Fighting internal worms

[coreywoods]

I have a 30 gall bowfront aquarium that is heavily planted. tank has a few guppies, 10 cardinal tetra, 5 dwarf gourami, 6 neon dwarf rainbow fish, hundreds of baby mystery snails and 6 cory cat fish. I can add pics of the tank once I get home for better help. I've been fighting internal parasites for almost 7 months now. slowing loosing a fish or two every month. I have been using the med trio for 2 months now and have tried dosing salt. i think those medications aren't getting into the stomachs of the fish for treatment. most of the fish still appear to be eating with the exception of a few guppies and all fish I have seen with long stringy white feces. the only thing I haven't tried is medicated fish food. Dose anyone have any good recommendations for either making my own medicated fish food, or finding some online to purchase? I'm having a hard time finding any online for sale. 

[Colu]

I would stop using the med trio 2month is along time to be dosing med over medicating is not good for your fish if it has not got rid of the internal parasites i would do water change leave then for a couple of days to rest  and then i would treat with prazipro 

Edited March 1, 2021 by Colu

[coreywoods]

It hasn't been a 2 month straight treatment. I've been giving breaks to the fish. I've tried prazipro already. I've been taking preventive measures from worms in the water column with the prazipro, salt, and paracleanse. The only thing I have not tried is to get meds into the fish body to treat the worms already inside their stomachs, but unsure where to get medicated food or how to make it. I've moved a guppy that looks the worst into a sperate tank. uploading pics of the infected tank and the most sick fish that is separated. its hard to see but the rest of the fish stomachs are blown up and have been producing long white stringy poop. iv already lost 7 fish to these parasites. 😞 the pic of the guppy has a red thing on her side, I'm wondering if its camallanus worms.

[Colu]

If paracleanse and prazipro have not work I would treat with levamisole 

[Jollypop4321]

I’m sure you know this but just in case it is important to vacuum your substrate during and after treatment of parasites to remove their eggs and any living parasites excreted from the fish.   Failure to do this will result in re-infection.  And it is also recommended to do a follow up treatment even if there are no visible signs of symptoms  to ensure a reinffection  doesn’t occur.  
 

your female guppy definitely has a secondary infection.  I’m unsure how to successfully treat her.  

[coreywoods]

Thankyou for the insight Jollypop4321. 🙂 iv been doing my best with gravel vacs and water changes. One of the gourami is looking like she isn't going to make it. I had to move her to a separate tank today as well. as I moved her she released a long string of white poo. I've ordered meds to make medicated fish food and going to try fish food meds. will see if she made it by the time the meds arrive. found a vid from kg tropicals about how to make the food. i have a feeling i might be a bit too late though for that poor gourami. worst case scenario if I loose all my fish, I'm just going to leave the tank as a planted tank for a month and keep treating the tank until I'm confident the worms are dead because i think they will have a hard time surviving without hosts. 

[Schwack]

Gonna second @Colu's suggestion of levamisole. I'm not sure if you've been able to get a good look at the worms, but I just went through a battle with camallanus worms a few weeks back. My infestation started about the same as yours. I'd lose ~1 fish a month, typically smaller fish. Bodies almost always looked totally normal, if a bit thin behind their bellies.

Finally, I spotted a tiny, read thread dangling from a fish hanging at the bottom of the tank and was able to get a concrete diagnosis. I still lost several fish who had been heavily infected by the worms, but treatment saved the others.

My understanding, based on reading way too much about worms lately, is that some of the most common dewormers (fenbendazole and praziquel) are ineffective at treating camallanus worms or only temporarily paralyze the worms. Levamisole is dosed into the water column and, according to the instructions from Select Aquatics, will actually kill the worms.

I think the Coop recommends getting levamisole from Select Aquatics. A quick google search will bring them up. 

I had a bit of an issue with the levamisole spiking my cycle after treatment, but that's much easier to deal with than worms slowly killing your fish.

Best of luck getting things right. Losing so many fish was super discouraging for me, but being able to look back on it as a learning experience has helped lessen the blow a bit. 

On 3/1/2021 at 6:57 PM, coreywoods said:

Thankyou for the insight Jollypop4321. 🙂 iv been doing my best with gravel vacs and water changes. One of the gourami is looking like she isn't going to make it. I had to move her to a separate tank today as well. as I moved her she released a long string of white poo. I've ordered meds to make medicated fish food and going to try fish food meds. will see if she made it by the time the meds arrive. found a vid from kg tropicals about how to make the food. i have a feeling i might be a bit too late though for that poor gourami. worst case scenario if I loose all my fish, I'm just going to leave the tank as a planted tank for a month and keep treating the tank until I'm confident the worms are dead because i think they will have a hard time surviving without hosts. 

I don't know that there's any hard and fast data on how long they can survive without fish as hosts, but lots of folks claim they can piggyback on inverts for a while. It may be worthwhile to treat the empty tank just to be sure you're in the clear to add fish back.

Edited March 3, 2021 by Schwack

[coreywoods]

Schwack, thanks so much for the insight! I honestly haven't been able to determine what type of worms the fish have. I'm betting its got to be camallanus, being that they still have all the symptoms of worms after treatments. I went ahead and ordered the meds from select aquatics. hoping it arrives before I loose the two I had to separate. this might seem insensitive of me, but if I loose any fish before the treatment arrives, I'm going to attempt to dissect the bodies to see if I can see any worms inside their stomachs. Seems to be the next step for me to confirm what is going on in my tank. 😞 if I don't find worms, I will officially have no idea what is going on with my tank. 

[Schwack]

6 hours ago, coreywoods said:

Schwack, thanks so much for the insight! I honestly haven't been able to determine what type of worms the fish have. I'm betting its got to be camallanus, being that they still have all the symptoms of worms after treatments. I went ahead and ordered the meds from select aquatics. hoping it arrives before I loose the two I had to separate. this might seem insensitive of me, but if I loose any fish before the treatment arrives, I'm going to attempt to dissect the bodies to see if I can see any worms inside their stomachs. Seems to be the next step for me to confirm what is going on in my tank. 😞 if I don't find worms, I will officially have no idea what is going on with my tank. 

I ended up doing this with the last couple of fish I lost. It isn't pleasant, but being able to confirm a diagnosis of internal parasites means you can narrow your focus in terms of meds.