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Livebearers with camillanus worms


Jake M
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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

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19 hours ago, Jake M said:

and this post is seeking out advice to cure my fish, not any scolds about quarantine tanking

We're not here to judge, we aren't about that here 🙂    I'm pretty sure each and every one of us in the aquarium hobby have learned this lesson the hard way, and even then... we still take risks, and even if you followed every 'proper protocol' there are no guarantees.


My guess is that the pH swings aren't helping and are probably stressing out those that didn't appear sick.   but it does sound like you have a bacteria bloom happening, which makes sense.   I know you're in the middle of dosing fenbendazole, and I don't know how it would react to dosing other medicines at the same time.   You said you were using salt, that's a good start, I would keep that up.   I would definitely change water, and try to keep the pH stable the whole time,  don't chase the pH, that'll kill fish quick in my opinion.  I think until you finish dosing the fenbendazole, I would use the salt and concentrate on frequent water changes, to keep the water from fouling, which would also reduce the bacteria in the water column.   After the worms are dealt with, then I'd think about adding other medicine.


 

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thanks for the response! I think you're right about pH.  My guess is that it dropped when I took out the sandy substrate/the buffer with it.  At this point my plan is to try and keep the pH consistent with where it was before removing the sand (with baking soda) until I've dealt with the worms, then stopping that chase.  I know the standard advice is not to chase pH, and I agree.. but the mollies and guppies don't do well at lower pH, and when I put some new sandy substrate in eventually (I hope) that the pH will be able to have been relatively consistent through that, like right now I'm trying to artificially keep it where it was naturally before and where it will be naturally later.  As of now this seems better than letting it swing around through the medication process, but there's definitely some risk. They seem to be doing a little bit better over the past 24h, flashing less (but I still see some fry flashing occasionally) and the bacterial bloom is less severe with the water changes

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If using baking soda, use it carefully. Test your measurements in a 5 gallon bucket first, to determine what effect X amount of baking soda has on your PH, given 5 gallons of water. Use an accurate measuring spoon.

For me, 1/2 teaspoon in 5 gallons brings my PH from 7.0 to approx 7.6-7.8. Your mileage may vary, given your initial water parameters.

Edited by quikv6
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