Camallanus worms. Need advice.

[NightmareKrow]

So I been doing a lot, I mean a lot, of research on cam worms and how to get rid of them. I first found that levamisole would be my best bet but then I read more about it and found that it could kill my scaleless fish and invertebrates. So my search continued, I started coming across something called Fenbendazole. So I looked it up found out it was used in dog dewormer, safe guard 4 canine dewormer, and it was available at my local petco. Instead of having to wait 2 or more weeks for shipping from most online stores. I can go get it tomorrow.

For the who are still reading this thank you.

What I need help with is dosing amount and frequency? Online everywhere I have read about using this dog dewormer the dosages are different as well for how often and for how long.

I have a heated, planted, 60 gallon tank, cascade 700 canister filter and overstocked with 7 corys, 6 cherry barbs, 6 glofish tetras, 6 platies, 6 mollies, 4 guppies, 4 swordtails, 3 mystery snails, 2 nerite snails, 2 plecos, 1 peacock eel and a ton of pond snails.
I currently do water changes every other day, until I can get my second canister filter (cascade 1000 - shipment got messed up (first and last time order of petco))

Any help would be appreciated thank you.

 

[FishBeast]

Hi and welcome! Sorry to hear about your issue. I came across an article that advised soaking some bloodworms in a solution of medication. It sounds like a good idea, so you might want to try that.

http://www.petfish.net/kb/entry/154/

In theory, that method delivers the chemical more effectively and relies on the fishes' gut absorption and individual liver functions to metabolize the treatment into the active compounds. Chance of overdose is less and you will need less medication to treat the whole tank.

Your next step is to get a bigger aquarium and/or rehome some of your fish. Common plecos (which I am assuming yours are, correct me if I am mistaken) grow to massive sizes. You may be able to treat this outbreak but due to overcrowded conditions, your fish may be so stressed and their immunity so compromised that a disease outbreak could just be one missed water change or one overfeeding away... Regardless of the filtration you are doing.

Good luck!

 

[NightmareKrow]

Thank you for responding. That was one of the articles I have read about using that dog dewormer. As for my plecos, I must apologizes I should have said that one is a clown pleco and the other an albino bristlenose pleco.

I have been thinking of rehoming the 6 cherry barbs and taking back the emerald green cory, since its friend died and I've found more panda corys, but now that the tank has cam worms, I'll have to wait until they are gone before I could in good conscience do that.

If I do remove those 7 fish and add the second canister filter aqavisor.com says (pretty much) that I should be fine.

By the way these fish are new to me, I've only had this tank for about 6 weeks now. I was giving a 36 g hex with fish only 3 months before I moved to the 60 g. The person before me had even less of clue then me, lol. They didn't even know what they had in the tank or what should or shouldn't be put into it. The tank had 11 corys; 3 panda, 1 false juli, 7 of another kind I cannot remember the name, 1 peacock eel, 1 clown pleco, 1 lyretail swordtail, 1 longfin zebra danio. I have done so much research into all the fish I have and had to try and find a fit for the eel and for myself. So far I have lost 2 fish both were shortly after I had gotten them, less then a week, within 3 days.

I had been having issues fining a med for ich, that I wouldn't need to use half doses with, because I have scaleless fish and snails. I think I have under control now, I'm doing a high heat and half dose mix. I really hope this will work.

I did stupidly add in too many fish too quitly but that was 3-4 weeks ago. I lost one glofish tetra 3 days later from that. Then I got 2 emerald green corys last week, lost one 2 days later. Around that time I increased my water changes to every other day and I haven't lost another fish...yet...I really hope I don't for along while.

I also only feed once a day different frozen foods each and 2-3 times a week I feed a veggie flake food.

Thanks again for the reply.

 

[VickiK]

@NightmareKrow - kudos for you for taking the tank and going through all of this to get your fish healthy. Its admirable. Someone else (who clearly wouldn't be a WAFishBox member...lol) might just chuck the whole thing and start over.

Best of luck with these fish. Keep us posted on progress. I'm learning with you when you post.

 

[Betty]

I don't know if this would help or not, but on Amazon they have a product called Fish Bendazole. The description says: Each packet contains Fenbendazole 250 mg. Directions: Mix one packet with approximately 4 ounces of food and soak for 30 minutes. It also says it's pure fenbendazole. So maybe you can compare that amount and concentration to the Safe Guard 4 and figure out the dose from there.

 

[NightmareKrow]

Oh cool I'll look into it thank you.

 

[Livebearer Lady]

For Ich use Malachite green and for extreme cases Mateline blue.
Be careful with both and pre-mix in gallon jugs first. make sure its up to temperatue and treat in food-grade buckets instead...