dose ie 1 -2 ml per liter. It wouldn't hurt to repeat in 7 days.

Mike

[Merrilyn]

Thanks so much Mike.

I appreciate that :P

[parkap]

Hi all,

Thanks for the advice. This is exactly the same info given to me in the Emergency Room.

I've responded to the replies there. basically I've isolated my angels but can't find the bitaeniata anywhere in the tank after extensive searching, although there are plenty of places for it to hide in.

Thanks again,
p.

[Robdog]

The one I've found to be a lot more aggressive is praziquantal tapeworm and gillfluke treatment

I've also has some crook experiences treating apisto's with Prazi. I treated an old Orange Flash with prazi and to my knowledge it was the correct dosage, it not only killed the little guy but over a period of 48-72 hrs it actually disolved him almost to his bones.