# Levamisole HCI Pure-Camallanus Nematode--red hair like worm protruding from vents



## ibenu (Apr 21, 2010)

Please note it's important to ensure you are using Levamisole HCI in a pure form. Otherwise adjust proportions to reflect the dosage as below.

The basic killing dosage for Levamisole HCl is 13 ppm.

5 grams of pure Levamisole HCI in 100 gallons provides this. The crystalline powder is easy for anyone with a gram scale to weigh out but if you don't have one, then dissolve the powder and do the measuring by volume.
Here's how:

1. You need to know how much water you need to treat. If it is 100 gallons then it's one 5 gram package and no problem. If it it less than that or a multiple then dissolve the powder in ten (10) units of water.

2. 10 units may be 10 teaspoons or 10 ounces or ten tablespoons, or it could be even 100 Milliliters that's 10 centiliters. Some way you can divide up the solution into equal parts later on.

3. 10 units will now treat 100 gallons of aquarium water. 1/10th of that will treat 10 gallons. that means that one of those measures, teaspsoons, tablespoons, etc. will treat 10 gallons. So you could spoon out the exact amount of medication for your aquarium. 2 spoon full for 20 gallons and 3 for 30 gallons.

Treating your tank

1. Remove the Charcoal filtration and UV if you have it. Everything else should remain exactly the same. Same lights, same filters, same plastic figures and plants and same live plants and same temperature. pH doesn't matter. Everything that normally gets wet needs to be treated with the medication

2. Change the water in the tank to be treated, as close to all of it as you can. Don't try to scrub the tank clean. That destroys the Good bacteria and Protozoa and it will have to cycle those things back. That takes time and does harm to the fish etc. while it is working. Just change the water with your favorite Chlorine removing chemicals.

Make sure you have the solution you need for the treatment.

3. Pour in the solution of Levamisole and swirl it into the aquarium water to mix things completely.

4. Watch the fish for the next 3 days and 2 nights. Net out any dead ones. Let them dry on a news paper or paper towel and into the trash. NOT THE SINK or COMMODE! Don't put them back into our water system.

Any unused solution can be kept in a closed glass container, don't use a metal lid, in a refrigerator for 6 weeks as long as there is no evaporation.
Keep feeding the fish as usual. No reason to change anything. Besides, you want them to eliminate the dead Nematodes and need to keep things moving through the gut.

5. On the third day, change the water again to remove the dead Nematodes and the Medication.

That's it - *But it has to be done again in 3 weeks. There is some question about the Levamisole killing eggs in ripe females. These eggs could be expelled after death and remain viable to hatch into more worms.*

So, treat the tank in 3 weeks at the same rate you treated it first. Change the water in 3 days and you and your fish are free of the Nematode.

References: Additional information regarding the nasty worm has come from Marty Greenwell of the J. G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, private communications, Thank you Marty. Fish Diseases and Disorders, V 1 Edited by P. T. K. Woo, Dept. Zoology, U of Guelph, Canada, 1995
The Manual of Fish Health, C. Andrews. A. Exell, N. Carrington, Tetra Press, 1988 (pp 176,80). Parasitic Worms of Fish, H. Williams, A. Jones, Taylor & Francis, 1994 (pp139,40, Fig. 2.33.1-9

Reprinted with permission from Dr Charles Harrison of http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/


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