Callamanus worm (red worms from fish's anus). Problem & Solution

[mykiss]

I thought I'd post one of my articles which I had written for the Vancouver Aquatic Hobbyist Club news letter. The reason I thought it was worthy of posting is because lately people have been experiencing these nasty worms (nematodes). Anyways, enjoy!


Parasitic nematode: callamanus worms



About a year ago I received a handful of angle fishes from my cousin which I placed in a tank of their own. It wasn’t until a month after I got the fish that I noticed that they had little red worms sticking out of their vent (anal opening). I was surprised since I had never had them before and I really thought nothing of them but just to keep them on their own. As I further did some research on the worms, I soon found out that they were callamanus worms, or more specific, a parasitic nematode.



These nematodes are contagious and should be eliminated when sighted. By the time you notice that the worms are protruding from the vent of a fish, the worms will have been in their reproductive stages and may have already released microscopic larvae into the tank.



As an experiment, I threw in a few smaller fish with the infected angels, and I observed. After a month or so I noticed that a few of the introduced fishes had only one or two worms sticking out of them. After about 4 months all the introduced fishes in the tank had it and eventually a few died and the rest I had to put down since they didn’t look so good. And all this time the adult angels didn’t seem affected by the worms. So what did I learn here: first, smaller fishes are more prone to deaths than larger ones and second, they are infectious and quick to reproduce. The results are based on a single experiment and may mean nothing, but I took the results seriously and was not willing to kill more fish to find out. I had to decontaminate my tank and angels of these parasites.



Upon surfing the internet, I found that a medication which claimed to work very well was called Levamsole HCl. This particular medication was specifically for larger animals such as cattle, pigs, and sheep. However, a few sites demonstrated that the medication can also be used in fish with great results. I had to get some medication as soon as possible.



Upon purchasing the medication, I treated the tank. I dissolved 5 grams of pure Levamsole HCl with 88 ml of water. For every gallon of fish tank water I added 1 ml of the dissolved Levamsole HCl. Most of the angels fishes had the worms sticking out of their vents, however after a few hours of treatment, more worms were protruding out of the fishes. The next day, even more worms were protruding and a few almost completely out dangling a good centimeter out. It is often difficult to tell the amount of infestation by just looking at the vents of the fish until treatment was conducted. When they were infected I only saw at most 2-3 worms sticking out of the fishes. After treating the tank, I saw as many as 12 worms sticking out at once and was soon to be released from the fish. Every day I did water changes (to remove the feces and any worms) and fed the fish lots of food. I noticed that after the second/third day, the aggressiveness of the fish towards food was greater. They were more eager to eat and less shy. It seems that there was a change in behavior and that the worms really did affect the fishes. By the forth day, all the worms were no longer present (sticking out of the fishes) and I even got a pair of fish to start spawning. The results may vary but I certainly would agree with anyone who would think that removing the worms is better than just leaving them in the fish. I find through experience that smaller fishes don’t do well when infected and will not last long. Compared to larger fishes, such as angels, I find that they can tolerate the worms and seem to look okay, however, the behavior is a bit more shy. For smaller fishes, I noticed that once infected, they only last for about 4 to 6 months and possibly 7 months. In my angels they have lasted for about 1 year without mortalities. Keep in mind, you should always be doing water changes when treating your fish making sure that you take out any fecal matter since possible worms and larvae may be within the feces. As for the parasitic nematodes, I have not seen them since and I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Here is a photo of a few nematodes which I pulled out from an apistogramma:


Here's one from a live fish:

[Jacques]

Excellent article! Should be stickied.

[Tychevelle]

i agree !!! great artlicle Pat,

Pat recently helped me out greatly with the case of callamanus worms my angels had , pat sells the levacide used to treat the worms , i noticed the exact same findings pat listed above on the fourth day after treatment i did a huge water change and gravel vac its been a week or so and no signs of them .


Ty

[taureandragon76]

stuck

[Claudia]

My ex found this on his tank, can it be the same thing? The ones he found looks a little skinnier like microworms but long.He found like 10 of them and he got them when he was vacuuming. Here are some pictures but is really hard to see them.
DSC00139.jpg DSC00140.jpg

[mykiss]

Sorry, it's hard to tell in the picture. However, if you see them in the gravel, and not in the fish, it's unlikely that it's the same worms. The worms needs a host at certain stages of it's life cycle.

Those are likely non-parasitic nematodes

[Claudia]

i haven't check but he found out when he was vacuuming the gravel, he saw them swimming around in the bucket after he vacuum the gravel

[Chizzow]

from what I gathered, it takes 12 weeks before the host displays any symptoms of cammalanus so it would be interesting to see if a second treatment is necessary after the initial treatment. Good write up Pat!

[oceanrogue]

could i plz get some of this to treat my fish.. i saw tiny spikes of thin red hanging out of a couple of my fish. is it safe to treat a tank with shrimp? i hope it is because these fish are in with about 100 cherry shrimp.

[Marius]

Originally Posted by oceanrogue

could i plz get some of this to treat my fish.. i saw tiny spikes of thin red hanging out of a couple of my fish. is it safe to treat a tank with shrimp? i hope it is because these fish are in with about 100 cherry shrimp.

I think you should remove the fishes and treat them in a quarantine tank. My presumtion is that the larvaes will die in the absence of fish to host, but I must research that before being certain about it. I think LEVAMISOLE would be deadly for shrimp, so likely separating the fish and giving the larvaes a couple weeks without host in the main tank might be enough. But a treatment in the quarantine is the way to go.

I'll let you know what I find as well. Great article Patrick, thank you.

[oceanrogue]

lol.. catch over 100 fish... wow. that would be alot of work lol. i assume it should be every fish not just the 2 showing symptoms

[Jacques]

Originally Posted by oceanrogue

could i plz get some of this to treat my fish.

Canadian Aquatics (see sponsor section) might have it.

[stephyun]

I have just noticed red worms hanging out from my fish vent... they look exactly like the ones hanging off the Pat's angel
where can I get the medication Levamsole HCl?? Do you know if the medication will harm shrimp and apple snails???

[anessa]

Pat sells it. It works great. I just treated two of my tanks. The fish seem unaffected by the medication but the worms are gone (at least visibly). I don't have any snails or shrimp in there so I don't know. But I do have loaches (scaleless) and small guppy fry in one of the tanks that they were also fine.

I wonder why so many people are having trouble with this lately?

[oceanrogue]

it may just be that many of us are only now becomming aware of it.

[anessa]

That medication is amazing. No sign of the worms anymore and it didn't seem to stress the fish at all, even when I was unable to do a water change for a few days instead of after 24 hours as per the instructions.

[sand]

I treated a tank several years ago with Levamisol HCl (Sigma), dosage ranged from 200 - 800 mg/10gal; levamisol was maintained in the tank for 2week duration & repeated
4-5 times over several months. Tank inhabitants included Altums, Rams, few Otos, adult Japonica shrimp - only the altums showed significant stress but then they were also the ones 'parasitized' .... Shrimp did fine BUT I also never added med if I saw any signs of shrimp molting (most shrimp are very sensitive to meds etc during the first 24h post-molt).
Levamisol is stable in acidic solution & OK up to ~ pH 7.2, anything over pH 7.6 & levamisol has a relatively sort half life (several hours AFAIR)


(parasite pics - http://www.finarama.com/diseases/, scroll to the bottom of page to the altum with "Unknown problem" Note:fish was euthanised before photos: 'He' had been in treatment for ~2months & had relapsed for the third time - numerous parasites were finally hanging out from his gills: apparantly terminal from this stage as necropsy reveals complete body infestation of worms rather than isolated areas)
I'd seen this parasite previously, again with wc SA fish - used everything but levamisol, lost all but 3 fish, few survivors were fortuitously treated with Discomed (a now discontinued 'cocktail' med that contained levamisol)

Note, fish can be treated far more efficiently with levamisol-soaked foods BUT it's difficult to monitor who ate what ... Jungle Lab's Anti-Parasitic food also contains levamisol & is effective against Camallanus. Don't know if it would work against the above nasty "white worm" - Pandora's Aquarium had photos of other fish infected with this apparant same parasite but that webpage has been down for awhile & doesn't seem likely to reappear.

BTW Camallanus was originally believed to require multiple hosts to complete its lifecycle, so was never considered a 'serious' concern in aquarium fish, it's finally recognised as being able to 'cycle' just fine in aquaria There are also strains of Ich that can complete its life cycle ON the fish host & other strains that are heat resistant (to ~90F)
How's that for Evolution!!!

[Gimlid]

Hi,
I Caught your article on on the camellanus infection you had removed using levamisole. I have read other successes using this product. I have been unable to locate a supplier in the lower mainland.
Could you possibly direct me to a supplier of this product? My Angel fish are infected and quarrantined and I have lost a smaller cichlid already (quite horrible death).
Hopefully,
Gimlid c/o of this site

[curtisl1982]

just pm mykiss or charles for levamisole.

[malia]

hi i'm new to the forum and i'm desperate to find a source of levamisole to help out my poor fish! please contact me or post where EXACTLY i can get my hands on some levamisole TODAY! i'm sorry, i am just getting so frustrated in my losing battle against these worms. i didn't even know what they were when my first two fish died (total count is up to 9 now) and now i have about 7 visibly infected and goodness knows how many more! also, how can i humanely euthanize the fish that are too far gone? i have a rummy nosed tetra that the worm has burst out his side... and the rummy still swims at mad speeds -hard to catch... and is still eating... but i'm pretty sure he can't live long with a worm hanging out his side!

i also have four clown loaches.. is this safe to treat them with? i'd really prefer not to have to take them out as i can only assume they have the worm too.

seeing as i'm new i can't PM anyone just yet