omar

sorry if the title hurts anybody but for the past few months my in-laws tank has been infested with camallanus worms. i cant get reid of like i did with my 29 gallon tank it. the 55 gallon tank its mostly a community tank theres a 7-8 in. pleco 3 gouramies a couple of neon tetras, a betta, rainbow shark,platies, female swordtail, and quite a few mollies. Now mostly the mollies are dying one by one we also lost a really crippled neon tetra and the next one to die is the betta and two gouramies. the tank itself its over filter which its good it has and underwater filter two hang on back filters on rated for 75 gallon tank and the other for 50 gallon tank temp is 78 f. can give u the readings cause i dont have the tank here but basicaly it gets checked by my brother in law it gets a water change every two weeks. As for euthanizing the fish i was going to put them in zip lock bags and put them in the freezer but i found a better humane way and it involves using clove oil to sleep the fish and vodka to just not wake them up anymore if anyone else have a different way please tell me.

aquarist48

hmmmm MEDIC!!!!!!!!!!!

Llama

See if you can medicate them instead. If you're using activated carbon/charcoal in one of the filters, remove it.

omar

no i have been trying basicily with some medicin that my local fish store gives me i bought medicated food, basically i been giving the a petco dog dewormer that work for my fish in my 29 gallon tank and havent seen the parasites for almost 6 months and i used it TWICE and my fish are in full health, colorfull , and growin my priced fish is my rainbowshark he has a deep jet black body color and bright red fins it and my opinion it could match the colors of saltwater fish its at 5 1/2 in the my iran reds are growing with a nice color and my two yellow gouramies are awesome as well.

agabr123

clove oil and vodka is the best way to euthanize, putting the fish in the freezer is slow and painful for them

the only medication i know of to treat camallanus worms that you may want to try is called levamisole
http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/doc...h/othmed.shtml

Lucy

I'm really sorry you have to make such a tough choice. I've heard clove oil and vodka is the more humane way. If I had to choose, that's what I'd use.

Blub

I'm really sorry about this tought choic you have to make! It's horrible when this kind of thing happens...

Yeah, clove oil/vodka is the way to go. If you freeze them, ice crysals can form on their insides, which as you can imagain is very painful and stressful.

shadowavenger

try this, since the fish may need to be destroyed any way.. Remove them and put them in a medical tank with brand new fresh water and new filter. Don't worry about cycling just manage toxin levels. do whatever is needed to medicate them and if nessecary, over medicate. Hopefully it could turn it around and your fish may survive. Now for the tank, crank the heater up to max and dump in a load of pure ammonia, and by load I mean gallons. That should kill any parasites present in the water and may even maintain the cycle since the bacteria would be consuming the ammonia.

I can't say this will work, but if your fish are dying anyways, its worth a shot. You may get luckly and be able to salvage the tank.

AlyeskaGirl

Hmmm...that is so sad. Poor little guys.

What I would do is setup a q-tine tank with new water as said above. Using Stress Coat Plus as a conditoner and using Stress Zyme to keep readings at zero. I use Stress Zyme ONLY on my q-tine tank when I need it setup asap. It's been up for about a month in a half. lol Got ongoing probs in main tank. Anyway, that is a way to keep the water safe while treating with meds if can't do water changes to keep levels safe. It's been working great for me. and it really does keep ALL parameters at zero. Deff not a thing to use for actually cycling a new tank because it eats up the ammonia, not allowing the real beneficial bacteria to colonize.

omar

those are really great ideas but i doudt that they'll come thrue since they pretty much not look to strong to go into that kind of enviroment. i was going to bleach the system to kill the left over parasites. Now since im going to start from scratch im going in a differebt direction as far as fish goes and the whole lay out i want to turn into semi aggresive planted tank which i want to include 2 blood parrots so, far anymore ideas will be welcome in my personal experiance i love the whole natural look of a tank with out all of the different decoration there are.

Lucy

I'd go with bleach over ammonia to kill the anything in an infected tank also. 19 parts water to 1 part bleach. Rinse until you can no longer smell ammonia then fill and od with dechlorinator. Let it set for a while then empty.
I don't know about blood parrots compatibility, but I hope your stocking won't include a Betta this time.

omar

well like i said its my in-laws tank and i want to make it more interesting fish than livebreeders and communityfish and i want live plants and pieces of drift wood and some rocks for a more natural feel what do you think?

Lucy

I love a natural looking tank. It sounds like it's going to be nice. Instead of aquarium gravel look into using pea gravel. It takes a bit of rinsing and I boiled to to be safe, but it was less than $3.00 for a 50lb bag.

omar

pea gravel? where do they sell that i was thinking of eco sand for plants but its a little expensive in my 29g i have a mix of 50/50 perc. gravel and white sand it looks ok i had a snail problem so i purchased a clown loach that i had planed on putting in the 55 after it finished eating all my snail but his going to have to wait a little longer now to go to his new home, his pretty small though so i dont worry about him outgrowing my tank.

CWO4GUNNER

To bad you cant take up the challenge to save them. You might want to see if you have a fish rescue person in your area you local fish store might know. We have a lady here in the area that takes all sick or abandoned fish they say here whole house is full of aquariums and they are all pristine. Takes all types I guess. Hope your new setup works out better for you.

omar

thanks im also planing in upgrading the lights for the 55g so, ones i get the habg of uploading pics i'll put up pics of my 29g and the new renovation of the 55g with the then after shots and some extras of the whole process with maybe a video as far stocking this is what i got a pair of blood parrots, angelfish, the clown loach thats in my 29g, soem cory's, a pair of firemouth cichlids, albino rainbow shark, 3 different color gouramies. feel free to put your opinions but im not looking foward for to live breeders or schooling community fish not that i have anything against them its just i want different shape fish and colour

MeGustaUnaPez926

This is kind of repeating a topic, but regarding freezing the fish- I thought that was the most humane way to do goldfish, because they're cold water, so it just slows their hearthbeat down untill they die. I guess I'm wrong??

CWO4GUNNER

I wasn't going to say anything because having been in the Coast Guard I know something about hypothermia (freezing). Quick prolong cold is only uncomfortable for a few moments and then because the nervous system shuts down an organism becomes quite euphoric s if give opiates. As a diver Iv had hypothermia and its got to be one of the most comfortable feelings I have ever experienced with a sense of well being and confidence which is why people can die because of impaired judgment just like a drug. Without a doubt I defiantly believe that freezing is the most humane then forcing them to breath alcohol.

pinkfloydpuffer

I think that any way you do it, personally I'd put them under with an anesthetic, such as clove oil, first. That way you know they don't feel a thing And if you don't have vodka, I've found that rubbing alcohol works just as well...

shadowavenger

if you must euthanize, you could use a razor and decapitate them. thats how most commercially fished fish are killed before processing.

aquarist48

What caused this worm problem? I've never heard of it before.

Llama

I think doing something like that would be pretty traumatic to the person cutting their head off don't you think? That said it should be pretty painless if you do it properly.

capekate

When I have had to euthanize a fish this is the method I used. I surely hope that the reason for having to do this is that the fish are sick and not just to re-stock a tank. Im sorry if that is blunt, but for the sake of the fish in your tank, I hope it is not so. There is good fish medication out there for this problem and they can be saved with a little bit of research into the right meds for them. With that said, if you are intent on euthanizing your fish, then the method below is IMO the way to go.Im sorry to hear that you have to resort to this ...


http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-...ize-a-fish.htm

omar

well it was a transfer of fish that i had in my 29g to the 55g way before i knew i had them so, thats my best bet.

capekate

Im not sure I understand you post?

Fishies-for-me

Some one up further asked how he got the worms as they have never heard of them. They are a nasty parasitic intestinal worm that fish can come already infected with when you buy them from the store. I had camallanus in my guppy tank a year ago and cured them with jungle labs anti-parasite food. It has been about 10 - 11 months now and no sign of worms still. The food was more effective when I fed it straight for a month instead of 4 days food and then 3 days of regular food.

capekate

ahhh.. thank you, now it makes sense.

aquarist48

Thanks Fishies!

CWO4GUNNER

For me a question to euthanize or kill for food its all a matter of humane purpose. If you have a pet you have a reasonable responsibility to treat them based on your ability to do so rather then simply dispose of the animal which is a waste and sin.
When scuba diving in the kelp forest for food such as Sheep Head or Grouper fish, any spearing was quickly followed up by a quick lobotomy which put the fish to sleep and kept sharks from being attracted to my thrashing waist bag full of fish.
Respect, purpose and intent are what's important when it come to the way we treat animals.

mare2009

gotta watch out for those snarks, they sure can make one impotent!
..sometimes it pays to preview post before submitting, I couldn't pass by this without comment its all in fun...