knighty76

Hi All!!!

Ok, here's the story. One of my guppies started to look ill in the run up to Christmas. He was spending a lot of time swimming in front of the filter inlet, which from experience is where my poorly guppies have tended to go, presumably to get more O2/water flow through their gills. He was quite lethargic and stopped feeding. I noticed some pretty severe swelling at his anus, and if I looked very very closely I could make out a bright red, very small, very fine thread protruding from his back door. The best explanation I could come up with after reading up was... da da DAAA

CALLAMANUS WORMS!!!!

ARGHH!!

Ok, so given this my next task was to find treatment. Again, after a whole bunch of reading I was LED to believe that I needed either Levamisole HCL or something called flubenzadole, alternatively known as Flubenol 15. Well, both are prescription only and after ringing about a dozen vets I began to realize nobody would let me buy any. They all insisted on seeing the porrly animal... I explained that I wasn't going to put an already stressed fish in a bag and sit in the waiting room. After much, much research I found only ONE product available, called Kusuri Wormer Plus, which contains Flubenol in a 5% concentration. However, it was by this time Christmas Eve.

Long story short (too late).. after ringing the UK distributor I found a Discus dealer in Sheffield who sold it and after calling his mobile I found myself standing outside his house at half 8 in the evening on Christmas Eve, an hours' drive after working a 12 hour shift. The things we do for fish eh?

Medicated the tank, and it seemed to me like JJ (John Junior, the guppy in question) was getting a bit better. However, his anus was still swollen and he couldn't pass any fish poo. I guess he was pretty backed up. Tried the old boiled peeled pea trick but he wouldn't feed. The next day he's got a horrible looking dark red/black patch on his chest which grew into a lump. Still no poo poo.

Got home from work Boxing Day and HIS CHEST HAD EXPLODED!!! I appreciate how grusome this is. But here's the Christmas miracle bit... he was still swimming around. Granted, he had a whopping great hole in his chest and a weeks' worth of stomach contents were hanging out like a big ball of grey cotton, almost the same size as JJ, but he's still swimming. ERGGH.

It's halfway through January and JJ lives on, in fact he seems fine.. he plays with the other boys and swims around happily enough.

However, he now has a new bottom!!!!!!!!

Instead of his fishypoo coming out of rear end like a normal fish, it now comes out of a hole near his neck. However, like I say other than this he seems alright. Now, if a human's intestine bursts out of his chest he doesn't usually survive. Aren't fish good?! I'm hoping it will eventually heal over, and I don't fully understand how he's doing ok since presumably he can't be digesting his dinner properly, but survive he does!!

Now that's a Christmas Miracle!!!

If anybody has any thoughts on this I'd welcome them. I hope he's not in any discomfort.. he doesn't seem to be.

Cheers,
Rich.

Lucy

Wow, Rich that's amazing. I hope he continues to do well.

thecolumbianshark

Now that is amazing!

jgon_

Wow! Quite a story. Also, let us know how well the medication works.

knighty76

Yeah, weird innit!?!

@jgon_

well so far so good.. no further sign of these symptoms. The treatment I found was pretty much the only thing in the UK.. the distributer was a fella based in Plymouth who used to distribute Flubenol 15 until it was banned! The Kusuri thing has a lower concentration, something like 5% Flubenzadole mixed with calcium Carbonate, and is legal under some kind of small animals exemption. I was assuming Callamanus because of the bright red thread, which looked like some of the pictures I was able to find on the internet. I medicated as instructed, left for 3 days, did a couple of proper gravel vacs and water changes, then repeated after about a week. No sign since, so fingers crossed!!!

If anyone in the UK has the dreaded worms and like me can't find medication for neither blood nor money, then I'd recommend ringing the contacts at Plymouth Discus (dot co dot uk... Google it!!) as they can put you in touch with a local seller for the product above. Don't take this is an endorsement per se, but this was the only option for Callamanus for me, and I can only comment on my personal experience.. seems to have been a help for my boy at least!!

Cheers,
Rich.

jgon_

Sound good, I'll need to keep that in mind since my betta had those worms. He died before I could properly treat and I'm curious if I cross-contaminated my other tanks. Since it takes a few months to show symptoms, I want to have something on hand.