Tape worms F1 "wilds"

[Dutch dude]

Hi there,

Abouth 8 weeks ago I bought 10 F1 curipera discus. They origin from Germany and are brought to Holland by a Dutch guy of witch I bought the fish. All fish were around 5 to 6 cm in size. After introducing the fish to my tank they obviously need to get used to the new tank and water parameters. After a week they felt more at home and start to feed much better. Suddenly a few chunks of tape worm were on the floor and I witnessed one of the fish poop one out. I immediately start a worm treatment containing Levamisole, Flubendazole and Diflubenzuron. Two day's later I found more parts of tape worm. After 5 day treatment I did 2 large water changes and started using Prazi at 250mg/liter. No more tape worms were found. After the treatment with prazi I did again a large wc, 5 day treatment with the worm medication (Levamisole) and after that again a large wc prazi treatment and worm treatment again. So I did 3 times a worm treatment with Levamisole (10 to 12 day's appart) and inbetween 2 times a prazi treatment. The fish had a prazi treatment at the Dutch guy as well.

I did detected a few worm parts before treatment and abouth 12 more parts during the first treatment with the Levamisole. Thats was abouth 6 weeks ago. This morning I found a new piece of tapeworm.

Of the 10 fish I lost one becouse it freaked out for no apparent reason, bounced against the windows and cover cousing death. One of the fish grows very well and abouth the same speed as a domesticated discus (that should be unusual becouse most F1 grow quit slow from what I have heard). Abouth 4 of them do nice, feed well, look good but grow slow. The remaining 4 just grow to slow, defelop to slow, are lighter colored and picky at feeding time. I do have to say they gained a bit in the last 2 weeks and improve.

I thought I would be better off with F1 if it comes to parasites but I gues I bought problem fish with a tapeworm issue.

Some questions:
- when live tape worms come out, do they move, do they come in 1 part or do they come in chunks smaller as 1 inch?
- do live tape worms break in parts naturally?
- can death tape worms come out 2 weeks after a treatment without being digested? The parts I found so far are 1 inch long containing around 15 segments and white of color.

Any one expirienced with something like this?

[Eddie]

Some questions:
- when live tape worms come out, do they move, do they come in 1 part or do they come in chunks smaller as 1 inch?
- do live tape worms break in parts naturally?
- can death tape worms come out 2 weeks after a treatment without being digested? The parts I found so far are 1 inch long containing around 15 segments and white of color.

Any one expirienced with something like this?

My fish dealt with tapeworms not too long ago and the worms were pretty much in tact, but I did find pieces throughout the tank during treatment. I've also had fish in the past drop pieces and not whole worms. I've never seen tapeworm pieces weeks later but that doesn't mean it can't happen. Sometimes other fish will actually eat the dead worms or tear them up. :o

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=76417&highlight=extreme+cestodes


Eddie

[Harriett]

What I am wondering is the "15 segments" part of your post in a smaller section.* Tape worms appear as flat wider white worms, as long as about 6" but many times shorter as well.* U can see eggs in them but the tape itself is not segmented, it looks more like a ribbon.* Wondering if you have tape or hex, given the segmented appearance?* Hex come out in single units, tape worms frequently are a whole cluster of worms coming out at one time.* Is any of this helping?I did have an experience with a tape worm infestation in some juvies I bought some years ago....not many small 1 inch sections, and the tapes didn't break apart easily; they were mostly 2-4 inches long...when I 'caught' them to look, they got mushy as soon as I pulled them from the tank.* Prazi took care of it.* Prazi is not completely effective with hex, however, IME.Harriett

[Dutch dude]

Hey Eddie,

Thanks for sharing. I knew your post and I read it before I started treating for tape worms abouth 7 weeks ago. The pics show long tape worms but I never found one like that in my tank. All I have seen are small pieces of around 15 segments with a length between the 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch. Like I wrote I treated them before with prazi so I did not expected the worms to be back that soon. Or new worms have developed in abouth 2 to 3 weeks or the meds didn't killed all the worms of the first series of prazi treatment. I dosed at 250 mg/liter add it to the water and let it sit for 3 day's. That should have killed the tape worms and possible present flukes as well. Eddie,....did the tape worms move when they were dropped by the fish and did you see movement in the segments? Lets hope I solve this tape worm issue becouse I realy like to grow this guy's out to normal size healthy fish.

Ruurd

[Dutch dude]

Harriett,

Thanks for posting. The "tape worms" are abouth 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch in size and are white colored. It is a string of around 15 segments conected to each other. Each segment can be diferent from size. I see no head or tail end. The conected segments are flat but wide and don't seem to be that flexible. I seen a part underneath a microscope and seen round things looking more like a cell structure. But hey,....I'm not knowledgeble to this stuf so it might have been eggs. The tapes come out one at a time and not a bunch of long worms like in Eddie his post. I have seen the most of them 6 weeks ago when I started the common worm treatment using a pond dewormer containing Levamisole, flubendazole and Difubenzuron.

[Dutch dude]

By the way,....the poop looks normal, chunky mostly dark (depends on the food) and defenately not slimy.

[Harriett]

Any way to get a photo of the worms?

[Dutch dude]

No I took out the one piece I found today already. The structure looks the same as the close up pics in Eddie his post (second page) only small parts. Hex = Hexamita right? That can't be seen with the bare eye right?

[Eddie]

Hey Ruurd, the worms were dead, no moving when they dropped out.

HTH

Eddie

[Dutch dude]

Thanks Eddie. The reason I asked abouth the movement,.....are living tapeworms active, wiggle and move or can they be laying still without movement but very well alive. If a living tape worm or worm segment should make movements I can say the once I found so far were all death. Any one knows if living tapeworms should make movements or not?