A short YouTube case study (case #46) by Gerald Bassleer describing worm infections in wild Corydoras agassizi. Video shows external signs (tail damage, emaciation, darkening, erratic swimming), microscopic findings (encapsulated metacercariae, free-moving nematodes, active trematodes in liver), and organ issues (kidney calcium deposits). The speaker recommends anti-worm treatments for free parasites (e.g., praziquantel, levamisole or fenbendazole), supportive care (improved water, quality food, selection of weak fish), and antibiotics (oxytetracycline) if secondary bacterial infection is suspected; also recommends a 20-day feeding with Dr. Bassleer biofish pumpkin food to help recovery.
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Hello Aquarist, welcome again to one of my next cases on fish diseases. Today we already at case number 46 and I will use my screen to share it with you because the best way to present this with videos and microscopic observations. And this case 46 is a case which is very similar to a previous case. Case number 32, a Corydora Agassizi from the wild, which shows parasitic worm infectious. And this corydora had some other worm infections than the previous one which was showed a couple of weeks ago. This fish here we see in the fish tank, we saw this group of Corydoras here hustling together. And you see some of the tails are, are damaged, not perfectly formed and the tail is like wasting away and the fish are shaking nervously swimming. Here we see another part. You see some are getting dark and then getting skinny and in the back of the aquarium. Well, if you know it's a Corydora from the wild, make sure you do a good microscopic check up from those very serious damaged fish because they will die in the coming days and they're very good. The case to help you to understand fish diseases, particularly fish coming from the wild have common worm infections, which I explained that that's the case here. One of the worms we find inside is this encapsulated Metasarcaria worm. Next to the organs and here next to the gut or the intestine, we see a small nematode which is moving around and we see another nematode which is still encapsulated or already encapsulated because the fish has a defense way to finally encapsulate the nematode. Let me show you again from the beginning. Here you see the encapsulated nematode which is already dead. So the fish has a way to fight off those parasitic infections. But if there are too many worms or the fish is too weak, has lack of good food, or has a lot of stress or a lot of competition for food, then the worm has more chance to take advantage of the fish and advantage of the situation and to become a serious infection. Here we see in a part of the liver, we saw quite a few trematode worms. Here I've shown larger magnification. These are trematode worms which were still active, moving around and causing serious damage to the organ. And of course that will need treatment because those are free swimming, free moving worms in the abdominal cavity and in the organs. So we have to apply an anti worm treatment. We also observed in the kidney in this fish we saw some calcium deposits. That means that the kidney is partially malfunctioning. And that could be a case of stress or could be a case of diseases in previous treatments that the fish was suffering from. But the typical is that the kidney is in a bad shape. The other thing we could suspect that there was a bacterial infection occurring because of the parasitic infection. Like I tell you in many of my videos that bacterial infections are quite often secondary infections. While a fish is suffering from a parasitic infection. The suggestions for treatment for this Corydora agassizae is that you have to control those internal worms here. The Metacercaria which are encapsulated you cannot treat. But the free nematodes and the trematodes which are common in the wild Corydoras you can treat with a proper drug. Of course, think about that. The fish can have also a bacterial infection which could be secondary. First try to make perfect water conditions and apply good quality food. Eliminate or select very weak ones. They can spread the disease. You can put them in a carotene tank and treat them separately. The very badly damaged ones particularly you can try to treat with an anti worm medication like Parisicanthal Levandizole or fenbendazole to control the free moving worms. When no real improvement happens in the days after. Think about antibacterial treatments like an antibiotic we use quite often in our hobby or in the industry for wild Corydoras oxytetracycle. We also recommend to feed the fish with Dr. Basler biofish food pumpkin that helps during a 20 day feeding practice helps in the control of the worm infection. It's not a medication food, but it's something that helps the fish to expel or to fight off the worms. So this was a case on worm infection on a wild Corydoras. And if you deal with wild fish, well, think a lot about worm infection. This is quite common in wild fish like the Corydora fish. So stay tuned for my next videos to become a better fish care keeper. Thank you.
