Re: [RML] observation re worms

Karsten Zander (zander at irb.uni-hannover.de)
Thu, 17 Jul 1997 08:35:26 +0200 (MET DST)

> I had camallanus (? spelling) worms earlier this year and treated the
> 'bows using ivermectin and had no sign of worms again until this week.
> The worms are heavily infested in only the female G. incisus (at least
> visible infestation) who are also the ones who always eat the ants that
> I drop into the tank. IS this coincidence? are the ants (wild, large
> black) the source of the worms?
> They really like the ants but I will stop feeding them if they are the
> source of the worm infestation. How about mosquitoe larvae? will they
> carry the worm eggs too? or anything else my fish would be better off
> without?
>
> thanks,
> Dianne

Hi Dianne,

Camallanus are livebearers and they can only live in water, so there is no
way for the fishes to be infested by nonwater-animals!

The problem with camallanus is, that the time from the larva-state to the
adult state, when the breeding females are visible at the anus of the
fish, is three month!!!
So if it was about three month ago, when you had the infestation, it is
possible that not all worms and larvas were killed.

I don't know Ivermectin on myself, but there were a lot of messages in the
list before, saying that it works fine.
Another medicine, that I have used, is "Concurat L 10%". That has worked
very good, the worms were gone without any loss of fishes and the fishes are
absolutely ok. And they breed normal.

So maybe you have used Ivermectin not long enough? I don't know.

Regards, Karsten