Entropy Central

Archive for the ‘Tropical fish’ Category

I’m nearly done with the treatment for camallanus worm nematodes in my display tank.  One black molly was severely infested and just didn’t seem to be responding to treatment.

Sometimes, even if the worms are dead, the fish cannot pass them from their digestive tract due to hooks on the worms.  This molly’s vent had swollen to the point it looked like a localized case of dropsy (scales standing up).  She also stopped eating and was clamping fins.

I moved her to a spare 2.5 gallon tank I had in the closet and began a serious treatment program to get her well, but she did not survive.  Yesterday morning, I found her dead in the tank, probably from all the stress of being moved and being exposed to medication in her weakened condition.

It happens, even the best doctors lose patients.  The good side of this is that as a result, my worm problem is now under control  I have to treat the main tank with the second dose of PraziPro on friday and then I’m finished.  After that, it’s just monitoring the fish to see if any worms show up again.

When I discovered that my fish had a parasite in the form of camallanus worms, I also quickly discovered the information on treating this pest is scattered and mostly unreliable.

To combat that problem, I decided to start a web site dedicated to consolidating that information into one place where aquarists can look up common problems without having to sift through a lot of chaff to find it.

It’s going to take me time to put this together, particularly when I have other projects on my plate at the same time. But I will make progress.

If you’d like to take a look at the site, follow this link to www.fishyfishy.info. There isn’t much content yet, but it’s a start.

The medicated feed I purchased a couple of days ago seems to be helping. The camallanus worms are starting to turn brown, but I still had the concern about newborn worms in the water.

Thanks to a little help from Bob Fenner at Wet Web Media (absolutely THE best online resource for fishkeeping problem-solving), I now have an alternative to levamisole to treat the water. Fenner recommends a substance called praziquantel as an alternative to levamisole, partly because it’s far more accessible.

While I did find an online resource for levamisole at $12 for 17 grams as opposed to the $120 for 5 grams from the local vet pharmacy, the dosing information is sketchy at best, mainly from testimonials posted in different fish forums.

This camallanus worm problem is not one that is very well known. I recall seeing the symptoms, specifically the swollen vent and mucus trails, in the tank my parents kept back in the late 70s. At that time, I had no idea this was a problem and I don’t think much was known about it by anyone outside university research labs. Certainly no treatments were available.

Today’s treatment consisted of an 80% water change and then dosing the tank at the recommended concentration. I’ll do another water change and put the activated carbon back in on friday.

I started the fish on a diet of the medicated food this morning. They all eat with the usual fervor of meal time. I’m hoping this does the trick. I found more of the worms, this time on my siamese algae eaters. I’ve had those fish for over five years and I really don’t want to see them go down to a parasite.

It has been difficult to get what I need for the tank water at a reasonable price. There are options but none that are like a quick trip down to QuickTrip.

On the editing side, the submissions for 2020 Visions have been trickling in. One more week of open subs and that window will close again. Then comes the hard part of selecting the right stories and sending other good stories away.

Yesterday I discovered something quit disturbing in my main tank. My adult mollies appear to have an infestation of camallanus worms. it’s a problem that is identified when thin, orange, hair-like worms protrude from the anus of the fish as illustrated in the picture below:

I recalled seeing the symptoms while re-reading “Manual of Fish Health,” a volume that should be required of anyone keeping even a goldfish in a bowl.

Pretty much everything you’ll find in the fish aisle is not effective against the Camallanus worm.

Upon further research, it seems that it’s a difficult condition to treat. There are a couple of recommended treatments, levamisole seems to be the preferred treatment but is difficult to find in powdered form to dissolve into the water. Fenbendazole is a food additive and is also difficult to acquire.

Fenbendazole is available under the brand name Safeguard as a food additive for canines.

It turns out that Jungle Labs makes an anti-parasite medicated fish food containing 0.5% levamisole, and that is what I purchased. I need to feed the fish this food exclusively for three consecutive days, and repeat for four weeks.

So, I’ll let you know what happens as I begin treatment tomorrow. I did a test feeding this evening to see how well the fish accept the food. Many fish will reject medicated food, but that did not appear to be the case in my tank. Of course, mollies will eat anything at any time, and my Siamese algae eaters will too.

Not long ago, I discovered a fishkeeping forum called fishlore. A lot of knowledgable people frequent the board, and with my decades of experience, I thought I might be able to contribute. I have successfully dealt with a lot of problems: ichthyophthirius, swim bladder disorders, algae blooms, tumors, and finrot to name a few, so why not?

One particular post asking about a very ill fish led somebody to post that euthanasia might be the only course of action. Now, I have read the threads on euthanasia on that forum and never saw what is currently recommended as the most humane method of euthanasia for small fish. So I made a casual comment about it because I wanted the person who posted the question to have it as an alternative. I did not recommend euthanasia as a course of action.

The method I described is this, which I recite here verbatim from “The Manual of Fish Health” ISBN 1-55297-824-9, page 78:

Concussion. The fish is restrained out of water by gently wrapping a wetted paper tissue around its body. Rest the fish on a firm surface and strike its head with a hard object such as a hammer. The aim is to instantly destroy the brain. Although it may seem barbaric, this method is swift and effective if performed correctly. Understandably, some hobbyists feel squeemish about performing this procedure in which case they should not attempt it.

I mentioned every point in that paragraph. This post led to a large number of other participants at fishlore telling me the description was uncalled for, accusing me of being inhumane and cruel, and a number of other accusations. I should point out that a number of the “more humane” methods of euthanasia recommended by fishlore contributors in that same thread are noted in this text as no longer considered humane. The most commonly held mistaken belief is that dropping the fish into icewater is the best way to euthanize a fish, where the book specifically goes out of its way to state that this method is now believed to cause suffering. (Note: I do concede that one member with over 10 years of experienced agreed with my method.)

Upon attempting to defend what I wrote, posts were taken down without explanation until after the fact. There was at first a post stating the discussion had been moved, and I was unable to find it. When I inquired where the discussion had been moved, those questions were removed. After three or four iterations of this, a terse message stated that the entire discussion had not been moved but instead deleted. I received no other notice, and not more than a brush-off explanation.

At that time, I posted a note in its own thread that I was upset that I was unable to defend my position and angry that the moderators removed the discussion without notifying me with a private message. I also announced that I would not be back. I am sure that was deleted as well, though I never went back to check. I only went back to remove my personal information.

Fast forward a few weeks. After a google search today, I inadvertently clicked on a link that took me to fishlore and discovered that I had been banned forever for “going against a moderator’s decision.” WTF?

(1) I did not continue posting on the subject once I understood what that decision was. The decision made without explanation until after I tried to respond multiple times with posts deleted without knowing why or understanding what the decision even was.
(2) I was flamed without opportunity to respond, and without the ability to correct bad information posted by people who had been on fishlore considerably longer that I was, but with much less actual fishkeeping experience.
(3) I have documentation to back up what I wrote, as well as information to refute the other methods that are advocated on fishlore but now considered cruel by experts.

How should this incident have been correctly handled?

1) A private message to me in my fishlore account explaining the moderator’s decision. If euthanasia has caused a brew-ha-ha in the past, that should have been explained privately instead of simply deleting messages I took considerable time and energy to construct.

2) An appropriate place to have such a discussion.

My posts and my responses were not flames, I methodically defended what I wrote with carefully thought-out text. It made no difference to the outcome.

As events unfolded, the moderator blatantly silenced somebody with correct but unpopular information, and in the process drove away somebody with over 30 years of fishkeeping experience willing to research a fish health problem before responding.

In the end, although there are a lot of good resources who frequent that board, I have no intention of returning. Yes, I have the computer knowledge to get around the ban, but I have no inclination to do so. I have no interest in participating in a forum where unpopular information is silenced and moderators delete posts behind a participant’s back. If you use fishlore, caveat emptor. There is bad information mixed with the good.

All I wanted was a fair explanation from the moderators and the opportunity to respond to accusations. That was denied me, but as you can see, I also have a forum. If any fishlore moderator would like to respond here, it will not be deleted.

I finally found a home for a dozen of my black molly frys. A local pet store with clean tanks and staff that care about the animals was willing to take a dozen off my hands. I miss all the little guys, but my tank just can’t support as much fish as would have been in there when those guys grow up.

I still have about seven or eight of the black ones, six or seven dalmatian (or marbled, not sure), and two orange ones in the tank, so I haven’t given away the entire litter. Plus, I’m sure they’ll make more.

Here is a quick little video of my black molly fry playing in the fast current at the front of my tank.

The hospital tank has been up and running for over 24 hours now, and the severely injured black molly fry is isolated in it. The malachite green treatment appears to have been successful; there is no sign of fungus anymore.

The bad news is that she dropped a significant portion of her tail, probably because everything important had been severed. The good news is that she is eating and making attempts at swimming, compensating her damaged pectoral fin with her tail bent to the side of her good fin. (The physics of one fin and the tail bend cancel both cause the fish to turn, but they cancel each other out.)

Her health appears to be stable. While I wish she was never attacked, I feel good about her chances of survival. She’ll never have a normal life for a fish, but at least she’ll still have a life.