Prelim report on UltraCarePX

[mikev]

Here is some prelim results of using UltraCarePX, hopefully of interest to someone who suspects internal parasite infection(s).

UltraCarePX (GelTeK) is a gel which is supposed to replace the usual food. Following the recommendation of a store owner who uses this regularly on loaches and goldfish, I've done something different: all the food that went into the tank was soaked in the medicine; this is more suitable for treatment in the regular tank. I've applied the medicine so far to two of the tanks here (1 week course); will do the last one in a week.

Safety: the manufacturer claims that the medicine is totally safe. No fish died during the treatment or since; however, it is clear that a fish with a heavy parasite infection may be killed by the treatment (just like it may be killed by any other treatment).

Cure Rate: impossible to judge, since I had almost no information on which fish may be infected to start with; no fish has any obvious signs of an infection. However, see below.

Fish Reaction Assumptions: I assume that the fish I have is mostly healthy and should not react to the medication itself. Any abnormal reactions therefore should indicate the change in the status of the parasite(s), most likely due to a temporary blockage of the digestive tract caused by the death of the parasite. Since I'm almost certainly dealing with symthome-less tapeworm infections only, it is reasonable to further assume that an observable reaction signifies that the worm has been indeed killed and the fish is now parasite-free.

Fish Reaction Breakdown (by species):
Danios ---- no reaction
Rasboras ---- no reaction
Clown loaches --- 1 of 4 severe loss of appetite, only slowly restoring now
Polka dot loaches -- 2 of 5 loss of appetite for 1-2 days
Khulis, Schistura -- nothing noticed
Pleco --- possible loss of appetite

With Khulis and Schisturas I cannot be certain since they don't all eat at the same time, but it seems to me that they were "clean" (but also see below). The hit on Pleco is probably a false one (my Pleco's appetite goes up and down in an unpredictable fashion).
The hit on a Clown Loach is I'm now certain was a true one -- he was on the skinny side, but I never thought he might be infected.
The hits on Polka-Dots do not match the external appearance of the fish which seems to be fine, and these two are also growing fine. I, nonetheless, believe them to have very mild parasite infection which has now been revealed and likely cured.

I'm not particularly surprised by no effects on Danios and Rasboras -- clean fish, and these were also probably not wild-caught. With Schistura, I suspect that all hillstream loaches carry lower rate of parasitic infection than the "regular" ones.....also my Schisturas came from a store which does their own anti-parasite treatment. With the Khulis, I've individually observed several khulis in a smaller tank and did not notice any lack of appetite; I cannot vouch for the ones in the larger tank. I'm a bit surprised since Khulis seem to be the ultimate "junk-eating fish".

What I was surprised to see is the considerably higher rate of parasitic infection in "normal" loaches than I imagined possible and that some of my suspects look perfectly normal. It appears that as many as half of clowns and polka-dots may carry some parasitic infection.

FAILURE: the polka-dot which I'm nearly certain is infected exhibited no reaction. The reason is obvious: he is weaker and functions in the "scavenger mode", and by the time the food got to him, it did not have any medication on it. I'll have to do an individual follow-up.

NEXT: I'm going to do the same on the remaining tank, probably in about 10 days. Of the loaches, it has two more clowns and five yoyos'. Clowns are new, so I want them settle, stop hiding and start eating flakes first, so I can better see what is going on....and I'm treating them for Ich now anyway. I don't expect anything interesting out of this tank (one yoyo showed high possibility of parasites but I donated him back to the store where they can treat him better, the rest grow very quickly). I do think that yoyo's probably have a high infection rate I probably will not see it on mine.

OVERALL: I'm satisfied with the med, but the final results are impossible to state at this point. 2nd round will be necessary on all fish that remains under suspicion. I'm most certainly not claiming this med to be superior to others. For me, it was a good choice since I did not want to treat the entire tank, only the fish.

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Hopefully, this is of use/interest to someone.

[chefkeith]

Thanks for this report.

This sounds like a great alternative and a safe one too.

[Tery]

I had thought about soaking their regular food in it, but was afraid it would just wash off. I'll try it next time, thanks

[mikev]

Some followup information one month later.

Of the four fishes that were possible hits:

1. The Clown loach --- it took real efforts to restore his appetite, for a while he was taking only bloodworms. He is fine now, and while I cannot see any growth, he is fattening and becoming darker (he was on the pale side).

2. Pleco --- this might have been a hit too after all. He added an inch over the last month somehow, and I thought he was already maxed out.

3. Two Kubotai's --- I really don't know. They looked fine before the treatment and still do.

So it looks like one course of the med helped two, and likely four.

If I have more, I may add later.

[mikev]

Final update on this.

I was unable to solve the problem with the small Kubotai with either UltraCarePX or PraziPro, they had no effect. The reason -- I suspect -- is that his parasite was a non-direct round worm, and Prazi is totally ineffective against these.

OTOH, Levimisole did work, and in a very impressive way.

Within a few hours of the treatment, the loach switched from his permanent scavenging to active feeding and lust for bloodworms. I don't fully understand how a skinny 1" fish can eat at least five bloodworms every feeding, but he does it somehow.

(This is the 2nd time I see a loach developing an insane appetite -- and seemingly specific to bloodworms -- after a parasite removal, so I'll consider this to be a reliable sign that the procedure succeeded.)

The strangest part was the reaction of other polka-dots: they used to ignore him totally, but once he started feeding and shoaling with them, they interpreted him as a new fish, so he also got a fair share of chasing for a couple of days. He is fully "accepted" now.

I wonder if he would be able to resume normal growth after this, but it will take a couple of months to see. His belly does look more rounded already.

Because of this failure (and a more serious failure elsewhere) my trust in anti-parasite food (even levimisole-containng) is shaken. It obviously helps in some cases, but it utterly failed in more serious ones.

Hopefully this is of some use.

[Tery]

Thanks for posting the info. I have a question. How did you treat with levimisole, and how do you get it?

[mikev]

Very welcome.

You can get it from a number of places, by googling for Levamisole+Soluble, for example:

http://petsupplies4less.com/i_016013-1_ ... .17+gm.php

$15 + Shipping (which is *cheap* comparing to other meds, like PraziPro).

You will get a 500ml bottle, mostly empty, with a little powder inside, add water to the 500ml mark. One bottle cap amounts to about 5g treatment *if you follow the most aggressive* recommendations (like the one recommended on loaches.com -- other places recommend considerably less); in the case of this tank I used 1 cap for 10g/48 hrs, removal with water change + new carbon.

(There is no claim that this is the right dosing -- the information around is contradictory. In this tank, I went with lower dosing since all the fish in the tank has been there for months, so I knew the extend of the problem. I was/will be more aggressive when I don't know what I am dealing with exactly.)

hth