Hey everyone,
I have been in a battle against camillanus worms in my 55g for a few months now. This tank originally was fully planted with substrate and had two female black mollies, one male, one female dalmatian molly, and one male silver lyretail molly, and a group of 2 male 3 female panda guppies (who have all since produced a lot of fry), 2 mystery snails, and some malaysian trumpet snails. I first noticed the worms in a few of my panda guppies when they were coming out of their anuses, and I moved these fish to a quarantine tank. For a period of about a month and a half, I medicated both the quarantine tank and the 55g with thomaslabs fenbendezole (mixing it with the food and wetting with tankwater to soak it up), gravel vacuuming about 5 times a week, and for a while the 55 looked to be worm free until bloating and stringy poop in my mollies. When the everything aquatic levamisole flakes I had ordered arrived, I gave it about a week med free and then switched to 3 weeks of the levamasole, continuing to vac. My efforts to eradicate the worms from my 55g were a confirmed failure around this time, when I noticed one of the molly fish had camillanus coming out. At this point I figured it was necessary to temporarily remove the fish in order to take out the substrate (so that no more eggs would linger in the substrate) to do a more through de-worming. I moved the fish back (and the quarantine guppies-no reason to isolate them anymore) to the 55g when levels were appropriate (ph took a dip around here, I elaborate later, but the fish were reintroduced at about 7.0 down from 7.6 when I went from bare bottom to just some shells and coral on the bottom) and was finishing the 3 weeks of levamisole around this time, gave a week of regular feeding (2 times a day). The fish continue to show symptoms (increasingly swollen abdomen, stringy poop, a few with visible worms coming out). In the past few days, fish have started flashing, including the many molly, guppy, and muppy(?) fry, who have also been increasingly nipping at the fins of the bigger mollies. The tank is at this point bare bottomed with some shells, coral, and a few unpotted plants (for filtration and line of sight blocks) and 2 big sponge filters, one running through a power head, an airstone running. One black molly got her dorsal fin nipped bad by the fry, and I began adding instant ocean marine salt (5 tbsp per every 5 gallons) to clean the wound without introducing more meds. Over about 3 days, the wound area began to look paler than the rest of her, grayish like a small scuff (one which I have seen from aggression among these mollies in the past which healed quickly) from the fish biting one another at first, then a little bit more white as it spread onto her back in the next few days, sort of blotchy and inconsistent looking (unfortunately I didn't take a picture of this before she passed... she was the only fish showing any symptom like this until yesterday, when another black molly got a small dot like this on her back just below the dorsal fin). Last night, the fish with the wound died (the salt did not help), and another molly fish died this morning, this one showing no similar symptoms on her scales (she was a Dalmatian molly, so maybe the coloration impacts its visibility), though she did have an increasingly bloated stomach (probably worms she could not pass). The mystery snails also died, probably as a result of the fenbendezole, though the malaysian trumpets live on. Levels have been relatively consistent through this with the exception of PH, which usually sits around 7.5, took a dip to 6.8 when removing substrate, which I slowly worked back up to a consistent range of 7.5-6 with small pinches of baking soda in water changes. The water has also been increasingly cloudy the past week, probabaly because of a bacterial bloom which may have caused the wounded black molly to become infected (I am uncertain what happened to her, and its part of what I am asking you all for advice on). I know now that I should have de wormed all of the fish better before putting them in the display tank, but I was fresh to the hobby when starting this tank up... and this post is seeking out advice to cure my fish, not any scolds about quarantine tanking (I get the impression that most of the aquarium co op community congregates around frustration with the inconsistent fish police). I will upload a picture of the fish with the small blotch on her back once I can figure out how. Is there any other medication or treatment I should consider to get these fish to better health?
Thanks for reading and your advice,
Jake
