Tape worm?

[Three little fish]

My juvenile Red Melon went pale and off its food so I dosed the tank with Levamisole, changed water, then gave it the Praziquantel treatment. Red Melon has regained some colour but still not eating however I think I nailed a Tape Worm in my Pigeon.

[ILLUSN]

Hard to see from the pic, is it segmented and like a ribon? if so its a tape worm treat again with prazi on weeks 2 and 3 to kill all the htaching eggs.

[zar]

I had a very similar problem once with a discus. didn't eat at all, and what was coming out was like what you show there, i thought it was tapeworm but the string of poo had different thickness at different spots, so didn't really look like a worm, others also told me it's not tapeworm. And it wasn't, i treated with metronidazole for a couple of days, it was some kind of protozoa, metrogyl cleared it up in a couple of days time, the discus started eating after that.
THe only time i saw a photo of a tapeworm in a discus, the sting was really white and was pointy towards the end, like a tail and white in color.
I"m not an expert though, try treating with both if you can i guess.

[Three little fish]

Yes I think it is a Tape Worm as it has been hanging out for about 4hrs now and the fish has passed a normal looking stool with the TW in situ. It is definitely ribbon looking and does appear to be segmented with the protruding end very square as if it has been broken. I am familiar with the stringy white pooh but this is quite different.

Incidentally this is not the fish that was causing me concern. This fish was looking, feeding and behaving quite normally before I started the water treatment. It is my small Red Melon that is showing signs of illness.

The pictures are about as good as I can get with my equipment unfortunately. I spent a considerable amount of time trying to get good pics and then cropping a resizing to post-able size etc. So much so that I inadvertently posted into 'General Discus Questions' instead of 'Illnesses and Medications.' Sorry about that :oops: At least I now know how to do it in future, just need a slightly better camera.

:?

[ILLUSN]

if its flat and sergmented its a tape worm, prazi will take care of it if one fish has it its safe to assume the rest also have them

[Three little fish]

The Red Melon is in the same tank receiving the same treatment. I am hoping to see an improvement soon. If not I guess I have a compounding problem.

[Three little fish]

Here is another photo taken this morning (5th May). As you can see quite a bit more of the worm is out. (Sorry about the quality)

The fish has finally passed it all so I picked it up from the bottom of the tank and laid it out a long a ruler. It measures 29cm..with a knot in it!!

I tried to take a photo of that but I don't have a wide enough camera lens.

None of my other fish have any signs of Tape Worm however my poor little Red Melon is still passing white pooh and not eating. I am not sure whether to start it on Metro,give it a PP bath or just wait for a while?

[ILLUSN]

START METRO

[Mr Wild]

OMG that is amazing!

Have you had him long? I have never had anything like! Really glad he is ok.

[Three little fish]

I have only had this fish for about 3 months. I had no idea that it had a worm before I treated the tank as it looked and behaved like a normal healthy fish. Normal stools etc. It is still fine and swimming/feeding quite happily.

I have put the Red Melon in a hospital tank and started Metro treatment.
ILLUSN, can you advise the recommended treatment Period?

[ILLUSN]

25mg/L metro every 48hrs with a 30% water change before each treatment. temp 30C repeat treatment 3 times

[Three little fish]

Thanks very much.

[Mattzilla]

what the hell would we do without ILLUSN???

always there to help

[Old Dave]

Never heard of a worm tying itself in knots :lol: :lol: .

Maybe that is how Prazi works :oops:

Old Dave