Colin...I have a question about treating tanks with Levamisole

[Fishmanic]

got some new fish and want to do a deworming Treatment..with Levamisole and later with Prazipro
I have powdered Levamisole HCL .99.8% pur

in 10 gallon, I have harlequin rasboras and snails.
in 35 gallon hex, I have serpae tetras, skirt tetras, an angel and a bn pleco..I suspect serpaes may have worms..
in 29 gallon tank I have tiger barbs, 1 bolivian ram, and a bn pleco

I read on the directions that treating scaleless fish such as neon tetras and snails is not safe to treat with Levamisole...do you agree with that statement?

directions calls for .5 gram per 10 gallons for 3 days.then refresh water....repeat again in 3 weeks

someone in amazon said the dosage was too high and said about .2 grams per 10 gallons is proper....what dosage do your recommend?

I want to get some expert feedback as to what you recommend...Colin and anyone else who is knowledgable on this topic, please respond

 

[Colin_T]

I read on the directions that treating scaleless fish such as neon tetras and snails is not safe to treat with Levamisole...do you agree with that statement?

Neon tetras have scales but Levamisole is safe to use on neons and scaleless fishes (loaches, catfish, eels, stingrays). It never killed the snails in my tank (unfortunately).

I have used it on loaches, catfish, rainbows, barbs, tetras, gouramis, angels, discus and pretty much every species of freshwater aquarium fish I have kept. The only time I saw any problem was when I hadn't done a water change and 3 days later the smaller younger fish started to act nervous and skittish. I did a 75% water change and they calmed down after that.

As long as you don't overdose the medication, and as long as you do a water change 24-48 hours later, the fish will be fine.

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I don't know about the dose rates for the powder because I only used the liquid.

The following link has information about dose rates.
https://www.loaches.com/disease-treatment/levamisole-hydrochloride-1/?searchterm=parasites

About 3/4 of the way down the page is "Recommended Dosage" and under that is "Dosage Calculations". I hate maths and it's too early in the day to even try, so you will have to go through it and try to make sense of it all.

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To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

 

[Fishmanic]

I don't use carbon. If anything , I will under dose to be safe. I believe prazipro is not as easy to abuse or over dose but I follow the directions.

Is 3 days long enough after dosing Levamisole before I do a large water change?

 

[Colin_T]

It's best not to underdose with medications because that can lead to drug resistance in whatever you are treating. Levamisole can be used at much higher dose rates than what is recommended but should not be. Just try to use it at the recommended dose rate.

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Do a 75% water change 24-48 hours after treating the fish.

The medication works within a few hours of being added to the water and if you watch the fish closely, you can actually see them pooping out the worms. So you only need to wait 24 hours before doing a water change. Make sure you do the water change within 48 hours of treatment otherwise the fish will become nervous and skittish. 24 hours is all you need to wait before doing the water change.

Retreat the tank every week for 3-4 weeks to kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs.

 

[Fishmanic]

Excellent article. Thanks
I figured out that .37 ml of powder is proper dose for a true 30 gallon capacity tank. The tube that came with a salifert nitrate test kit holds up to 2ml of volume and is incremented in tenths of a ml. My 10 gram container of levamisole powder should last a very long time.

 

[Colin_T]

ml is millilitres and is different to mg, which is milligrams.

1 ml is not always = to 1 mg.

It depends on the liquid or material being measured. Pure water does weigh 1mg per 1ml (scaled up to 1000ml = 1000grams or 1 litre = 1 kilogram), but other materials can be different weights. It should be close with Levamisole but I would double check what you have measured out and put it on some scales to confirm it does actually weigh the same.

 

[Fishmanic]

The article stated you need to dose .019 of a teaspoon to treat 10 gallons of water. I converted that to ml to figure out the proper dose of the powder.