Levamisole Flake Food - Guppy Bloated

HI I have lost some guppies to what I believe is parasites. Not definitively camallanus but due to white stringy poop in 3 (2 of whom died) and unexplained deaths in 2 others, I presumed internal parasites.

I have fed them Blue Deworm 3 Flake food that is fortified with levamisole and garlic. They say to feed 2 days in a row, then stop. I'm sure that the two remaining guppies did eat a good portion of the food. The one guppy that looked bloated a few days ago looked better yesterday but now is bloated again.

Would you treat a third day with the food even though the instructions say only 2? I also have the powder I could treat the water with, but I wanted to get the food in if I could.

Not familiar with treating parasites and not sure this is a usual course of events. The bloated guppy does have appetite but isn't as active as usual.

Thoughts from folks that have treated parasites before?

Note that the parameters of the water are very good, 0, 0, 5 and temp is 78 degrees. Live plants, a few snails (pond snails). I really want to save these guys - my daughter is devastated we lost 4 already. I have 7 other tanks with no issues, but try explaining to a 9 year old it's not her fault...

 

I’d treat similar to the dosage for the powder. The procedure I go by is to treat once a week for 3 weeks with a large water change and thorough gravel vac 24 hours after each treatment so you can target the parasite through all stages of its life cycle. You can alter your schedule if you are familiar with the life cycle of the parasite in question.

The powder is what I am comfortable using as it doesn’t harm inverts or affect your bio filtration so I can’t speak to using the food much :/

 

I would say its handy to use prazipro as well.
Levimasole kills roundworms, nematodes, but dosent kill flatworms or other "parasites"
API makes a medicine called "general cure" you can use it in powder, flake food, or both. Be careful, metronidazole is hard to overdose but prazipro can become toxic if overdosed.

 

Thanks Whitewolf - I have so little experience with parasites. I lost the one guppy - made me so sad I failed him.

I appreciate the insight - I’ll order Prazipro and or metronidazole. We can’t get General Cure here in Canada - not because of ingredients but because of the name, or so I understand. It’s nuts.

 

Thank you Lchi87 I appreciate the benefit of your experience very much.

I decided to treat the tank with the powder mixture before I went to bed as I saw no improvement in the one bloated gup but he was gone by morning

I read up on the levamisole I understand its absorption is very effective when treating the water column. I'll keep the food - some folks have had very good results but probably not when the fish is already failing and has little appetite - maybe use as a preventative though I'm never fond of just treating something when there are no symptoms. Not sure - what do you think? I've lost so many of these darn guppies. I have 7 other tanks and over 40 fish with only 3 losses to date, but my one guppy tank is a complete failure. Is it possible to just have bad stock?

 

Levamisole is pretty safe and I know others who use it as a preventative in their QT tanks with no issue so if you want to use it as a preventative, go for it. I also struggle with medication when there are no symptoms but I make an exception for QT purposes. I deworm with prazI at the very least when I QT. It is also definitely possible to get bad stock.

 

I would say its handy to use prazipro as well.
Levimasole kills roundworms, nematodes, but dosent kill flatworms or other "parasites"
API makes a medicine called "general cure" you can use it in powder, flake food, or both. Be careful, metronidazole is hard to overdose but prazipro can become toxic if overdosed.

Whitewolf Do you know if GC and/or Prazipro can be used together with Levamisole with no contraindications?

 

Praziquentel can be combined with other anthelmintics in farm animals I see why not for fish. Of course anytime you use medications there is the posibility of renal inpairment.


Ref:
GB2252730A - Anthelmintic formulations containing praziquantel - Google Patents