Description

Symptoms: worms hanging from the anus.

The worms of approx. 2 cm length in the intestines of the fish often cause the fish to become severely emaciated or the opposite: the abdominal cavity becomes bloated. It is very likely that the infection has been caused by live food. Here, it should be noted that the Camallanus genus is live bearing and can infect multiple generations of fish without changing hosts. Camallanus belongs to the threadworms (nematodes). Nematodes infect just about anywhere in the body but only shows itself when they hang out of the anus. A heavy infestation causes hollow bellies. Lighter infestations usually cause no problems with the fish.

Treatment

Remove any activated carbon from the filter for the duration of use. Switch off any UV-C appliances and CO₂ fertilizing appliances. Please also ensure that skimmers and ozonisers in saltwater are switched off. Change 50 % of the water prior to application of medication. Aerate the aquarium using a diaphragm pump with air stone during the treatment. We recommend cleaning the filter prior to use of medication. Feed the fish sparingly during the treatment.

Two treatments have been suggested. First treatment; soak the food in parachlorometaxylenol and give the fish a bath or treat the aquarium with 10 ml per liter. The bath should last for several days. Second treatment; find special food containing thiabendazole as a nematode (threadworm) cure and hope the fish will eat it.

After treatment

After the treatment, please filter the aquarium water for 24 hours using activated carbon to remove the residues of medication. Afterwards the activated carbon should be duly discarded. After the filtering with activated carbon please disinfect or replace the filter media. The addition of a bacterial starter to the aquarium water helps to replace any purifying bacteria which may have been affected. Please check the ammonium/ ammonia and nitrite values during the treatment and daily in the first days after the treatment. With nitrite values of over 0.5 mg/l an immediate water change of 50% should be carried out and a bacterial starter added.