Is there something wrong with my female honey gourami?

Hello everyone, first time poster here. I'm a bit worried about my honey gourami pair, but couldn't find any useful information online. Hopefully the experts here can help!

Tank details:
15 gallons planted tank
Male and female honey gourami
3 fancy guppies (male)
1 dwarf bristlenose pleco
2 african dwarf frogs
Handful of Amano and ghost shrimp
1 nerite snail

Nitrates: .20
Nitrites: 0
Ammonia: 0-.10

My gourami pair has been exhibiting mating behavior for a few weeks (immediately after I introduced the male - the female has been in the tank for 3 or so months). A lot of swimming in circles around each other and twisting around, but no actual fighting initially. The male made a gigantic bubble nest on his side of the tank and has been blowing bubbles everywhere for two weeks. Lately, the female has been staying in one corner and not engaging with him, but he has started chasing her around periodically and I'm worried they should be separated. I noticed some nips on her dorsal fin recently.

Most concerning to me is this strange issue with her (vent? Anus?) underbelly area. She has these little dark spikes coming from thay area and her abdomen seems a little swollen. I'll attach some pictures of her.

Any idea what's going on?

 

The pics aren't working for me.

Google camallanus worms - do they look like those?

 

The pics aren't working for me.

Google camallanus worms - do they look like those?

That does look like it, except hers seem paler now and not bright red. Horrifying. she's acting lethargic now and is very pale. What can I do?

 

I think levimasole treats it.

 

I think levimasole treats it.

Bad news. I just found her dead in the tank and when I took her out, there were tiny LIVE red worms in the vent. Your diagnosis was spot on, just a little too late. I'm heading to my LFS tomorrow to get the treatment to make sure the rest of my tank doesn't meet the same fate.

Thanks for the advice!

 

Bad news. I just found her dead in the tank and when I took her out, there were tiny LIVE red worms in the vent. Your diagnosis was spot on, just a little too late. I'm heading to my LFS tomorrow to get the treatment to make sure the rest of my tank doesn't meet the same fate.

Thanks for the advice!

I think she was too far gone to be saved. But hopefully this thread helps others with the same issue!

 

I'm sorry you lost her

Do you have inverts in the tank?

 

I'm sorry you lost her

Do you have inverts in the tank?

Yes, Amano shrimp, nerite snail and a bunch of MTS. Will they be hurt by the treatment?

 

I'm not sure. I've read conflicting reports. The shrimp should be okay, but I'm not sure about the snails. Hopefully someone who knows can let us know.

 

Levamisole is fine for shrimp but will kill nerites. Mts are a lot hardier but some will survive most likely.

 

I'll move the nerites to my other tank in that case. It isn't quite finished cycling yet, would this kill the nerite or the shrimp? The treatment is welcome to kill the MTS, they hitchhiked in on some plants and quickly took over the tank.

 

Ime, levamisole was fine for cherry shrimp and crayfish and bamboo shrimp so I think amanos would be fine. Nerites can handle a few days of cycling tanks ime just be sure to check and so frequent water chanfes for them. At least twice a week. If they all start hanging out at thewater line ime they are letting you know the ammonia or nitrites is too high

 

So none of my LFS carry levamasol or fenbendazole, which should be effective. I did find out that safeguard for dogs is carried by petco and the active ingredient is fenbendazole. My SO is a chemist, so he feels pretty confident that it should work if we calculate the dosage correctly. Any advice? I'll report back with how it goes.

 

I'm using cattle drench off amazon for levamisole so I'm sure it's possible to do if you know how to do the math