Help me id this worm? Camallanus?

[ulthipster]

Hi everyone,
I've been treating my tanks for camallanus over the past 4 months. Thought everything was cool but then I found these creepy worms in the substrate of one of my planted tanks and I just lost a favorite bristlenose who was skin and bones. I treated with levamisole a few months ago with no followup ... my whiptail cat and a molly in another tank had red threads hanging out their butts....

So last week I see something similiar on my b.n. and realize he's been lowkey lately. I feel so awful that I didn't catch his prob . sooner and he died yesterday. I thought he was just sick of our clown loach harassing him and kept out of sight during the day.

Anyway. They aren't great pics but I posted them on photobucket to see if anyone can tell me for sure they are camallanus. Can this worm live in the substrate without a host because these nasty things do. They also swam/wriggled like mad after medicating the tank and I was gravel vacc'ing.

Thanks for any help.

[ulthipster]

Sorry, forgot to link!

Here it is......

http://s208.photobucket.com/albums/bb14 ... usworm.jpg


or here's the photo

[ulthipster]

I just came across this pic of a leech and this looks like what is in my tank too.. Gross.... any thoughts anyone?



http://www.bugsandweeds.co.uk/leeches.html

[Diana]

Camallanus, red worms sticking out of the rear end of the fish is definitely that, and they are hard to get rid of. Levamisole is suppsed to do the trick, at the highest suggested dose. (Great article here about the treatment)
I do not know if they hang out in the substrate during any part of their life.

[shari2]

Usually camallanus appear very thin, almost hair-like. Depending on the magnification of your pic, it's difficult to tell how fat they actually are. However, if they are hanging out of your fish's anus, they are likely camallanus coti, a very nasty parasite.

The adult attaches to the fish's intestines with hooks and feeds on the blood (thus the red body). Were you to pull out the worms, the hooks would rip open the fish intestines.

Recent study of camallanus in an aquarium environment has shown that the parasite can directly infect fish for three generations and the free living first stage larvae can live in the substrate for more than three weeks.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/xm3 ... 77b27&pi=6

This probably means that your one treatment with levamisole did not eliminate the parasites. Hopefully, they are not resistant to it and you can use it again doing several treatments over the course of a month in hopes of eradicating it.

A couple of things to watch out for:
1. By the time you can actually see the worms protruding from the fish the infestation is heavy. Sometimes the paralyzed worms in the gut will cause a blockage that the fish can't move.

2. Another problem with camallanus is the damage they do to the gut. Sometimes, even though the worm falls off the intestine it leaves behind an open wound which falls prey to opportunistic bacteria that the fish's weakened immune system can not fight off.

In both these cases you may have successfully killed off the worms, but your fish may still not make it. Camallanus is a nasty parasite (I think I said that...)

[Dr. Momfish]

I found that Camallanus worm eradication was more rapid when treating herbivorous fish (Gouramis) than Carnivorous fish (Geophagus species). This is probably due to gut transit time. Herbivores require far more food and their food is less calorie dense. The bowel transit time is faster. For some reason the Cichlids are slow to clear and require several doses over a two week period.

Clown loaches clear slowly as well. Usually several doses over a two week period.

[Mad Duff]

They are almost certainly leeches in that photo.

Once a leech has had a good feed of blood and body fluids it can then rest for upto a month without feeding again, they will very often consume more than their own body wait with each feeding. Leeches are also hermaphrodites, the eggs are laid in a protevtive cocoon on the stems of plants and rocks etc.

Their life cycle can take from as little as 4 weeks upto over a year depending on the species and water temperature.

I think two of the best cures for leeches are drying out - adults die when dry and the eggs also perish but everything must be dryed and left for upto 2 to 3 weeks and the other is salt - obviously this is harder where loaches are present, the salt will only kill free swimming leeches and newly hatched it will not get rid of the eggs.

[ulthipster]

Thanks everyone for your input,
I think they are leeches as Mad Duff said, they aren't hairlike at all and they were quite large not magnified when I took the pic. Gross. I guess I'll do the salt thing since I hope to deal with it w/o tearing down. I wonder how I got them.. anyone hear of them from wild loaches?

[Mad Duff]

More likely to have come in on plants than fish, although small newly hatched leeches can live in the fishes gills

I have seen 3% salinity levels recomended to eradicate leeches, I dont know how well the Clowns will tolerate this, it may well be worth your while moving the clowns to another bare bottomed tank and keep an eye on the bottom to see if any leeches turn up.

[shari2]

Whew! Glad it isn't camallanus.
Did not know that leeches could be internal other than the gills. Hanging out of the anus, or maybe just attached there?

I'd consider moving the clowns to a bare bottom tank, too (with a pvc pipe or some other place to hide) while you salinate the tank.

[Darter02]

Here is a worm I am trying to ID myself. They live in the substrate, around the roots of my plants. I also find them in the filter media on occasion. They’re about the same length as the frozen bloodworms I feed my discus. I happened to spot this one in the branches of one of my plants, a very unusual place to see them. It looks full of eggs. My fish are all healthy, with nothing coming out of them anywhere.



To see photos of the tank and see the parameters just go to: http://flickr.com/photos/darter02/sets/ ... 552201878/

[andre]

Hi Darter

It reminds me of a ribbon worm (Nemertea) but I didn't know that they could live in fresh waters. If this is the case they should not harm your fish.

However I'm sure that there are experts on this forum who can be more precise.

[andre]

Hi Darter

Have a look at this clip, do they look the same?

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alan.cann/ ... teans.html

Good luck!

Andrea

[Darter02]

Hi Darter

Have a look at this clip, do they look the same?

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alan.cann/ ... teans.html

Good luck!

Andrea

Nope, these hardly move at all, they sort of lie limp, even when you try to pick them up. They're also a lot smaller, maybe only 1cm long. Oh, and they are a vivid reddish/pink.

[andre]

Sorry I can't help. Hopefully someone will recognize it.

By the way I had a look at your webpage, you got beautiful pix in there!