Camallanus worms and Levasole dosing

[janek]

I have the nasty worms and 2 fish over a 3-4 moth period met their death due to the red worms sticking out of them. I bought Jungle anti-parasite food and it seems that all the fish are eating it except the two celebs rainbows who have the worms. I read that the only effective treatment for the worms is the use of pig dewormer levasole/levamisole and I ordered it here: http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e078b2-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5

However, I was wondering what would the proper dosage be on a 55 gallon tank? I read that the medicine is not harmful to any fish so I would like to treat the entire tank and hopefully prevent the spread of these worms in the future and perhaps saving the celebs as well. Also, would the medicine hurt shrimp (1 amano and one bamboo)?

 

[plecoperson]

~~~ If I were you I would do as much research as you can on the dosage, in several different places. The following is just my own experience and there many different protocols for treating with this drug. It's not labeled for aquarium usage, and your tank is different than mine. ~~~

I used 2.5 grams of that specific product per treatment for my 55 gallon (figuring there is about 40 gallons of water actually in there after subtracting the deep gravel I have and the driftwood.) I dissolved the powder in about a half-cup of tank water and poured it in. Then did a 90-95% water change and gravel clean the next day. Then repeated the process 2 more times, for a total of 3 treatments, 5 days apart.

This was with plecos, tetras, shrimp, snails, plants and a loach in the tank. All did well.

 

[janek]

I did research but dosages vary especially since everyone is not using the same product...I will try your approach...Is the amount of water change you specify that important? Could I do 2 water changes at 50% or so since I am afraid with my Farlowella, such large water change might kill it and I don't want to cure the fish by the drug and kill it with a water change?

 

[plecoperson]

The giant water change is the thing I had found to be consistently mentioned in treatment protocols. Apparently one wants to get most of the drug out of the tank after 24 hours. I usually do 50% a week; my fish didn't seem affected by the large amount of new water (other than seeming to kind of dig it.) It was scary to change that much at a time; it just covered the big pleco.

I do understand your caution about the Farlowella. If the rainbows are the only ones apparently affected by the worms, you might consider just pulling them out and treating in a separate tank. I don't know anything about the life cycle of Camellanus worms; if they are likely to be in all the fish but not visible, then I think you need to treat the whole tank.

 

[janek]

I think I have to treat the entire tank because the infection cannot be seen for a long time sometimes and other fish might actually already have it although there are no visible symptoms.

 

[plecoperson]

If it were me, I would schedule the first treatment so that I'd be around as much as possible both while the med is in the water. If the fish showed signs of distress after the medication you could do a partial water change if needed.

I hesitated to do my 55-very scary to put pig wormer in the tank, then change nearly all the water. I had first removed 5 danios and treated them in a hospital tank and saw the worms come out of them in gobs, so I knew it worked and didn't kill those fish (though they were extremely debilitated from the parasite load). That gave me the resolution to treat the big tank. It is a risk, but you know that you're going to lose fish to the parasite, so I think it's one worth taking.

The other option would be to try a different medication, one that doesn't require the large water change, but I haven't heard of anything as safe and effective as the Levamisole.

PlecoFanatics has a few threads about these worms-you could do a search there to see if there's a good alternative.

Loaches Online deals with parasite issues a lot as well:
http://forums.loaches.com/index.php

 

[janek]

2.5 grams is about half a teaspoon correct?

 

[plecoperson]

I divided the ~20g of of powder up into 10 parts, so about 2g per part. Then I put in one and a half parts.

Then I measured the 2.5 grams-ish in a spoon so I could duplicate it, but the spoon I used was a weird one, so I'm not sure how it works out in teaspoons.

Very scientific, I know, but from what I've read there's a pretty wide margin of error with the drug, so I didn't sweat it too much. If you're not going to treat the tank right now, I'll measure some out here to give you a teaspoon equivalent.

 

[janek]

I am likely to get the medicine on Wednesday so a spoon estimate would be helpfull. I read that you can't overdose but I would rather be on the safe side. Thanks

 

[plecoperson]

A half TEAspoon plus an eighth TEAspoon (5/8 of a TEAspoon) = roughly 2.5 grams.

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

If you are worried about the stress from large water changes, you may opt to dose metronidazole as well as the levamisole, and medicated food for good measure. The reason for the large water change is the levamisole may only stun the worms and not kill them. Metronidazole isn't terribly effective against camallanus when they are in the fish, but much better against free swimming worms. Combine the two and your worms will be pushing up daisies.

 

[janek]

Thank you for the comments and the proper measurement. I should get Levasole opefully tomorrow or Thursday so I will give it my best try. Maybe I will post the results as I think more fish are getting infected now....Wish me luck

 

[plecoperson]

Very good luck to you-I'd love to hear the results. I noticed that my fish wouldn't feed when the med was in the water-it tastes horrible. They suck food in and spit it out. You might want to skip feeding until the water change.

Apocalypse_Gold: I'd never heard about using metronidazole in conjunction with the levamisole; very interesting. Should I need to treat for parasites again I'll experiment on the expelled worms. Sounds fun (seriously).

 

[janek]

Did the dosing with levasole. Gave them about a teaspoon plus 1/4th give or take. All fish acted ok. I shut off the lights because some said that levasole is light sensitive. I waited for 26 hours before doing a 85-90% water change. It seems that the worms are gone from one of the dwarf rainbows (actually did not know he had one until i dosed and took a peek about 1 hour afterwards). The celebs rainbow still has 2 long worms attached even after the water change but they seem to be dead and will probably come out. Another dwarf rainbow is all bloated although no sign of worms and it is likely he will be kaput in the morning. All the other fish took the medicine well as well as the water change it seems. Not sure how effective the treatment was because I only turned the lights on once to check it out and i saw one white (not red) worm wiggling in the the water like crazy. The 2 other fish that were certainly infected seemed to expell the worms with the exception of the celebs rainbow who still has them barely attached and they will likely to be gone tomorrow. The water change did not go well with my bamboo shrimp and I moved it to my 20 gallon as he was acting funny and I hope he survives.

Overall, I think the medicine does work well but I will post the final results in a couple of days...

 

[plecoperson]

Hey-how did the levamasole treatment(s) work for your camellanus worm issue?

 

[janek]

Had to overdose a bit and treated 3 times. No losses and all fish were cured. I treated twice (slightly overdosed) and it had no adverse effect on fish except for kilifish swimming vertically when I poured it in for a while. The fish do seem to be abit sluggish when the tank thelevasole in it. After a day or so I removed about 80% of water and everything looked fine for like a week or so but the blue ram had the worms again so I treated for a third time and after that the fish had been worm free since the treatment. I think light and Ph could be affecting levasole that is perhaps why it didnt work after the first two treatments and worm reappered in one of the fish. Also removing all teh water is impossible for me so that could have been a factor. But now there are no worms to be seen in any fish.

 

[plecoperson]

That's interesting to hear-thanks. I think the dosages recommended are a little on the low side...if I have to treat again I'll up it a bit.

Thank you!