Levamisole

[shari2]

Before I had the powdered form I used the Discomed capsules from Aquatronics (since discontinued). Packaging said:

250 mg Capsules of Water Soluble Levamisol, NaCl, Piperazine, Magnesium Sulfate and Neomycin Sulfate Activity. When treating tanks I used 2 capsules Per 10g. Worked great in conjunction with Kanacyn to treat clowns with skinny...

Directions called for soaking food in it. I emptied the capsules into a cup, dissolved it in hot water, let it cool and poured it directly into the tank through a coffee filter.

Didn't kill any fish, plants, snails, or biofilters. Maybe I was just lucky? Dunno. Worked, though...

[sully]

i did send an e.mail to the university of Florida edis site contact for fish stuff. waiting for a response re: dosing and body mass relationship if any.

[shari2]

Thanks sully.

Until I can grok some of the math of it all, I'm going to stick with what has worked for me in the past. Stick in the mud, I know.

[NancyD]

Wow, those dose rates are much, much lower than Momfish used in the parasite section & very different than the rates I got looking through the archives. Momfish used 800mg/10gallons, Shari is doing ~60-70mg/10gallons. I know Momfish did the injectible form not the powder. I've seen anywhere from 1-2mg/liter to ~21mg/l. I thought I had this down, now I'm confused again .
Nancy

[chefkeith]

I found a few more sites with dosages-

This one is from the Belle Island Aquarium-
http://www.gcas.org/articles/info_medicating.html
Levamisole (13.65% injectable) - 2 ppm (1.1 ml per 20 gallons)

This medication chart suggests-
http://www.feamane.org/pages/fish_meds.html
2 mg/L for 24 hours ONCE. Most effective against larval nematodes, swimbladder worms. no increase in effectiveness with higher dose.


In the book, Fish Disease: Diagnosis and Treatment by Edward Noga pg 288 (you can login to amazon.com and search inside this book, search "levamisole" or "288")-
The dosage they give here is 10mg/liter or 38mg/gallon of water for Anguillicola (nematode that lives in the swimbladder of eels) and other suspectible nonencyted nematodes. No mention of treatment time.


So far from what I've collected-
1mg/l (38mg/10g) 1 to 2 days for skin and gill flukes
2mg/l (76mg/10g) once per week for 3 weeks for Camallanus Nematodes
10mg/l (380mg/10g) for Anguillicola.

[shari2]

thanks chefkeith! Will have to give that a shot next time I qtank and see if it works after the fish go in the big tank. If I see signs of parasites after the move, I'm upping it again since I've had absolutely no issues of fish intolerance to the dose I'm currently using. . .

[sully]

i did receive confirmation from university of florida that the request for info had been received and is now in Dr. Yanong in-box. don't know how long that will take.

I have also asked a guy that i met at anoher site--a fella that teaches veterinary medicine--about dosing. waiting for his reply as well.

the requests ask if there is a relationship to body mass/size and amount of the compound.

Part of the dosing level confusion probably comes from teh same issue most of us were confused about--Levamisole base and Levamisole Hydrochloride. As martin mentioned, and DrMomFish--the trials were done by an individual. and, as we all know--results may vary.

I have used the protocol defined by DrMomFish many times and have never had a toxicity issue. That is why i am more patient waiting for replies than i am on most issues--lol.

good stuff keith!

[chefkeith]

I hope you get a reply soon Sully.

I found another paper written by Dr. Yanong.

Nematode Infections in Fish -
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/FA/FA09100.pdf

Levamisole at 2mg/l water is the suggested dosage here also.

[shari2]

The question here for me is whether or not it is levamisole base or the hydrochloride?

I've read that one you've posted chefkeith, found it when I was going crazy and see no mention of 'hydrochloride'. This paper is actually one of those which had me nuts over whether or not it broke down at low pH.

One effective bath treatment dose is 2 ppm (mg/liter) levamisole for 24 hours, with a repeat treatment in two to three weeks.

I see no mention of which form of levamisole he's discussing and I think if it were levamisole hydrochloride he would have said so...I hope.
In any case I'm waiting in hopes sully will hear back.

[Graeme Robson]

The active component is the levamisol component and not what it is bound to. The older products that come as wormers are phosphate bound. The newer formulations used in oncology for immunostimulation are often the hydrochloride compound. The only important molecule is the levamisol not the others.

[shari2]

That's good to know. Thanks Graeme. Unfortunately for us not so scientific types we (or I) kinda need it spelled out. Especially if there is a difference in usage/dosage.

[mikev]

The only important molecule is the levamisol not the others.

This is correct, but it does not follow that the base and Hcl are equally efficient. In fact, for the immune system modulation they do not seem to be:

Fifty-nine (59) mg of levamisole HCl is equivalent to 50 mg of levamisole base.

Source
While the difference is only 20%, it may be larger for other type of use.

[Graeme Robson]

One day you'll find the 'needle' in the haystack. Time pending.

[mikev]

Oh, I collect needles.

Here is one I left for you: why would anyone treat with both base and HCl?

Huh?

[sully]

And Dr.Yanong replies:

Tom,


Glad that the EDIS publications are helpful, but I do encourage you and
the other hobbyists to work with fish veterinarians as much as possible,
and ideally, have infections checked pre-and post-treatment (this can
often be done with fecal exams, if you are dealing with an intestinal
infection).

In answer to your question, the dosage rate for levamisole in a bath is
2 mg/L (2 ppm) for 24 hours (followed by 70-100% water change, and
siphon the bottoms of the tanks), with repeat treatments
necessary--retreat in 2-3 weeks, and probably one more time after that.
This is regardless of size of fish.

Hope this helps.

Roy