Parasitic worm treatments..? Help.....HELP!!!!

[Ron Sower]

I've got some beautiful Montezuma swordtails that I dearly love and they are dying off slowly, one at a time. Postmortems have disclosed red worms in their body cavities. Without a scope I can't determine if they are annelids or nematodes, but they are pointed a each end, indication to me they are nematodes. They are about 1/2'' long.

I'd like suggestions on how to treat the tank.  My beloved clown loaches are in there too. None of them have died.

Thanks for any help ahead of time.  Ron S.

[LizStreithorst]

Flubenol is the best and easiest on the fish.  It dissolves in the water.  No need to add it to food.  It can be hard to find since it's made in the UK.  I'll google around and see if I can find someone selling it here in the states.

[LizStreithorst]

http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/ItemsForSale.html

[Ron Sower]

Flubenol is the best and easiest on the fish.  It dissolves in the water.  No need to add it to food.  It can be hard to find since it's made in the UK.  I'll google around and see if I can find someone selling it here in the states.

Liz, how have you administered this to the fish?  What I mean is, do you just dissolve it in the water? And how often?

[LizStreithorst]

Yes, I've used it but it's been a long time...He will send instructions.  Follow them.   I put the dose for the entire tank in a qt of water and then pour it in and swirl it around.

[Ron Sower]

Thanks, Liz!

[LizStreithorst]

There is a PDF in his web page about how to use flubendazole that tells you exactly what to do.  I never used the hot water or Vodka for dissolving and it worked any way

[BallAquatics]

I've used this to remove planaria from fresh water dwarf shrimp tanks in the past with great success.  I purchased mine as a dog wormer at Petsmart.....

Dennis

[LizStreithorst]

the one you bought is fenbebz.    fluvbendenol is in the same class or wormers but it works in the water.  What you bought, was Panacure or a generic.  It has to be mixed with food.  Both work.

[BallAquatics]

Looked it up, the stuff I used was Safe-Guard.  Contains fenbendazole that was hard to dissolve in water, but I used it just as you described.

http://www.amazon.com/Safe-Guard-Fenbendazole-22-2-Canine-Wormer/dp/B002ZJB4PO


Amazon also has this item..... which would probably dissolve better.

http://www.amazon.com/Bendazole-250mg-Fenbendazole-Powder-packets/dp/B009TAQ4OI/ref=sr_1_1/179-5235087-9975263?ie=UTF8&qid=1407470904&sr=8-1&keywords=flubendazole

Dennis

[LizStreithorst]

Safe Guard is generic Panacur.  It's supposed to be used in food when worming fish but I know of one other guy (a Discus guy) who used it in the water with success.  He said that it made a mess of the tank water but it worked and didn't hurt the fish.

[BallAquatics]

He said that it made a mess of the tank water but it worked and didn't hurt the fish.

He must have used much more than I did as I didn't notice any change to the tank at all... other than all the planaria passing away.

Dennis

[LizStreithorst]

He was using it for intestinal worms.  Perhaps he used a higher dose.  I don't know.

[Ron Sower]

This is a great thread for me. Thanks guys & gals!

I contacted Greg Sage who recommended Levamisole which he  treats his tanks with on a preventative maintenance basis and has no problem with the parasitic worms. I got some from him that arrived yesteday.

Today I removed my fish from the buckets and placed them in several tanks that I have established. I figure this is good because using the same nets, siphon tubes, etc in all my tanks there is the strong possibility that I've spread the worms or their eggs to them as well. So I'm going to treat all my tanks as if they were infested.

Tomorrow morning, as he says to do, I will do a water change in each tank and treat again. Then hopefully they will be okay at least until I return from vacation. My buddy down the street, who is also a fish keeper, will check in on them while I'm gone, and let me know if anything seems amiss.

I will post later how things went.

[Mugwump]

Excellent Ron.....and yes, it's a very informative thread, I agree....