What's That?!

[JoshH]

Hey,
Very weird problem with a female guppy I have, looked through the topics on common diseases and can't seen anything like this..she has like 3 3-4mm long hair like red strands coming out of her anus it looks really freaky and I have no idea what it is! She's currently in isolation, water stats in this tank and her main tank were 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 10 nitrate, I will try and get a picture later on, but its quite tricky to pick up on camera!

 

[wackystarfish]

Hmm, sounds like worms. Ill go google for more info

 

[JoshH]

Ok cheers mate just taken another look @ her and its alot more than 2 or 3 strands! its probably 6 or more, looks like red hair, here's the best pic I could manage -

 

[Colin_T]

Camallanus
They are a type of threadworm that is quite common in fish. You need to treat the tank with Levamisole Hydrochloride or Flubenol. Flubenol is better as ti treats more types of worms.

 

[JoshH]

Brilliant, thanks for the reply colin I'll go take a look for the flubenol in LFS tomorrow, would feeding live daphnia cause it by any chance? Or is there another cause, nothing's changed in the tank for over a month now

 

[Colin_T]

Live Daphnia is a common source of infection, particularly if they are collected in ponds that have fish, snails or waterbirds in. However, any crustacean, worm, fish, insect/ insect larvae, or mollusc that comes from an infected waterway can bring them in.
If you feed Daphnia then it is best to culture your own. This is easily done in a plastic tub outside and will provide a clean source of live food.
Fill up a container with fresh water. Add 1 level tablespoon of lawn fertiliser for every 20 litres of water. Aerate the mixture and leave it to turn green. Having the culture in full sunlight will help it turn green sooner, however if you live in a hot climate then keep it in a shady spot to prevent it overheating.
Once the water goes green you add some live Daphnia and leave them to grow. Start another culture a couple of weeks later and transfer some of the baby Daphnia into the new culture when it has gone green. Do this a few times and eventually you should have a culture of Daphnia that are free of parasites (worms). The other cultures can be dumped on the garden and the containers rinsed out, left to dry and then re-used.
You can also leave a culture to die off and dry out. When the Daphnia are stressed they produce dormant eggs that sit on the bottom. Adult Daphnia will often be seen with brown patches in their bodies. These are the egg cases. If you collect a bunch of the adults with egg cases and put them in a container of clean water. They will eventually die and the water can be drained off. Then allow the egg cases to dry for a couple of weeks before adding them to a container of green water. They will hatch and produce a new colony.