# Treating camallanus with Levamisole



## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

Treat the whole tank with snails. Snails can be carriers. Last time I used levamisol, the snails in my tank lived.


----------



## bsantucci (Sep 30, 2013)

mistergreen said:


> Treat the whole tank with snails. Snails can be carriers. Last time I used levamisol, the snails in my tank lived.


Agreed. Shrimp and snails can carry and are not harmed by Levamisole. I treated my tank a bunch of times to get rid of them from wild caught rams I got. All my MTS, nerites, and bamboo shrimp survived.


----------



## Virto (Dec 6, 2012)

Good to know, thanks guys.

Even if they don't pull through, at least I'll know for sure I'm getting to all the potential carriers.


----------



## bsantucci (Sep 30, 2013)

I had one ram pretty infested and far gone. She dropped the worms within thirty minutes of adding the medicine and she gained all her weight back and is thriving now. So there's a good chance yours will make it. 

Good luck! 

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk


----------



## beedee (Jul 1, 2010)

Good luck with the treatment, I'll follow along to see how it goes! Where/who did you buy the Levamisole from? Feel free to PM me if needed.


----------



## Virto (Dec 6, 2012)

beedee said:


> Good luck with the treatment, I'll follow along to see how it goes! Where/who did you buy the Levamisole from? Feel free to PM me if needed.


I picked it up from Charles ( http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/ ) who I came across while reading a variety of threads on the subject of callumanus worms on various sites.

You email him details of your situation and tanks and he'll suggest a dosage and give you a price. It's not cheap - two packets, enough for 200 gallons of total treatment (5 grams each) came to 21 bucks, but that was shipped priority mail. His instructions seem to work well for people and he was responsive and nice to deal with, so he's grade A in my book.

I'll update this thread after I begin treatment - hopefully with good news.


----------



## Aqguy (Oct 30, 2013)

Whats the most likely cause to get this in your tank ?


----------



## Virto (Dec 6, 2012)

Aqguy said:


> Whats the most likely cause to get this in your tank ?


An already infected (infested might be a better word) fish added to a tank.

Since the worms are in the fish's gut, you may not see them at all until they're long enough or numerous enough to poke out of the fish's vent. Because of this, it's easy to add a fish that has worms to a tank with other inhabitants, even if the fish has been in quarantine for quite some time.

I can pinpoint the exact fish that caused my problems, and I didn't catch on until I saw him waste away a bit and die.


----------



## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

They can also be introduced via a carrier as well like infected arthropods.


----------



## Virto (Dec 6, 2012)

Treatment began yesterday following two very large water changes.

Within about 20 minutes, free-swimming nematodes and detritus worms were clearly distressed, writhing and curling and attempting to burrow unsuccessfully. Less than an hour later, some were clearly deceased.

Approximately half an hour into treatment, one of my larger albino pleco fry did a barrel roll and crashed dead to the substrate right in front of my eyes. Examination shows no signs of worms in this fish, and none of the other fry seem affected, even the much smaller ones. I'm attributing this death to stress from the combined water changes and the addition of the dewormer, rather than the parasite or the dewormer alone.

Fed the tank as normal overnight, and all the fish appear healthy and hungry as per the norm. The great benefit to this tank being nothing but plecos is that they crap like champs - passing waste makes removing and eliminating dead and weak worms much easier.

Assassin snails are not faring well - several of the larger ones have rolled over and have extended their entire foot. They'll remain in the tank today, but if there is no sign of movement from them (I've seen healthy ones sit upside down like this for hours, before plodding off) by the end of the night, I'll remove those that are clearly done for. Others are still burrowing and poking about.

Following Charles' instructions, the treatment will continue until Wednesday night, when a large water change will remove both the dead worms and the medication from the water. The treatment will then be repeated after 3 weeks to ensure that any recently hatched worms are also destroyed.


----------



## Virto (Dec 6, 2012)

mini-update: 

lost another pair of BN fry - another of the older ones and one of the tiniest from the second batch. Again, it's unlikely that these fish have worms in them that have already rotted and caused sepsis, so I'm going to make the leap and assume that levamisole is harder on fish, in general, than I think a lot of reports make it out to be.

Granted, these are young fish, but they were pigs and otherwise were healthy (in appearance and behavior). 

Given that my rainbows in the big tank have suddenly become mid to bottom dwellers and have lost some color, I'd have to assume the dewormer is having a negative affect on them, as well. 

The assassins seem to have survived, but are clearly unhappy. Burrowed in place or moving very slowly, compared to the norm.

Tomorrow (Wednesday night) is water change night for both tanks, per Charles' instructions - I'm hoping things go back to normal shortly thereafter, especially with the rainbows. 

The good news thus far is that dadfish has no visible protruding worms. This is a significant difference from before, and a good sign.


----------



## atom (Sep 28, 2011)

Did you treat with the lights off? I remember the meds being light sensitive.


----------



## bsantucci (Sep 30, 2013)

Levamisole is a sedative of sorts. The fish will all become very lethargic when using it. Mine barely moved and even guppies and danios were on the bottom. That's normal. 

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk


----------



## Virto (Dec 6, 2012)

atom said:


> Did you treat with the lights off? I remember the meds being light sensitive.


Lights are off, yes - which is normal for the pleco tank, anyway - it encourages them to come out and feed round the clock without being spooked.

I don't believe that levamisole is as light sensitive as flu-whatever-it-is that's also often used for this treatment, but I've been keeping them off to play it safe.


----------



## Virto (Dec 6, 2012)

bsantucci said:


> Levamisole is a sedative of sorts. The fish will all become very lethargic when using it. Mine barely moved and even guppies and danios were on the bottom. That's normal.
> 
> Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk


Good to know. I knew how it affected the various worms, but didn't stop to think that it might also sedate the fish. 

The water change is tonight. That should clear things up until the second treatment next month. So far, even with scattered losses, this seems effective and certainly worthwhile.


----------



## Virto (Dec 6, 2012)

Water changes are complete. Observations: 

The rainbows are essentially back to normal - still a little color loss, but back to the top/mid of the tank. The cory cats, pleco and gourami in the same tank never showed any signs of displeasure with the treatment.

No signs of worms venting on my adult male BN, as opposed to before treatment, when they were present 24/7. No further loss of fry at this point.

Assassins recovered quickly - resuming the normal roaming of the tank within an hour of the water change. Even those that had been laying foot-up and fully extended began to move and recoil within minutes.

Worms: hoo boy are there ever a ton of worms. This tank has always had a ton of detritus worms and more than enough free-swimming nematodes. Now that the gourami is out of the tank, nothing is eating them in the water column. I won't say they're wriggling around in a coordinated fashion, but there are still many worms of various sorts living in the tank following the three day treatment - surprising after seeing the pretty immediate effects of the treatment on visible worms on day one.

No evidence of camallanus at this point, and the second round of treatment will take place in 3 weeks. The non-parasitic worms don't really bother me, they're just fish food.


----------

