Help Save My Sweet Guppy

[*Kristy*]

okay i "had" two female guppies with this problem: (one already died this morning, trying to save second one)

Camallanus

Symptoms:
When the fish is stationary, deep red worms can be seen protruding from the anal pore. They are only visible when the fish is still because the worms retreat into the intestine at the fish’s slightest movement. Other signs may include an inflamed and enlarged anus. In severe infestations, the fish may become emaciated and spinal curvature may also occur.

Cause:
The parasitic worms Camallanus Cotti and Camallanus lacustris. These small, livebearing parasitic worms attach to the intestinal walls and rectum with pinchers. The worm’s grip is so tight that any attempts to remove it forcibly will rip away tissue from the intestinal wall. The worm’s pinching causes ischemia (reduced blood flow) to that part of the intestine. In time, the tissue to that part of the intestine will die, at which time the worm will migrate to another part of the intestine. This causes perforations throughout the intestine, which allows other pathogens to gain entry. If the fish is not treated, either the parasite or bacterial will kill the fish. Camallanus infestations occur most often in livebearing fish such as Guppies and Mollies, though infection is possible in all fish. Camallanus infestations are contagious. All fish, including those not yet showing visible symptoms, as well as the aquarium, should be treated.

Treatment:
Treat with Internal Parasite Guard, Pipzine, Disco-Worm, Trichlorfon or Fluke-Tabs as well as a medicated food to prevent a bacterial infection.

Thanks to Wilder for the info he found for me

now here is my question, i went to the nearest german fish store. okay im english, speak no german, but she could speak a little english, which still wasnt much help. but anyways she gave me this stuff:

Rabomed is one of the most well-known and effective means of combating the widespread "little white spots" disease. Preventive for 1,800 l.

Credit for info on med

So that sounds nothing like what I needed,
but the german lady seemed to say thats all she had.
And also said something about helping get rid of worms on and in the body...thats what i got out of what she said anyways lol

so 4 hours ago i dropped in the amount she told me too into the tank, with all of my fish still in it, because its suppose to be contagious, even tho i've only seen my two females so far with it.
the red worms either are getting worse, or the meds are affecting them, because they look like they are coming out or have gotten longer.

Also she is using the bathroom alot, I took a picture, her poo is now Black, Blue (color of meds) and Red.

here is a picture, put her in trap to take close picture:

so is this a good sign? bad sign? any idea on if this medicine may work and save my "Rose" she means so much to me.
also, all my baby guppies are in this tank along with a few tetras, will this medicine hurt them? i wanted to treat them all just in case, but if its a bad idea to treat them all, ill move the female and treat her in another tank the next two times.

any advice would be wonderful and thank you for reading.

 

[black angel]

The worms look like this, go to the bottom pic.
http/www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~parasite/camallanus.html

I have no idea if the white spot med will work but the poo looks like something the fish has been eating, do you feed them anything with green or red in it?
As for the worms if you have just gupps in the tank then salting should be an effective way of killing them.
Can you get aquarium salt, and what else is in the tank?

 

[*Kristy*]

The worms look like this, go to the bottom pic.
http/www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~parasite/camallanus.html

I have no idea if the white spot med will work but the poo looks like something the fish has been eating, do you feed them anything with green or red in it?
As for the worms if you have just gupps in the tank then salting should be an effective way of killing them.
Can you get aquarium salt, and what else is in the tank?

yes the picture looks just like it. the flakes are red and green, but never seen her poo like that before, normally just brown, thats why i asked about her poo. but maybe it is just the food and nothing else.
i just did a 50 % water change yesterday, due to having an over populated tank of snails, probably got rid of a hundred lol and afterwards added in the correct amount of salt.
other things in the tank are just baby guppies and neon tetras. thats all.

 

[black angel]

Sorry, didnt see what you ahd in the tank as I cant see the sig once i start to reply. Well with the neons you shouldnt add any salt at all. The poo is coloured because it is going through the gut too fast. Cut back on the feeding for a while.
I cant think of anything that will kill them so if you have an english speaking vet then have a word with him/her.
Hopefully someone will be able to give you a brand name to look for in your country.

 

[WILDER]

If the worms are retreating from the body that is a very good sign, what med is it would like to no, if you can try and get the worms out of the tank with a net, good luck.

 

[*Kristy*]

Sorry, didnt see what you ahd in the tank as I cant see the sig once i start to reply. Well with the neons you shouldnt add any salt at all. The poo is coloured because it is going through the gut too fast. Cut back on the feeding for a while.
I cant think of anything that will kill them so if you have an english speaking vet then have a word with him/her.
Hopefully someone will be able to give you a brand name to look for in your country.

ok i moved the sick guppy to her own tank, added salt and more treatment (even tho its probably not the right stuff). I was feeding her so much because of the baby guppies, they eat more often than the bigger ones, even tho the neon tetras and my 3 adult guppies like to eat it all before them it seems. no english speaking fish stores around that we know of. maybe we can ask around, i have a feeling by the time we did tho she will have already been taken over by these awful red worms. i thought they looked as if they were coming out, but they have gone back in now. i'm going to continue to watch her until bedtime and update in the morning. thanks for everyones help.

 

[WILDER]

Sadly internal parasites are very hard to cure, usually you end up destroying the sick fish and striping the tank down, the only med that is meant to work is a pig worming tablet called lamisole spelt that wrong, but will find an article for you.

http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/nematodes.shtml

 

[black angel]

If one gupp has it then all the others will probably have it as well. I would take all the gupps and put them in a spare tank and slowly add salt to it.
1 level teaspoon per gallon every 12 hours, 3 times. That will give you .3% and i'm hoping might be strong enough to kill the worms or if they come out for you to catch them.
I cant think of a med other than a parasitic one such as sterazin to try and help but you cant use sterazin and salt together.

 

[WILDER]

Tryed all the waterlife meds myself to no avail, even the one for hole in the head, even cat worming tablets.

 

[black angel]

oh well then i dont know what to suggest, you need someone who speaks german to help you out at a vet.

 

[WILDER]

Yes black angel battled the nasty ******** my self nothing worked, had to put two pit bull plecs down as they were that ill in the end, i was lucky i could see the worms prutruding from the anus.
Striped tank down and started again, not nice, it was awful.

 

[*Kristy*]

she is still alive this morning, she somehow pulled through. i dont know if i'll be able to catch all those babies, will be very time consuming considering how little they all are. but i will try anything. maybe then i can move the neon tetra's for a short time and just redo my whole 20 gallon tank.

this might sound weird, but i do water changes every two weeks, and two weeks ago, after doing the water change, i added in salt, and we noticed there were hundreds of little red worms that just started coming out of the gravel near the front of the tank, where we could see them, i freaked out and then the snails came over, i had millions at the time, and i guess started eating them all, was really gross. well a few days later we added more salt to see if any more would come out, and sure enough they did, but not as many, and the snails did the same thing again. not sure how the snails could tell they all of a sudden these worms had came up, unless snails are just really smart? so are these the red worms that are attacking my fish do you think?

after my water change to rid of the snails just sunday, i added more salt down all around the edges of the tank to see if any came up again and didn't see the red worms come up anymore. so since they are not coming out of the gravel anymore, isnt this a good sign? maybe killed most of them, except for the ones that had already attacked my female guppies.

am at such a loss on what to do. should i just flush my poor Rose who is probably suffering already and try to save the others?
i looked on the webiste you gave and the pig worming stuff is called "Levacide" correct? i'll look online and see if i can order it anywhere.

no such luck as of yet, found a site saying they dont sell the stuff much anymore due to it helps cure AIDS??? but that tablets for cats that cure round worms may help??? should i just flush them all and start over? this is just awful and seriously makes me wanna cry. i have so many fry and a few teenage guppies i've watched grow over a few weeks, they have brought so much joy to me...

 

[sk_haider]

I'm so sorry about your fish.

I wonder how the worms got in there in the first place? Do you have any idea?

 

[Lexie3787]

Id never suggest flushing a fish.

 

[*Kristy*]

I'm so sorry about your fish.

I wonder how the worms got in there in the first place? Do you have any idea?

my hubby was always bringing home different guppies from different stores, everytime him and a friend would go shopping to other bases about an hour away, most of them were further away, he would pick me up a guppy he thought id like. im guessing one of these guppies must of been sick and we didn't notice. most of the guppies he has brought home haved died as well. i guess i know why now, even tho there were no signs of these worms, maybe they were already so far in i didn't see them.

Id never suggest flushing a fish.

i don't want to flush them either, its just really hard seeing her swim about with the red worms hanging out of her knowing they are sending small egg worms all over my tank to infest the others. also these worms are pinching her insides to hang on, you know that must be painful.


Edit***

Wanted to add i found this:
http/www.cattlestore.com/pc-366-74-levas...injectable.aspx
it sounds like what i need exactly but my goodness it is expensive!
i will look around more lol

Finally got our vet on the phone, they dont have the stuff, dont really even treat fish lol not sure what im going to do...