levamisole resistance

[fatdiscus]

G'day,
Has anyone found live, wriggling worms on the tank floor after using Levamisole. Which makes me think there may be some live ones still inside the fish, and my two treatments (2 weeks apart), have been pointless.
I've used the pure powder, and mixed it with distilled water; dosed at 2.5mg/Lt
Left it for 72 hours, then 80% WC.
Now they're skittish, don't eat well, and healthy ones that were doing just fine, have white poop and are shy.
Anyone got any advice.
I was thinking about leaving the tank alone for a month or so, until they're eating well, and then maybe try to add some fenben/fluben/mebendazole to their food.

Cheers.

[joller]

i've been told two conflicting things about levamisole

1 it will kill worms outright
2 the worms become paralysed and are then passed out of the fish, at which point remove the fish from the med tank

as to which one is correct i have no idea

[FinVision P/L]

Hi, the way i see it, if the worms are out, then that means they don’t like it in side their host anymore. They aint goin back in neither. I am not sure how long a worm would live for without a host, especially when the worm is suffering an OD. The worm would hopefully die before the host becomes less toxic as the Levemasole dissipates and the worm reconsiders his real-estate options and moves back

I use it myself and it seems to work fine for me, there is one thing to conceder though what was the Levemasole base residual Ratio Pr 1,000gramms. I know you said it was pure, then it will say this. But I have never seen this in Australia; although you may also be from overseas, it should tell you it’s either 200mg or something similar. No one can tell if your dosage is correct, unless we know the chemical weight/Ratio of the medication you used. You can also look on the forum. Maybe you just gave the worms a bit of a buzz and not enough Levemasole to kill them, I don’t know. But what I do know is that it is difficult to OD your Discus on Levemasole. That being said. dosnt mean that your fish can survive large OD.

[fatdiscus]

G'day FinVision, Joller, and everyone else :D

The powder I was using is 995gm/kg base, with Levamisole HCl of 850gm/kg- the 2.5mg/Lt dose was based on the Lev. HCl,
Although I didn't darken the tank- is this medication light sensitive?? (the current batch I mixed up is in a clear drink bottle- should I ditch this and mix up a new batch, in a white/opaque container)

Good news is the fish have settled down and most have begun eating and have stopped dashing about in the tank as I walk past.
So I think I might just take my chances and stop medicating them- Really don't want to develop a super strain of worms. Healthy fish are supposed to be able to tolerate a mild worm load and hopefully adding garlic to the mix will slow the worms down too.

Cheers.