Description

Symptoms: worms hanging from the anus.

Among over 10,000 known species of roundworms (nematodes), the Camallanus worm and the Capillaria worm, in particular, are known as harmful organisms in aquatics.

The following general symptoms may indicate one of the aforementioned worm infections. Infected fish become emaciated despite good feeding.Schooling fish become emaciated and stay outside the school. Individual fish lie on the floor and make rotating movements.The fish will occasionally excrete white, slimy feces, because the parasites damage the intestinal wall, which is then excreted along with the feces. Please note: slimy, white feces may be an indication of improper nutrition or infestation with flagellates. Therefore, this symptom is only an indication of infestation with roundworms when it occurs in combination with the other aforementioned symptoms.

Camallanus cotti infection is relatively easy to recognise: The rear end of the red coloured female intermittently protrudes from the anus of the infected fish in order to deposit larvae.

With the exception of Camallanus cotti, only a microscopic examination can provide a sure diagnosis.

Treatment

Please remove any activated carbon from the filter for the duration of the medication use. UV-C appliances and CO₂ fertilizing appliances also need to be switched off. Please also ensure that skimmers and ozonisers in saltwater are switched off. Change 50 % of the water prior to application of any medication. Aerate the aquarium using a diaphragm pump with airstone 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.