Levamisole.

[Microman]

I have recently been given some Levacide Drench 3%, a solution for treating nematode infections and containing 3% Levamisole Hydrochloride.
The suggested dosage is 5-10 ml of Levamisole/ kg of fish in medicated food,
daily for 7 days.
I wish to treat all my wild Apistos during their quarantine period but wish to use a short/long term bath as i feel they are far too small to treat as suggested above.
What is the suggested dosage of Levamisole 3% for treating Apistos and how is the treatment administered,by short/long term bath or in medicated food?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark.

 

[mummymonkey]

I obtained Levacide from the vet to get rid of a camallanus infestation. Levacide contains 7.5% Levamisole hydrochloride and the dosage was 1ml for every 5l. Leave for 24 hours.
One time treatment and very effective.
I've never used it as a prophylactic though.

 

[Microman]

The Levacide Drench i have definately contains only 3% Levamisole Hydrochloride,this is stated in the literature.Do you think i should double the dosage you use for your 7.5% solution?

 

[mummymonkey]

The Levacide Drench i have definately contains only 3% Levamisole Hydrochloride,this is stated in the literature.Do you think i should double the dosage you use for your 7.5% solution?

I think so; it's supposed to be pretty safe even when overdosed (within reason of course).

 

[KenL]

Have a look at this old thread from the Krib, it contains the doseage info I was given from a Vet. Basically just dose the tank and after one day do a large water change.

I had a lot of fish in one large community tank infected, a single dose killed all the worms and did not affect the fish at all.

http://www.thekrib.com/Diseases/nematodes.html#3

 

[cdawson]

I think so; it's supposed to be pretty safe even when overdosed (within reason of course).

usually about 3oz will treat 88 ML of water. Overdosing is definately not a worry, in fact I OD'd all my tanks when I had it and didn't lose a fish. I even had fry in many of those tanks which had no ills effects.
Levamisole goes straight for nematodes and that's all it effects.

 

[KenL]

usually about 3oz will treat 88 ML of water. Overdosing is definately not a worry, in fact I OD'd all my tanks when I had it and didn't lose a fish. I even had fry in many of those tanks which had no ills effects.
Levamisole goes straight for nematodes and that's all it effects.

What are ML please?

 

[cdawson]

What are ML please?

Milliliters

 

[KenL]

"usually about 3oz will treat 88 ML of water"

88ml is a very small volume of water.

I'm really confused by this

 

[Microman]

Me too Ken.

 

[fishgeek]

off the top of my head , if memory is working 1.5- 3mg/l for a 24 hr bath

if you have a 3% solution you have 3grams(3000 mgs) dissolved in every 100 mls of medication
or 30mgs/ml of medication
therefore 1 ml will treat 10-20 litres

i think dose's upto 7.5mg/l or more commonly 5mg/l are bandied about on internet regularly

if i remember correctly i have seen a claim of short term 20 mg/l usage
ideally this medication is wanting to get into the git tract to deworm so longer exosure would seem more ideal
also levamisole is supposed to have some immuno-modulating effects and maybe beneficial as an immune booster

andrew

think i got my maths wrong and it would be something like 1 ml of 3% solution per 1-2 litres of tank water

 

[cdawson]

"usually about 3oz will treat 88 ML of water"

88ml is a very small volume of water.

I'm really confused by this

Sorry, you mix that amount of water with 3oz of water (roughly 1/3 of a cup + 1 teaspoon) and dose at 1ml per 1 gallon of water.
Treat for 48-72 hours and add carbon of perform a large partial water change to remove the medicine + dead worms

 

[KenL]

Sorry, you mix that amount of water with 3oz of water (roughly 1/3 of a cup + 1 teaspoon) and dose at 1ml per 1 gallon of water.
Treat for 48-72 hours and add carbon of perform a large partial water change to remove the medicine + dead worms

Still confused

"mix that amount of water with 3oz of water and dose at 1ml per gallon of WATER" :tongue:

Mixing up metric with imperial measurements will always lead to confusion especially when you do not make the distinction of which gallons you refer to. Imperial gallon = 4.55l, 1US gallon = 3.8l

Litres, gallons, cups & teaspoons in one post - my brain hurts :biggrin:

 

[cdawson]

Still confused

"mix that amount of water with 3oz of water and dose at 1ml per gallon of WATER" :tongue:

Mixing up metric with imperial measurements will always lead to confusion especially when you do not make the distinction of which gallons you refer to. Imperial gallon = 4.55l, 1US gallon = 3.8l

Litres, gallons, cups & teaspoons in one post - my brain hurts :biggrin:

I'm sorry Ken, those are just the instructions I use. We use metric and imperial in canada so I hardly notice anymore!

 

[Andre]

Hi there

This thread is a bit old, but I wanted to add that I have succesfully removed a nematode (camallanus) infection without treating the tank at all. Use some frozen bloodworms and soak it in the levamisole liquid for a few minutes. Feed the bloodworms to the fish for 3 days and then once a week for 3 or 4 weeks to kill any worms that hatch after the original treatment.

 

[cdawson]

Hi there

This thread is a bit old, but I wanted to add that I have succesfully removed a nematode (camallanus) infection without treating the tank at all. Use some frozen bloodworms and soak it in the levamisole liquid for a few minutes. Feed the bloodworms to the fish for 3 days and then once a week for 3 or 4 weeks to kill any worms that hatch after the original treatment.

You CAN treat the worms like this, however you're still not adressing the problem because there are still worm larvae in the water column. The fish can then just injest the larvae through eating them or respiration and the cycle will continue again. You have to use levamisole to kill not only the worms inside the fishes digestive tract, but also the larvae in the water column.

 

[fishgeek]

actually andre's method is an effective theory

most nematodes(camalanus included) have a complex or indirect lifecycle
so that the larval stages passed are not infective to fish until they have passed through an inveterbrate vector

if there are no invetebrate vectors in your tank then your fish can not be infected

this theory also suggests that nematodes souldn't be a big problem in the aquarium unless coming in in wild fish

andrew

 

[Andre]

You have to use levamisole to kill not only the worms inside the fishes digestive tract, but also the larvae in the water column.

Hi There

This is quite true, and is also the reason why I do follow up treatments once a week after the initial treatment. Any re-infections will be killed by the follow up treatments before they are mature enough to produce eggs themselves.

I have used this method with success and fellow hobbyists have also had success with this method. Just thought I would share it.