My Common Plec Has Internal Parasites, What Med Should I Use?

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I called my local vet today, but they said they were busy all today doing surgery, so told me phone in tomorrow lunchtime as they said they should have some vets free around then, although weren't 100% sure as they said they have been busy recently with farm animals.
I gave the tank a big tidy today, cleaned the substrate/sand very thoroughly and removed 50% of the plants and a large portion of decor as i have read that fish usually expel a large amount of worms and things when strong anti internal parasite meds are used, which need to been cleaned up; so i made the tank very accessable by tidying the planting up and stuff etc for this.
So i guess i'll just have to wait 'til tomorrow, i keep you updated .

 

[WILDER]

Good luck tokis.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Good luck tokis.

Thankyou wilder for your support ! I also removed the amano shrimp from the tank, 9 in total, and put them in the quarentine/hospital tank just in case the anti internal parasite med i get is not shrimp-friendly.

 

[WILDER]

Yes that good then, as strimp are funny with meds.

 

[Bloo]

This wormer meds comes highly recommended from someone I know - and I believe is used a lot with Discus - but suitable for all fish.
I've recently bought some and will treat any loaches I buy in future - as they are notorious for bringing in internal parasites.

 

[WILDER]

http/www.prescription-mexico.co.uk/Flagyl.htm

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

This wormer meds comes highly recommended from someone I know - and I believe is used a lot with Discus - but suitable for all fish.
I've recently bought some and will treat any loaches I buy in future - as they are notorious for bringing in internal parasites.

Thanks for the link bloo, i will look out for that med . I don't know what sorts of meds the vet will advise (if i can get hold of one tomorrow), but they will probably be my best chance of getting hold of some strong effective anti internal parasite meds- my lfs is being sold, and the next nearest one i cannot go to tomorrow .

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I have just spoken to the vet about Levamisole;
a. He said it should only be used between a couple of hours & 24hrs but no more, it should kill the internal parasites within this time. The tricky part with this is Levamisole is actually a cattle wormer, not a fish wormer, and the effects of it on certain species of tropical fish is not known as it is not a licensed fish wormer.
He advised using the lowest advised dose on the tank because of this.
50% water change and carbon filter is advised for removing the med ASAP once it has done its job.
b. He said he thinks they have sold out of Levamisole this morning, so may have to order some. I am waiting for him to ring back once he has the info on the situation- i am going to a not-so-lfs later today to see what they advise as well.
The only other licensed anti internal parasite meds the vet knew of is one called benizole or somthing, but that can take over a week to treat, and internal parasite medicated food used for livestock fish like trout, salmon and koi etc, but that med has to be ordered by the ton.

So i guess i will have to wait and see.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Vet phoned back- this is the plan of action as it currently stands;
a. Levamisole has to be ordered by perscription, but vets are not allowed to give this stuff away too freely. So i have aranged to have the vet come around tomorrow 4:00pm to look at my fish- he has advised me setting up a separate tank for treatment, to see how effectively the levamisole works on the plec and any other suspected fish that may have the parasites.
b. They sold out of levamisole this morning, but can order it thursday and get it in on friday.

 

[Bloo]

Good luck. You might want to get in touch with mikev (do a search on some of his posts) - he has used Levamisole quite a lot from what I gather - and has experience with internal nasties.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I got some pics- the first one is of my main tank, i did a big cleanout yesterday and removed 50% of the plants and a large portion of the decor to make things easier to work with in this tough situation;

Here is my plec- i managed to get him to eat some cucumber, he's looking very skinny right now;

Picture of his skinny stomache;

Picture from above- this helps emphasize how skinny his tail looks, please excuse the danio above his tail, it was hard getting a pic from above as all the fish thought i was gonna feed them;

This is a picture of my other common plec, who is perfectly healthy, as a comparison;

He is normal weight and does not have any weight loss around his stomache area;

Sorry if the pics are not very clear, my sick common plec is very skinny .

 

[WILDER]

Good luck tokis, be prepared though internal parasites do alot of damage to the inside of the fish that why they come down with bacterial infections, and plus if a fish has been really infested and going thin, the recovery rate is slim, sorry.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Thanks wilder for your support , i will also contact the member mikev as well as apparently he has experience with levamisole.

 

[WILDER]

Ok, good luck bless him, he's lovely as well.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The vet came around today, he's gonna order some levamisole for me so i can start treating my plec on friday, just hope he keeps going until at least then .