Wasting taeniatus

["ALEX PASTOR" <alexp@idirect.com>]

If your fish has worms, and it is not eating, try Levamisole hydrochloride.
Animal feed stores carry it for sheep. You need one giant-sized pill per 5
gallons.  Make sure your pH is below 7.  Try to lower it as much as is
safely possible.  The drug is made useless if the pH is above 7.  (dissolve
the drug and strain it through a filter, even paper towel in a funnel will
do.  The truly maddening thing about this drug is that someone discovered
that it works for AIDS patients.  So now, the manufacturer is making a
killing on this stuff, and to obtain small tablets from a pharmacy, thus
being able to cut down on the other "excipients" which are added to "create"
the pill, costs a fortune.  So we have no choice but to get the "oblates",
huge pills for sheep, and somehow filter out the extra garbage that the drug
is mixed with.)

You should use a "hospital tank" because after 24 hours, you will have to do
a 100% water change.  The drug works because it is absorbed through the gill
membrane.  However, it is not a miracle drug.  A heavily infested fish may
require repeat treatments.

I had a wild caught cactoides and she went through treatment 5 times before
all the worms were expelled.  She would get thin and not eat.  She had worms
hanging out of the anus.  After treatment she perked up and gained back her
weight.  Then she would get sick again.

Finally after the fifth treatment, no more worms.  Fortunately, some of
these worms have a complex life-cycle involving other hosts than the fish.
None of my other fish ever came down with a worm problem in spite of the
fact that I had 4 infected fish in my community tank at the same time.

Dr. G. Kadar


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