Loaches Online Forum

Posted: **Sat Sep 30, 2006 7:32 am**

no problem shari. i should have stopped and thought through tht minor detail--lol. I think i was just happy to see an answer pop out of the system. S i did not stop to really think about the answer.

Betweeen paying attention to my life and going to fishboards I have had that PetSmart thing going on--and that is beginning to get interesting. So, my typical board play time has been seriously limited.

Posted: **Sat Sep 30, 2006 8:46 am**

LES.. wrote:
palaeodave wrote:How are you going to get hold of it?
Hi palaeodave,
Levamisole is not available over the counter in the UK you will need to find a vet who can supply it. I have been lucky enough to find a local vet who specialises in exotic pets (yes, fish are exotic). He was aware of the use of Levamisole to treat fish and had most of a 500ml pack of 'Levacide' pig de-wormer left from the last person who was after some. I was able to buy 30ml for £3.52 which should treat our tanks.
I would be very cautious in importing this from overseas, there are usually lots of restrictions on medicines coming into this country.

In case you can't find one locally to you the vet i went to was:

Chris Gardner
Grazely Veterinary Centre
12 Guildford Rd West
Farnborough
GU14 6PU
Tel: 01252 544244

Ah perfect, that's only a 5 min drive for me, did you just go in and ask for it or have to do anything special

Posted: **Sat Sep 30, 2006 11:59 am**

Cat amongst pigeons

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

http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic3/levamisole.htm

693.75mg/10 gal of water. In English (hahaha!) that means I want to add about 695 milligrams of Levamisole Hcl to a 10 gallon tank

http://www.guppylog.com/story/2006/4/29/164717/627

Add 1.5 milliliter per 7.5 liter of 7.5% Levacide (levamisole hydrochloride) to each tanks to be treated.
Mix the drug in a liter of water before pouring over the tank surface. If you obtain another strength of
the drug (e.g. 1.5%, 3%) then just adjust dosage as required. For 1.5% add 1 ml in 1.5l of tank water.

http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/CamellanusTreatment.pdf

http://www.chemicalland21.com/lifescien ... LORIDE.htm

Posted: **Sat Sep 30, 2006 12:16 pm**

Companies in the UK that manafacture Levamisole Hydrochloride based products

http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/Compend ... -24690.htm

http://www.animalmedics.co.uk/category.asp?CatID=6

Posted: **Sat Sep 30, 2006 2:28 pm**

I'm going to scream soon. (just thought i'd let you know so you could get your earplugs)

your first link has the ubiquitous comment I'd seen on a multiplicity of pages with information on levamisole. You'd think they should know, wouldn't you? So who is right? The good Dr. Hal Sinclair or the rx company? hmmmm...

Levamisole hydrochloride is a white to almost white crystalline powder which is almost odorless and is freely soluble in water. It is quite stable in acid aqueous media but hydrolyzes in alkaline or neutral solutions. It has a molecular weight of 240.75.

As for link #2...
btw--my 500mg/10g isn't far off that now is it?
and inkmkr's article is the 'saga' I posted...running in circles we are...

Link #3
been there, done that. So now what? Chemicalland21 says stay acid with the water, too.

Time to quit...I need a drink...it's only 2:27pm...~sigh~ guess I'll just take a nap and think on it.

Posted: **Sat Sep 30, 2006 3:17 pm**

Shari- numquam oportet is correct. Bets are back on, a few planaria are crawling on the glass again in both snail tanks. Far fewer planaria than before though.

I'll probably up the dosage to 5ppm or 189mg/10 gallons .

Another thing-
I made some Levamisole Dosage Calculators.

Here's a link to them (tell me if they work)-
http://www.geocities.com/chefkeithallen/Levamisole.html

Posted: **Sat Sep 30, 2006 4:55 pm**

I'm not sure I did it right, it didn't change when I changed the target amount.

Posted: **Sat Sep 30, 2006 5:06 pm**

Thanks for finding the glitch. Gallons needs to entered last for the amount chart to work.

-edit
Actually, it's not a glitch. The amount of Levamisole is adjusted instead of the dosage.
-edit I made some changes to the format. I think it's works better now.

Posted: **Tue Oct 03, 2006 7:17 pm**

Hey, Tom,

Excellent question. We usually are dosing based on the levamisole HCl
as though it were 100% active; recommended dosage is 1-2 mg/L, but many of my colleagues and I go with the 2 mg/L (again, dosing based on the levamisole HCl as if it were all active ingredient).

Ideally, fecals should be checked (or, if dealing with a large
population of fish and sacrificing a few is possible, necropsy
evaluation should be done) after treatment to look for nematode larvae,
adults, or eggs.

Roy

Posted: **Tue Oct 03, 2006 8:25 pm**

I'll probably up the dosage to 5ppm or 189mg/10 gallons .

So you are jumping up to almost 200mg/10g...

That's closer and closer to the recommended dosage from many places I've read...for instance right here on lol:

Posted by Dr. Momfish on Thursday, 18 March 1999, at 8:09 p.m.

According to 'Toado' in New Zealand his dosing is 5ppm or 5mg/l. So ten gallons would be (O.K. quick, how many litres in a gallon? U.S. or Imperial?) Let's say 40 litres is about 10 gallons. So his dosage is much lower than mine. I was using 400mg per 5 gallons and the fish were fine. But I was using it on fish that had Camallanus hanging out of them. And this is a very nasty tough parasite.

So, I guess we could leave minimum dosage at 200mg per 10 gallons, but if you go over that somewhat, don't get worried.

Unlike some of the other anti-worming drugs this one is safe in regards to toxicity, except to worms.

How's the planaria count? Inquiring minds want to know

and Thanks for the dosage calculator. If there was a blowing kisses smiley here I'd send you one.

something I'm wondering is if the good Dr. Roy was basing his dosing on just knocking down nematode populations in large fisheries, or was he after eradication? hmmm...and was he treating for cammallanus, or other less 'nasty' parasites?

Posted: **Wed Oct 04, 2006 12:40 am**

he was after eradication--of even camallanus spp..

i think it was case study b of the paper dhefkeith mentioned earlier.

i gotta ask--why are you medicating to eliminate planaria. Thorough gravel vacs, water changes, and careful monitoring of food amounts will typically eliminate planaria in a properly stocked tank. Planaria are not really a huge health threat to our fish. Really only to fry that aare small enough to eat. Reducing decaying organics in the tank will solve that problem.

Posted: **Wed Oct 04, 2006 7:32 am**

I think it was for the sake of experimentation with dosing. . .happened to be a ready supply of visible worms that could be observed. (?)

Posted: **Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:06 am**

planaria are flat worms. Not nematodes. Heminthes definitely. Makes one wonder if it is more a nematode drug than a generic anti helminth. i will be left wondering--lol.

Posted: **Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:12 am**

During my reading on levamisole (all over the place) I do remember the comment made somewhere that it is effective on nematode worms especially, not other types...

have to see if I can confirm that somewhere.

Posted: **Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:18 am**

shari2 wrote:During my reading on levamisole (all over the place) I do remember the comment made somewhere that it is effective on nematode worms especially, not other types...

If this were true, levamisole would be useless against CWS, since it is more often than not is a tapeworm infection.

The correct interpretation is that levamisole is effective against both roundworms and tapeworms, nematodes are emphasized since there are other drugs for dealing with tapeworms that are equally effective, but not with roundworms. It is also quite likely that levamisole kills nematodes at lower dosage than would be needed to kill tapeworms.