Re: Listless Eunotus and some notes about levamisole treatment

[Biplane10@aol.com]

I just wanted to mention there is a better form of levamisole available. It 
should be near the oblets available for sheep, and is a packet of powder, 
called Tramisol. I recall it may have been something like 11-12 G to one 
packet. It's somewhat difficult to break down into small portions for the 
tanks, but easier in the long run than the oblets, I think. I bought one 
packet and treated all my tanks 2x.  This was for approximately 100 G. I 
think I may have used 5-10 mg./l. There was no discomfort noted in any of the 
fish during treatment, or after.

Sylvia

> your eunotus may have worms (specifically nematodes).  I say this
>  only because I've been battling an infestation of these little
>  nasties in one of my tanks for the last month or so and they were
>  showing symptoms similar to what you've listed.  Do your fish have
>  reddened anal openings or small threadlike bits of material
>  protruding from their anuses?  Keep an eye out for these signs as
>  possible indications of nematode infestation.  Check out the archived
>  disease postings at the Krib for helpful treatment information.
>  
>  As a side note, I was finally able to find a product containing
>  Levamisole at a farm and feed store last weekend.  The product was
>  Tramisol, a sheep wormer, and it was in the form of "oblets" about
>  the size of my thumb!  The archives at the Krib do not contain
>  extensive dosing information for levamisole, so I had to guess.  Each
>  Tramisol oblet contained .183g active levamisole HCl, so I worked out
>  my tank volumes in liters and dosed on a mg/L basis.  I dosed my 35
>  gal. tank at approximately 6 mg/L (numbers not in front of me right
>  now, so these are only the rough numbers I can remember), and my 56
>  gal. tank at a little over 10 mg/L.  The archived postings on the
>  Krib are accurate in their descriptions of the treatment process: the
>  water turned yellow (presumably from the dye in the oblets), and
>  clouded after about 24 hours.  Unfortunately, work intervened and
>  prevented me from doing a full water change on the larger tank. 
>  Early in the morning of dose+2 day (approximately 36 hours
>  post-dose), I found the barbs in the 56 gal. in respiratory distress
>  and sucking air at the top of the tank.  The H. bimaculatus in the
>  tank did not seem affected.  I was only able to change about 30% of
>  the water at that time, but it alleviated the distress until later in
>  the day when I did a full water change.  Since the fish were showing
>  no visible distress at the end of the dose+2 day (when the effective
>  dose of Levamisole in the tank was still at least 7 mg/L and the
>  water was still clouded and yellow) I am assuming that I had a pH
>  drop during the night, and that was what caused the distress.  There
>  are, however, no more worm signs in any of the fish in the infested
>  tank!  The fishes' appetites are back, their fins are no longer
>  clamped, and no one seems to be showing any signs of secondary
>  bacterial infections.  The treatment is a pain, but it seems to have
>  been effective.
>  


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