Re: intestinal parasites

[Susan Ziegler <s-ziegler@gmx.net>]

I agree with the "don't assume one treatment cured them" because I had a
pair of kribenses in which the male died before I knew what happened, and
the female had the worms <filiments> out her anus.  I treated with CLOUT,
which the pet store informed me had dog dewormer in it.  I suppose if you
can't get levamisole you could try that.  It says to treat three days and
then clean the tank and replace the filter materials <thats not all, so
follow the directions>  So I did that.  I thought she was better, because
there were no more worms..but she then turned on her babies and killed half
of them, and eventually I had to Gabriella's email that she probably still
had worms and that I should have done another treatment.  You live, you
learn ;)  And now I have a new pair with fry, getting ready to make some
more fry ;)

Good luck with the worms.. most pet stores will look at you like you're
insane :P

Susan
>
>Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 07:29:34 -0400
>From: "gkadar" <gkadar@idirect.ca>
>Subject: Re: apisto with intestinal worms
>
>Simon,
>
>Ken Laidlaw's offer of levamisole is right on.  These are livebearer worms
>and in all likelihood the've infected the other fish in your tank as well.
>It'll be only a matter of time before you see them hanging out of the
>others.
>
>They can be difficult to erradicate even with levamisole, and there are
>other drugs you can use, but the margin of safety of those drugs is not
>high.  I'm sure Dionigi Maladorno will put in his 2 cents worth on this one.
>
>You should never assume that one course of treatment will do the trick.
>
>One of the signs of an infected fish (behaviourally) is that it acts as
>though it were paranoid and gets very aggressive.  It's quite possible that
>the pair you purchased would have been fine together would it not be for the
>worms.  I guess we'd be pretty miserable if we were full of those parasites
>as well.
>
>The thing that really gets me is that a fish, fed a 'survival only' diet at
>an lfs will not show any worms.  But as soon as you get it home and give it
>decent sized meals, the worms pop out.  I purchased a pair of wild caughts
>last year about February and they'd been at the store for about 6 months.
>No one wanted them.  I didn't even know what species they were although I
>did know that the label on the tank was wrong.  Well, wouldn't you know
>it......3 weeks after they started to eat a good diet, out came those worms.
>Stupid me had put them in a community tank sans quarantine.  Three months
>later the fish in the community tank were all sick.  I lost two female
>borelliis because they were just too small to cope with the infestation
>despite the use of medication.  The larger fish came through fine.  However
>I had to treat the tank for a duration of 3 weeks, first every third day and
>then finally in desperation, daily for three days.  I could tell when the
>fish were all fine because they started to eat again.
>
>Meanwhile the 'typhoid Marys' were quarantined as soon as I saw trouble.
>They underwent treatment and after three months were placed into their own
>tank.  A week later what did I see?  More b....y worms.  Two more treatments
>and they have been 'clean'.  What a miserable experience.  Just because
>they'd 'survived' 6 months in the store with no visible sign of infestation
>meant absolutely nothing.
>
>Gabriella



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