Camallanus as a newb

[Panosian32]

Hi all, appreciate your advice. I'm newly returning to the hobby after a 20 year hiatus, and this forum has been a great resource for me.

Started setting up a 75g tank a couple months ago and have made some mistakes (e.g., mixing SA & African cichlids, not quarantining fish), but I'm learning quickly! Current tank has 2 Oscars and 3 Mbuna (all juveniles). To correct the mistake of mixing cichlid types, we just got a 2nd 75g so we could have one with the Oscars and the 2nd with just Mbuna.

Bad news, just noticed small, short red worms coming out of one of the Oscar's vents, and the other Oscar has a bit of a bloated belly and is acting off. The 3 Mbuna are acting normal. I'm guessing this is Camallanus worm - no bueno. Big silver lining is, I at least noticed before moving the Mbuna to the new tank and adding new fish!

Steps I've taken: I have a 20gL quarantine tank and Levamisole is arriving in two days.

Where the worms could have come from:

1. The Oscars: Got them from an LFS 10 days ago. Calling them in the morning to see if they've had any issues.
2. Tank #2: Got tank #2 5 days ago, and it came with a Chinese Algae eater, which I kept in my tank for 4 days before rehoming to LFS (will promptly alert them tomorrow).

Questions/Hoping for advice:

• If I move the fish to the quarantine tank for treatment, what happens with the original tank? Do I need to bleach all the gravel/filter/driftwood? Read a former thread on Camallanus where a contributor seemed to imply that if the worms are left long enough (4+ weeks) without a host, then they will die off and you don't need to bleach everything?
• Tank #2 came with an FX4 and a bunch of extras (e.g., net, fake plants); They've been dry since I got them 5 days ago. If I can't determine where the worms came from, do I also need to bleach the FX4 and the rest?
• Anything else I'm missing/should know

Finally, water conditions are normal on all dynamics.

 

[kno4te]

It does seem to need a host to complete the cycle. I’d treat with some levamisole with repeat dosing. Keep in the same tank since the other fish could be exposed/infected potentially. Replace the filter pads in the fx4 after treatment.

 

[Rocksor]

I hope you bought enough to treat both 75G tanks (if you separated the oscars and mbuna by now). I would assume that the other fish are infected. Treatment is 2-3 weeks later after the first dose. I like to do a 3rd treament just in case.

 

[Panosian32]

Thankfully, I caught it just before separating the fish and setting up the 2nd tank (although this one originally had the algae eater in it before I bought the whole set-up from someone leaving the hobby).

Treatment plan
Fish: Put them all in the new 20GL quarantine tank. Will treat with three cycles of Levamisole a few weeks apart. All 5 are between 1.5 - 2.5", and I'll be doing frequent water changes with the medication, so should have plenty of room.
Original 75g tank: Planning to leave up and running but without the fish. Expectation is that this will keep the good bacteria going, and the worms will die off during the 6 - 8 week treatment period without anything to serve as a host.
New 75g tank and equipment it came with (e.g., FX4): Going to clean all the equipment one more time just in case the algae eater that was formerly in this tank is what infected my original tank. Will leave everything dry one more week just to be safe + replace all the pads.

Fingers crossed. I'll post an update if anything meaningful happens along the way and when all is said and done.

Thanks for the thoughts/advice.

 

[phreeflow]

Like everyone said, just treat with levamisole 2 to 3 times every 3 weeks with a big water change and gravel vac the day after each treatment and you’ll be fine. Ran into I camanallus a couple times and with the right meds, it’s easy to treat. I just can’t figure out how to treat anchor worms at the moment.

 

[Panosian32]

So, 4 months later, and this morning I noticed similar worm like strands coming out of one of the Oscar's vents. The strands have been there for the last several hours now.

What seems strange to me is, all the fish seem to be doing really well. Few other fish have come and later moved to other tanks - and they are also all doing well. Of all the fish, I only noticed the original issues with the two oscars. Since two rounds of treatment back in August and September, both fish have grown a lot. From 1.5" and 2.5" to now 3.5" and 6". No bloating, lack of activity or anything like that which you'd expect to see with an internal parasite - some of which I noticed the first time around.

I do a 30-40% water change every 1-2 weeks depending on nitrate levels, and I vacuum all the gravel each time.

One other thing, whereas last times the worm strands were a vibrant red, this time they are a dark brown. Could it be that the fish is fine, but it is just finally passing dead worms after all this time?

 

[Panosian32]

Ok, a bit crazy - no worms, it was driftwood!

Did a big water change today. During which, I developed the suspicion regarding the driftwood. Got her out of the tank, as gently as possible pulled on the foreign object, and it was indeed several very small slivers of driftwood.

Quite relieve to not have to dose the tank again, and to have fixed the blockage.