The Loach Forum Archives (3)

Levimisole: I Think It Worked! But...

Posted By: Cybermeez <cybermeez@aol.com>
Date: Friday, 1 March 2002, at 12:39 p.m.

Several of my fish had itchy gills, among them one of my smallest Clowns. The Cories seemed to have been the worst affected because before treatment they had been gulping air every 10 or 15 minutes.

24 hours after I did the post Levamisole water change I have no more itchy fish!! The Cories now go up to get a gulp of air maybe once or twice an hour! Thanks to Doc Momfish for her trail blazing with this drug!

Looks like the problem was gill flukes (as I had long suspected) and the Levamisole killed the little bastards without affecting the fish (at least to my knowledge). During treatment the only signs I saw were the Cories scratching their gills more often, probably trying to dislodge the dying flukes.

Unfortunately I've begun to encounter other problems in the tank. I'm not sure if it's from the stress of having been carrying flukes or what, but 3 of my fish (none of them Clowns thankfully) have come down with various ailments in the past 3 days.

The first to fall ill was my Kerri Tetra. He has what appears to be some kind of internal infection that's affecting his buoyancy. He's been in the Q-Tank for 3 days and was the only fish NOT to receive Levamisole. He'll get it later if he recovers from whatever this infection is. Right now I'm treating him with Kanamycin. He hasn't gotten any better, but hasn't gotten any worse either and he's still eating.

In the second fish to fall ill was my prized Adolfos Cory (she has the most beautiful bright orange cap on her head!). She has developed what appears to be a fungal (or coulminaris) infection on an injury to her anal fin. She's swimming around, eating and showing no signs of illness other than the localized infection.

The third fish to fall ill was one of my two Otos. In the past 48 hours he's developed patchy color loss on his body. It was only this morning that he began to have clamped fins and seem a little lethargic.

Both the Cory and the Oto are still in the main tank so I'm treating with the Maracyns and Melafix. I hate to medicate all the other healthy fish, but with the Kerri in the Q-Tank I don't have much choice. At the very least maybe doing so will help keep whatever the Oto has from spreading.

FYI....
pH = 6.8
Nitrate = 10
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Temp = 80.5 F

Robin

P.S. The good news is apparently no one had internal parasites. No sign of excreted worms.
 

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