Tapeworms in discus

[brewmaster15]

Have you ever had tapeworms in your discus? If so when?
I could technically put this in the disease board but its more of a hypothetical than a disease issue. Im curious on this because its been a long time since we have seen tapeworms being reported in members discus. My last case was around years ago with some imported discus.. my first time was 2002.. I wrote about it here and documented it with images.
http://www.simplydiscus.com/library/...apeworms.shtml..

I suspect we arent seeing them.as much now as we did is because of the widespread use of praziquantel by exporters .. and in quarantine by resellers. Its a wise thing to do since a hobbyist that got discus with tapeworms would not be happy.. Assuming this is the reason it still is curious.. where did they come from in the first place.? Most tape worms require a secondary host to develop in before they can infect fish. That host is probably an invertebrate ..maybe an aquatic insect,mollusk or crustacean.

Have you ever had a fish with tapeworms?












Al

[Bart_NL]

Re: Tapeworms in discus

I think I did yes, the female of my breeding couple had not been eating and producing only white poo for a month or so before I finally treated her with Manaus Bilocil.

Half way the treatment (a week) I found fragments of a quite small 'lintworm' (that's what we call it in Dutch), I could see the segments so typical of lintworm but it was just too small and somewhat transparent to make a recognizable picture of it. This Bilocil treatment worked well !

I ended up treating my main tank where she must have got it as well. This is a planted tank in which I used to keep african cichlids it could even have been in there that long ?

[brewmaster15]

Re: Tapeworms in discus

I think I did yes, the female of my breeding couple had not been eating and producing only white poo for a month or so before I finally treated her with Manaus Bilocil.

Half way the treatment (a week) I found fragments of a quite small 'lintworm' (that's what we call it in Dutch), I could see the segments so typical of lintworm but it was just too small and somewhat transparent to make a recognizable picture of it. This Bilocil treatment worked well !

I ended up treating my main tank where she must have got it as well. This is a planted tank in which I used to keep african cichlids it could even have been in there that long ?

If segmented then likely was tapeworms. but mostly like from what you are posting the discus probably had them when you got the fish... tape worms stay attached unless treated and continue to grow.. small pieces break off and passed out with waste.. then a secondary host eats the eggs in those pieces.. gets infected and the tape worm larvae can then move onto their discus host when the discus eats the secondary host. Its a complex life cycle where multiple steps occur that have to happen for fish to get tapeworms. There are a few documented tapewor species that dont use the secondary host..but its not common.

[Bart_NL]

Re: Tapeworms in discus

Thanks for the explanation, I sure hope that Manaus Bilocil (5 days treatment) deals with these eggs thoroughly as my main tank has a sandy bottom, wood and plants so there is no way to prevent any fragments from staying behind, i guess i should look for other Bilocil users experiences...?

[Bart_NL]

Re: Tapeworms in discus

Reading a bit more, the tapeworm eggs may have come in via live daphnia, although it was hardly a month ago I gave her those because of a lack of appetite, can these buggers develop so fast ?