sera guide - Healthy aquarium fish

9.3 sera med Professional Tremazol Tapeworms (Cestoda) live in the intestines of their hosts where they withdraw important nu- trients from the pre-digested nutrition pulp. The infected fish become emaciated and suffer from deficiency symptoms. The worms attach to the intestinal wall with their front end, which often leads to irritations and secondary infec- tions. Small fish may suffer from ileus. These parasites are introduced with infected wild caught fish or by intermediate hosts (e.g. copepods or Tubifex) from open waters. You should therefore generally abstain from feeding live food from doubtful sources. (All sera foods are guaranteed to be free of parasites!) Observation Emaciation, loss of appetite, gelatinous fish waste; sometimes so-called proglottides (whitish, tape-shaped worm segments) can be found constricted in the fish waste, or the worm end hangs out of the anus of the infected fish. Diagnosis: Tapeworms / Cestoda Tapeworm on a Discus see also page 35 Observation Fish scrub themselves; inflammations under- neath the scales; emaciation. Diagnosis: Transversotrema sp. Swordtail with Transversotrema infection The inside of the hermaphroditic, flattened tapeworms mainly consists of sexual organs. Large amounts of eggs are released with the feces of infected fish. Some tapeworm species expel proglottids, i.e. worm body segments in- cluding fertilized, mature eggs, instead of sin- gle eggs. The hatching larvae are able to swim and require an intermediate host before they can infect a fish again. Among others, Cyclops (a copepod) is suitable for them. The infected small crustaceans can then be eaten by a fish and thus transmit the tapeworm. There are therefore two possibilities – either to combat the worms directly, and/or to remove the intermediate hosts, thus interrupting the cycle. Being crustaceans, the intermediate hosts are successfully and reliably removed by sera med Professional Argulol. Be careful when keeping “desired” crustaceans (e.g. shrimps and crayfish). They may also be harmed when using this treatment! Combating the tapeworms themselves is achieved with sera med Professional Trema- zol according to the information for use. The dead, excreted tapeworms should be siphoned off the bottom ground daily as to keep water pollution low. One treatment is usually suffi- cient. A repeated treatment after a few days can be advisable in severe cases. Suspected newly added fish can be treated prophylacti- cally in a short-term bath. The preventively treated fish should be quarantined another two to three days in the changed water before in- 53 Professional