Levimasole

[Mad Duff]

I managed to get hold of some Levimasole form my vet today to treat my Sidthimunki's and was wondering who else had used it and what dosages they used.

Thanks

Mark

[shari2]

here's a link to an archived thread.
Click on 'Loach Forum Archives' above, search for 'levamisol dosage' and here's one that I know was an informative thread.

http://aquaweb.pair.com/forums/archives ... read=34023

there are a BUNCH of others so if you don't find the answer to your question in this thread, try it yourself

hth

[Mad Duff]

Ive done so much searching for levimasole dosages my head hurts , there are so many different opinions it is unreal.

The 2 that seem to come up the most are:

1, 12.5ml / 55 us gallons (0.27ml / 1 uk gallon)

2, 1.5ml / 7.5 litres

I have worked both dosages out for the 4 tanks I want to treat and they are quite different:

Dosage 1:
tank 1 - 44 gallon = 11.8ml
tank 2 & 3 - 30 gallon = 8ml
tank 4 - 56 gallon = 15ml

Dosage 2:
tank 1 - 44 gallon = 33ml
tank 2 & 3 - 30 gallon = 22.5ml
tank 4 - 56 gallon = 42ml

I think I am going to go with dosage 1 as this is the first time I have used Levimasole and it seems dosages are a bit of a grey area, so I will use the lower dosage and see what happens. I will dose tanks 2 & 3 tomorrow as Thursday is my normal water change day and it seems that one thing that comes up all the time is that a 50%+ water change is required after 24 hours.

I will add the dose of liquid levimasole to a bucket of tank water and then add that back to the tank, again purely because it is the first time Ive used it.

Please feel free to add any further advice or opinions

Mark

[NancyD]

Mark. I have also read of the need to leave the lights out as apparently levamisole is light sensitive. I didn't catch that the first time I used it. I noticed my fish had depressed appetites for a few days, I did a 3 day treatment.
Nancy

[Graeme Robson]

I do keep some levamisole in case of emergency, however i haven't used any as of yet. I'm sure Emma and Gary can be of further help. Sorry Mark.

Graeme.

[Mad Duff]

Mark. I have also read of the need to leave the lights out as apparently levamisole is light sensitive. I didn't catch that the first time I used it. I noticed my fish had depressed appetites for a few days, I did a 3 day treatment.
Nancy

Thats the first I have heard of that, thanks Nancy.

I do keep some levamisole in case of emergency, however i haven't used any as of yet. I'm sure Emma and Gary can be of further help. Sorry Mark.

Graeme.

No probs Graeme, thanks anyway.

Mark

[mikev]

I somewhat doubt that the "lights out" part is true. The very first time I used levimisole was in small containers under very strong light...worked like a charm, on an active nematodic infection.

The other likely erroneous rumor is the Ph limitation. (I've not used it in Ph>7.0 tanks since I don't have them, but in a recent journal article it was stated that it works just as well. The same article claimed that the doses recommended by most sites are too high and may cause damage to the reproductive system of some fish).

BTW, storing levamisole may not work too well: it is stated that levamisole solutions have shelf life of only 3 months, while powder is good for one year. Yet again, it is not totally clear how true this is.

[Emma Turner]

Levamisole is produced in different strength formulas. Could you let us know what strength solution you have there please Mark? Once you have confirmed this, I may be able to help with dosing, but am reluctant to start quoting figures until I know the strength of the liquid you have.

Many thanks,

Emma

[Mad Duff]

Hi Emma

The Levimasole I have is 7.5%.

The bottle I have is exactly the same as the one Graeme posted a picture of here: http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=1278.

Any advice would be great, like I said before unless adviced otherwise I was going to go with Dosage 1 which is the lowest that I found. some dosages that I came across would have worked out at triple that dosage and more.

Mark

[Emma Turner]

Thanks for that Mark, it is the same strength as what we use at work.

Working on what seems to be the universally accepted 200mg of active ingredient per 10 US gallons (or approx 40 litres), as a minimum level of treatment, we worked out the following:

1ml of Levamisole hydrochloride liquid at 7.5% solution will contain 75mg of active ingredient. Thus to obtain 200mg per 40 litres, you will need to use 2.66ml of Levamisole at 7.5%. This coverts down to 0.3ml per UK gallon. So working on your tank sizes, for tank number 1 (44 UK gallons) you will need to dose with 13.2ml of 7.5% Levamisole. For tanks number 2 and 3 (30 UK gallons each) you will need 9ml of 7.5% Levamisole per tank. And for tank number 4 (56 UK gallons) you will need to use 16.8ml of 7.5% Levamisole.

After 24 hours, you will need to carry out a large water change on each tank, approximately 50% (making sure the temperature is the same) and using activated carbon in the filter. After another 24 hours (so 48 hours after the first treatment) you remove the carbon and re-dose. Wait 24 hours again, and then do the same water change routine. It's probably worth dosing three times, and then assess if it has worked - waiting to see whether the fish put on weight. If after a few weeks, the fish still do not seem to be gaining weight, you might want to consider re-dosing at a slightly stronger concentration (although I have to say that I would personally not use it at the high rate that you found in the archives - 1.5ml/7.5litres).

With your large tank, it is probably worth considering moving the affected fish to a temporary smaller quarantine tank, where it is easier to carry out large water changes and keep the conditions more stable.

It might be worth dosing one tank at a time, just to make sure all inhabitants are coping ok with the treatment.

Hope this helps, and good luck,

Emma

DISCLAIMER: I will not accept responsibility for any negative outcome from using the above mentioned product at the dosage rate suggested.

[Mad Duff]

Thanks Emma

Its good to know that I wasnt far off with 0.27ml / gallon.

I will dose the first tank this morning.

Mark

[andyroo]

So,
To recap within a question:

I've just come home with the only Levamisol around that isn't in a sugar mix.
It's a prep of 150mL at 1.6% active ingredient. The bottle is supposed to be good for a 300Kg cow.

So for my 95 or so gallon tank, i should be looking to get to 5ppm (according to Momfish LOL March of '99) of active ingredient(?)

150mL @ 1.6%= 2.4mL of Lev/bottle.
5ppm dosage =5mL/L (?)
Thus two bottles/litre of tank water.
About 280L of water in tank (it's low)....

Thus: a whole bunch of bottles????
My tank weighs less then a cow, and according to the directions one bottle would grossly over-medicate a 200lb sheep.

Is my math funky?
Do fish need more medication then cattle?
Can i dip prawn bits then feed/medicate directly?

Andyroo

[andyroo]

Just read Emma's post. I retract the question

A

[mikev]

After another 24 hours (so 48 hours after the first treatment) you remove the carbon and re-dose.

This would be too soon in some cases.

For CWS (tapeworm infections or indirect roundworms) this is fine, in fact most of the work has been done by the first treatment. For direct worms, however, 48 hours will miss the eggs/larvae that did not develop into a vulnerable form of a worm yet.

If this is what you might be dealing with you need to space it out further, 4-5 days intervals, and more than two treatments.

Observe that if a direct worm is present, you cannot wait a few weeks

If after a few weeks, the fish still do not seem to be gaining weight

since after a few weeks the fish will be dead.

[shari2]

To cure a 4.5 inch clown with what seemed to be 'resistant' skinny disease I used liquid levamisole hydrocloride (came as a powder and I added water to the 500ml level).

dosage was 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons. Treat first day after a large water change, left the lights out. During research for the as yet unpublished Loach Book I did find a manufacturers site that mentioned that levamisole will break down under light within 24 hours. Can't find the site at the moment, but I bet I could if anyone needs to see it for themselves
48 hours later another water change and another treatment. A couple of weeks later I had to repeat the process since in spite of heavy feeding (blood worms and pellets) and the fact that the fish appeared to be 'feeling' better, he was still not filling out behind the eyes.

In between treatments I put the lights back on, added carbon to remove the meds, and did regular small water changes.

He is now fat and happy, still in the q-tank, since my 55 with his larger buds is looking WAY too small right now...anyone near NJ willing or able to re-house some largish clowns? ;-(