# HELP! Worm sticking out of fish anus...



## jdrawe (Feb 7, 2010)

Hello,

I have a clown loach who is very skinny and after doing research I learned this may be due to an internal parasite.

Another fish (hatchetfish) was swimming around the top of the tank with a strange looking piece of "poop" hanging out of his anus. 

I scooped him out and removed this thing that appeared to not be moving, only to find that it does move. It is mostly clear with a little bit of red in it and is about an inch long. Definitely a worm and HUGE for being in my little fish. 

How do I treat this? And is this also the same parasite that is making my loach skinny? I'm so worried that all of the fish in my tank may be affected. Please help!


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## Eden Marel (Jan 28, 2010)

I think your fish might have Camallanus Worms. You must treat the ENTIRE tank and all the inhabitants, even if the other dudes are not showing symptoms. You can try Jungle Anti-Parasitic medicated fish food. You need something with levamisole...

http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/CamallanusTreatment/index.html
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...IGKrn8&sig=AHIEtbTuAtyozX9JFy_RiZj2U6MZ9A7hUg


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## webgirl74 (Dec 2, 2009)

Wow...if you have camallanus, you have your work cut out for you. I have it in my 20 gallon tank and have been battling it for a few months now. Every time I think I have beaten it, they come back. It looks like I am breaking the cycle and killing the live worms in the fish, but the eggs/larvae are still in the tank and keep reinfecting the fish. It's a really tough parasite and does not really respond well to regular parasite meds. Meds with levamisole are hard to find. There used to be a readily available med called Discomed, but that is no longer around. Jungle parasite food doesn't have much levamisole in it. I have it and use it, but have not had success with it. Plus, the fish don't really like it very much so they pretty much just pick at it a bit and then leave it alone. I bought levamisole powder from a gal in Canada who runs a small fish store and have used that a few times. I think I did not use it in a high enough concentration though as I was worried about overdosing the tank. It did have an effect as the fish started pooping out the worms, but I obviously didn't get the eggs/larvae. Go to a local pet store and check out the dog dewormers. I haven't found any here in Canada, but apparently there are dog dewormers with a higher concentration of levamisole. Also, don't pull the worms out of your fish. It will do more harm than good. The worms embed themselves in the intestinal tract and you will end up causing damage to the fish. On a side note, I haven't actually lost any fish to the worms yet, so I still have hope that I can get rid of them. The fish act pretty healthy considering so I guess I'm just keeping the worms under control enough to allow the fish to live relatively normal lives. Good luck and hopefully you nail them.


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## DavidZ (Nov 17, 2009)

This is a tough one.
Try, jungle labs internal parisite food and a UV filter, with large water changes.


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## abcemorse (Jul 24, 2008)

I've had a couple bouts with camallanus, it's not that hard to get rid of, but you have to be thorough. See if you can find levamisole pig dewormer online somewhere, it's probably going to be hard to find, but you want the powdered form, I can't remeber the size offhand, I'll check later and get back to you. What you'll do is 1) large (60-70%) water change 2)mix about 350 ml of water into the bottle you get and dose 1 ml or so per gallon of water. This will give you concentration of about 12 ppm in the water. Many will tell you it's too much, do not listen to that, I've done it, no probs. The fish will die eventually left untreated anyway. 2)Leave for AT LEAST 36 hours, 48 is preferrable. Fish may get a bit lethargic, they'll be a little pissed at you, but it's for their own good:wink: 3)another large (this time as much as you can without beaching your fish) water change 4) wait 3 or 4 days 5)repeat the whole process. Should take care of it, if not continue the regimen till it does. Don't try to remove the worms from the fish, those little nasties have sunk their teeth in the intestinal wall and removal will rip and tear, not pleasant. I'll check on that bottle I have (when I found it I bought 3) and let you know later today exactly what to look for. The treated foods don't really work, fish don't eat em and the medicine is diluted to the point of uselesness. GL!


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## Kayakindude90 (Feb 6, 2010)

I had those little guys, they suck, took me forever to figure out what they were. Anyhow use levamisole, other medications don't work as effectively. Jungle medication doesn't work, and I don't have experience with pancur, but people have trouble with it. Levamisole is pretty satisfying the worms are paralyzed and out of the fish in hours. 

Heres the guy I bought Levamisole from, read website for directions on how to use it.

I'm new, so I cant post links but you can just copy and paste it.


inkmkr.com/Fish/



Good luck you have your work cut out for you.


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## Kayakindude90 (Feb 6, 2010)

Oh, btw, make sure you feed your fish while applicating the dewormer, sometimes they can get stuck, food helps. I'm guessing that they aren't really eating though, so don't freak out to much, its not bad depending on the size of the fish


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## abcemorse (Jul 24, 2008)

OK, the stuff I got is in a bottle that holds 500ml of water and has about 18g of levamisole in it. I got it from Vita King products, http://vitakingproducts.com/
a pigeon supplier of all things. I can't find the same bottle there, but they have "vermisol", which they claim is levamisole, but it comes in 100 g bottle for $16, about the same as I remember paying for the 18g one, so I don't know if it's pure levamisole or not, you'd just have to ask them or read the label and adjust your dosage accordingly. You're looking for at least 12, 15ppm in the tank is best. That's 54 mg/gal of levamisole. Good luck!!


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## abcemorse (Jul 24, 2008)

Kayakindude90 said:


> Oh, btw, make sure you feed your fish while applicating the dewormer, sometimes they can get stuck, food helps. I'm guessing that they aren't really eating though, so don't freak out to much, its not bad depending on the size of the fish


 
Excellent point, you can use about 1 TBS/10gal of epsom salt, kind of a laxative, helps a ton. Simplydiscus.com is another good resource for camallanus cuz worms are common in those fish.


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