Camallanus worms... please help

[Karen B.]

Greetings fellow aquarists. I feel like I am going through some nightmare.

I have 4 fish tanks

20 gallons : 7 false julii cory, 3 guppy, 1 honey gourami, 4 nerite snails

15 gallons : 2 clown killifish, 10 chili rasbora, 14 green neon tetra, 4 cherry shrimp, 3 nerite snails

10 gallons : 3 guppies

5 gallons : 3 blue dream shrimps

I quarantine all my fish with aquarium coop trio meds. 

I use the same equipment (nets, syphons, aquascaping tools) with all my tanks

The guppies in the 10 gallons used to be 4 and were in the 5 gallons. I noticed one was having white feces.

3 guppies in my 20 gallons were also having white feces.

So I decided to move all my guppies together in the 20 gallons to treat them with paracleanse (I live in Canada. Already a miracle I have some meds, so I have to use it carefully, hence regrouping the fishes.)

I treated the tank but the 2 groups of guppies were really really not getting along so I ended up putting the 2nd group in my 10 gallons. 

Forward 4 days, I am pretty sure I am dealing with camallanus worms, at least in the 20 gallons. So far I lost 1 guppy and one cory. I am at loss as to what to do. I do not have access to levamisole at least for few days.

One  guppy in the 10 gallons died, the others show no sign despite being a few hours in contact with those in the 20 gallons. They swim around, are lively, feces are ok.

In the 20 gallons, my honey gourami and my remaining 7 cory seem ok despite flashing on occasion. The gourami feces are ok.

Since I used the same tools to clean all my aquariums and moved some of my guppies around, should I consider them all infected nonetheless?

I euthanized my 3 guppies that were badly infected in hope to save the others but I feel so bad doing so.... At the same times, it was so painful to see them all lethargic, not swimming anymore....

If I get my hand on the levamisole, is it better to treat all my aquariums as a precaution? Is it safe for shrimps, cory, snails, killifish, tetra and rasbora? I have new shrimps on the way, can I still add them to the tanks treated?

It’s said to deep vacuum the substrate to get rid of worms and eggs... must I unroot my plants and empty the tanks of their content?

How should I disinfected my equipment used?

[Colu]

It looks like camallanus worms I don't think paracleanse is effective against camallanus worms if you can get levamisole or treatment containg  fenbendazole or flubendazole that would be the best treatments I would recommend treating the hole system  once you have an infestation the micro filaria baby worm will be  in your substrate and on surface in your tank I think levamisole is shrimp and snail safe  fenbendazole is snail and shrimp safe from what I have read@Karen B.

Edited March 4, 2021 by Colu

[Brandy]

You can bleach or boil equipment according to it's material. Rinse well after bleach, or let dry completely. 

I believe levamisole is shrimp/fish/invert safe when used at the dosage recommended by select aquatics.

You should, unfortunately, treat all tanks in my opinion...at least all the tanks any infected fish spent time in. 

You should vacuum where you can reach, and do 2 treatements, 2 weeks apart. I do not think you will need to uproot your plants, in fact they will help. You need to be prepared for an ammonia spike. This is a result of dead worms or other suceptible microorganisims. This will be alleviated by vacuuming, water changes, and if necessary, dechlorinator.

[Schwack]

I just went through a battle with these critters, and they're a huge pain in the butt.

Levamisole knocked them out, fortunately, but getting your hands on the stuff can be a challenge. Fritz sells it as Expel-P, Greg Sage at Select Aquatics is another good source. You can also try to find it as LevaMed, which is a goat dewormer.

If you get your hands on some I can pass along the instructions I got in terms of dosing. Like @Brandymentioned, Fritz recommends doing a second dose but Select Aquatics advised against it unless you see symptoms. I opted for one dose and things seem to be in the clear, but I'm still watching my fish like a hawk.

In one tank, I experienced a mini cycle crash after medicating, almost certainly due to the large amount of decaying organics expelled from my fish. The second tank I dosed is still in the process of re-establishing its cycle. It was a less seasoned tank, so I'm guessing that fed into the problems I've had since.

edit: I used mine with Nerite snails, Ramshorn snails, Cherry Shrimp and Amano shrimp. All of my inverts made it through the treatment with seemingly no ill effects.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Schwack

[Karen B.]

@Schwack Thank you very much. As for the dosing, if I am not wrong, the levamisole by Select Aquatics comes with a spoon, right? Must you compact the powder? Divide it? Sorry I am french and I was reading the instruction and on some part he says to devide it... was he talking for those that did not have the spoon? Or I have to devide the spoon dose in 2? 
 

is hour tank planted? Did you just vacuum the best you could? I am so scared to miss worms and have this nightmare start all over again.

[Schwack]

You don't need to divide it unless you've got an oddly sized tank. I'm guessing that is a bit of older information from before they began sending out the measuring spoons. I ended up just using the spoon included from Select Aquatics. If you've got a very precise scale that can handle mg, you could use that as well.

If you want to be extremely precise, you could divide it up to suit the actual volume of water in your tank (for example, my 10 gallon only has ~7 3/4 gallons in it after substrate, hardscape and an air gap at the top.) My internet research suggested that this wasn't necessary, as people have dosed much higher than the 100mg/10 gal recommended by Select Aquatics. Fritz has the dosage at something like 113mg/10 gal. I saw reports of people dosing 10-12x that amount and reporting only spotty invertebrate deaths. It seems unwise, however, since the lower dosage appears to be just as effective.

Both Fritz and Select Aquatics recommend two doses. Select Aquatics suggests a 25% water change, dose, 24 hour wait, 25% water change, dose and then water change as normal. This is the schedule I followed. Fritz is similar, but they recommend dosing once, waiting a week and then adding the second dose. Both suggest thoroughly cleaning your substrate after each dose.

My tank is planted and I just got what my vac could reach. I moved some the hardscape which could easily be replaced, but otherwise just tried to be methodical and work in the best grid possible. I still ended up with an intake filler covered in worms 3 days later.

You might be able to search for camallanus worms on the forum and find my experience with them. I tried to document how things were going in case other folks ran into these things. It's strange that they're a common parasite, but the treatment for them is very difficult to find.

Best of luck getting through this rough patch. The worms in my largest tank killed all but 3 fish, left one with a secondary infection that I can't seem to beat and were just generally exhausting. I'm happy to answer any questions I can, I'm not an expert by any means, but I have spent an inordinate amount of time reading about parasites recently.

[Karen B.]

On 3/4/2021 at 11:14 PM, Schwack said:

You don't need to divide it unless you've got an oddly sized tank. I'm guessing that is a bit of older information from before they began sending out the measuring spoons. I ended up just using the spoon included from Select Aquatics. If you've got a very precise scale that can handle mg, you could use that as well.

If you want to be extremely precise, you could divide it up to suit the actual volume of water in your tank (for example, my 10 gallon only has ~7 3/4 gallons in it after substrate, hardscape and an air gap at the top.) My internet research suggested that this wasn't necessary, as people have dosed much higher than the 100mg/10 gal recommended by Select Aquatics. Fritz has the dosage at something like 113mg/10 gal. I saw reports of people dosing 10-12x that amount and reporting only spotty invertebrate deaths. It seems unwise, however, since the lower dosage appears to be just as effective.

Both Fritz and Select Aquatics recommend two doses. Select Aquatics suggests a 25% water change, dose, 24 hour wait, 25% water change, dose and then water change as normal. This is the schedule I followed. Fritz is similar, but they recommend dosing once, waiting a week and then adding the second dose. Both suggest thoroughly cleaning your substrate after each dose.

My tank is planted and I just got what my vac could reach. I moved some the hardscape which could easily be replaced, but otherwise just tried to be methodical and work in the best grid possible. I still ended up with an intake filler covered in worms 3 days later.

You might be able to search for camallanus worms on the forum and find my experience with them. I tried to document how things were going in case other folks ran into these things. It's strange that they're a common parasite, but the treatment for them is very difficult to find.

Best of luck getting through this rough patch. The worms in my largest tank killed all but 3 fish, left one with a secondary infection that I can't seem to beat and were just generally exhausting. I'm happy to answer any questions I can, I'm not an expert by any means, but I have spent an inordinate amount of time reading about parasites recently.

Thank you again for your detailed answers. As I said, I am french so it’s much easier for me to understand when someone explains like you do!

 

I am really sorry for your loss. Some people think they are just fish but they mean so much more. I made the hard call to humanely euthanize my 3 most affected fish and I am still shedding tears over them. Living in Canada is not fun if you are into aquarium I tell you.

After your second dose, you wrote « then WC as normal », do you mean I leave my fish in the dosed water for few days until I would normally do my WC?

How long after all these treatments can you be sure you got rid of everything? And that it’s safe to add more fish? My 10 gallons where my guppies are atm is my quarantine tank. So once they are cure and safe, they are going back in my 5 gallons with my shrimps. But I don’t want to put more new fish even in that quarantine tank if there is still a risk!

[Schwack]

The instructions from Select Aquatics essentially call for leaving the fish in the treated water and then following your typical water change schedule. That is, avoid doing water changes just to remove the medication. I waited two weeks or so and then added a bag of carbon to the HOB to help remove all the medication from the tank. I believe the idea is to ensure that all worms in the tank are exposed to the levamisole, even those still in eggs during your first dose. They seem very confident that one dose will wipe out the worms, and Select Aquatics seems to have a ton of experience dealing with this parasite, so I trust their judgement.

You're almost certainly safe to add fish shortly after dosing the tank, but my advice would be to wait 4-6 weeks. This gives you a chance to monitor your remaining fish and re-stabilize the tank. If you were so inclined, you could probably fill your 10 gallon to the brim once you've removed the fish and add a final dose of levamisole. That way you could leave it at full strength for a few weeks to ensure all the parasites are cleared. Dealing with these things is a huge pain.

[ccurtis]

When I had camllanus worms, I followed this method and it worked very well. If you have access to this med on amazon, you should be able rid your fish of these worms with no problem. Good luck.