Levimisole DP treatment WAS:HELP! Math make head hurt!!!

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Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

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One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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Steelgeek
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Levimisole DP treatment WAS:HELP! Math make head hurt!!!

Post by Steelgeek »

OK I need a 7.5% solution (1mg/7.5l)
I have 18.15g of levimisole, and no lab scale.
The bottle it is in is can be filled to .5 L

So.... now what?
Last edited by Steelgeek on Wed Sep 28, 2005 1:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by RTR »

Clarify: 7.5% solution is not 1mg per 7.5l. A 7.5% solution is 7.5g/l. One mg in 7.5l is 0.013mg/l.
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Post by Pamela »

Do you have a pipette and a new bottle? Say, a litre bottle.
Decant 7.5g...you could calibrate on the bottle using a marker - halfway up the liquid level is such and such...
Maybe, depending on the dimensions of the bottle it's in, transfer it to a narrower taller vessel to make calibraiting easier.
Decant the 7.5g into the mixing bottle and make it up to a litre.
Or 3.25g to 500ml.
Make sure the calibrating vessel has a uniformly flat bottom and straight sides. (As if you need telling, but thought I'd be on the safe side.)
And yes, maths really makes my head hurt too.
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Post by mandycat »

Just reading that post made my head hurt.... :lol:
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Post by Steelgeek »

From the krib -
Nematode treatment.
by Ken Laidlaw <kl/jach.hawaii.edu>
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 1997
To: apisto <apisto/aquaria.net>

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Here is the treatment doseage I have used to successfully treat
Cammallanus nematode infestation.

Drug - Levacide (TM) = Levamisole Hydrochloride 7.5% concentration.
Note: different concentrations can be used e.g. 1,5% just adjust
quantity accordingly.

Dose - 1ml in 7.5litres of tank water. First mix required quantity in
luke warm water. Then pour into tank.
After 24 hours perform 100% water change if possible.
Treat all tanks and fish not just those showing signs of
infestation.

The amount available from farm suppliers (usually 0.5l) is obviously
enough to treat 3750l (approx 900 gallons) so it is quite affordable.
This amount cost $18UK = $25US. If you have given fish to friends you
could also treat there tanks.

Regards,
Ken.L


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Post by RTR »

OK, you have 18.15g of the agent. Add water to the 250ml mark (if any), or approximately 1/2 the max volume. This will give you a solution of 0.0726 g/l or 72.6mg/ml (7.26%). If you can measure 240 ml, it would put you as close as you will get at home to a 7.5% solution. Refrigertate after mixing unless you have access to 0.22micon filtration and sterile equipment.

I am not however convinced that Levamisole is absorbed via a bath. It may be well worth a try.

HTH
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Post by Steelgeek »

I have tried and tried and tried to get them to eat medication soaked food, snails, bloodworms, blackworms, brineshrimp frozen fresh or dried, with and without garlic. No luck.They take one bite and spit it out, and not in the puffer chew/spit cycle, as they don't go back for more.

I'm willing to chance a bath.

Thanks for the help, I'll record results.
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Post by RTR »

That is why I said it is worth a try. Some meds definitly don't cross the gills/skin in fish. and FW fish don't drink like SW fish, so it is a problem, but there are questions even in the scientific lit about Levamisole. It is a maybe. It would be great to know if it does work.

And if it does or doesn't, we'll want to know the water parameters, as they may be significant to any absortion.
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Post by Steelgeek »

Ok here goes -
Filter is a HOB Aquaclear, with sponge, filter floss and ceramic media, no charcoal.

Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 10
Gh 9
Kh 4
ph 7.5
temp 76^ F.

18.15 grams of the agent were added to 240ml of tank water and thoroughly shaken.
12ml of that solution were added to a 32oz cup of tank water for further dilution before adding to tank
(I did that because my DPs are notorious for trying to figure out what I'm doing and I didn't want to hit them with a full strength solution if they decided to get in my way)
Contents from the cup were poured along the edges and into filter output, avoiding hitting any fish directly.
I currently have 12 DPs, two SAEs, 1 bristle nose plece, and 2 amano shrimp in the tank, a 29g.
I have two DPs that I don't expect to live the night, they looked bad when we got them and have been getting progressively skinnier. The clerk didn't charge us for them even.
I have 5 that are so-so, and 5 more that are heading down. They have been on a diet of frozen bloodworms since I got them.
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Post by Pamela »

Poor little guys...hope they make it.
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Post by Steelgeek »

Thanks Pami, these guys can use all the help they can get.

12 hr mark -

The two that I didn't expect to make it didn't. They were so far gone I doubt the bath had anything to do with it.

Water is slightly cloudier, and the only other reaction I can see is the two SAEs are starting to show signs of respiratory distress. As I will be home today I will monitor continously and see what develops.

I expect to lose 3-4 more due to their condition in a day or two, again, this would have happened bath or not.
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Post by Pamela »

At least you're not just writing them off as the average lfs would.
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Post by Steelgeek »

At 24 hours since treatment -

A 100% (Well 98% really, had to keep some water in there for the fish) water change and charcoal was added to the filter to extract anything left over.


at 2.5 days since treatment -

Total I have lost 5 DPs, of which 2 were unexpected and, visually, in good shape. I can't say why they died. The others were no surprise.

Of the remaining puffers, there are some that seem to be getting better, and are eating and starting to fill out. I haven't seen them excreting parasites, but that doesn't mean anything.

I wish I had a microscope so I could do a little more indepth checks. I'm curious as to whether my filter floss has caught some dead parasites or not. I could also do a dissection on the dead ones to determine which parasite it is.
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Post by Feathers&Fins »

You most likely know this… eBay frequently has affordable dissection scopes and microscopes available. I've been meaning to purchase on.
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Post by Jayhawk »

RTR - loach keepers swear by levamisole in the water column - I've used it both with botias and an infected paradise fish. I do agree getting them to eat levamisole soaked foods is the best choice, but that's not always an option.

Eric
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