Treating Hexamita aka Spironucleus
- Thread starter RD.
- Start date
Hi RD thank you for getting back to me so quickly, I have tried everywhere on Google and all of my local aquarium shops to no avail, and I have found out that our lovely UK government will not allow the general sale of anything with metro in it as it contains an antibiotic . So after further research and phoning round everyone one I know in the hobby, I have managed to get my hands on a new bottle of metro+ and also some prazi pro (I know this might not be of any good for my fh's condition but I thought I might as well have it), I have also found that my local stockists are allowed to sell a product called waterlife octozin which contains basically dimetridazole which I believe is closely related to metro, so i will get some of this if I run out of metro+. So if I can ask your advice again as to how to dose my fh's food with the metro+ and if it would be ok in your opinion, if I do run out of metro (it is only a small bottle) to move onto the octozin? Also forgot to answer your first question regarding the type of food I am feeding him, it is okiko platinum.
Thanks again for your advice.
With regards to Metronidazole.....
Dr. Edward J Noga suggests:
1. Bath
a. Add 19mg/gallon and treat for 3 hours. Repeat every other day for 3 treatments.
2. Prolonged Immersion
a. Add 25mg/gallon and treat once daily for a total of 3 times.
b. Add 95mg/gallon and treat every other day for three days.
3. via feed
25 mg/Kg of body weight/day for 5 to 10 days, or 100 mg/kg of body weight for 3 days. Retreat once if required.
Dr. Edward J. Noga, MS, DVM, is a highly respected professor of aquatic medicine and immunology, that has been published approx. 150 times in related papers/journals. His lab at NC State University specializes in the study of infectious diseases of finfish and shellfish. His book, Fish Disease: Diagnosis and Treatment is the go to "health" book for every serious fish keeper and aquatic DVM.
I have heard good things from folks in the UK regarding Waterlife Octozin, but have no personal experience with it.
Good luck
Dr. Edward J Noga suggests:
1. Bath
a. Add 19mg/gallon and treat for 3 hours. Repeat every other day for 3 treatments.
2. Prolonged Immersion
a. Add 25mg/gallon and treat once daily for a total of 3 times.
b. Add 95mg/gallon and treat every other day for three days.
3. via feed
25 mg/Kg of body weight/day for 5 to 10 days, or 100 mg/kg of body weight for 3 days. Retreat once if required.
Dr. Edward J. Noga, MS, DVM, is a highly respected professor of aquatic medicine and immunology, that has been published approx. 150 times in related papers/journals. His lab at NC State University specializes in the study of infectious diseases of finfish and shellfish. His book, Fish Disease: Diagnosis and Treatment is the go to "health" book for every serious fish keeper and aquatic DVM.
I have heard good things from folks in the UK regarding Waterlife Octozin, but have no personal experience with it.
Good luck
Sorry for the late reply, so an update been feeding my fh on metro+ medicated bloodworm for 6 days now and before this morning not 1 sign of white/clear poop, but when I have gone to feed him this morning there is a tiny slightly brown/clear string coming from him, is this anything to be concerned about? I was going to do the full 10 day treatment, and just to give some more info on him, he is really active very responsive when I come in (more than I have ever seen him) and eating like a whale. Any advice greatly appreciated.
As a side note, I just wanted to thank RD for his amazing advice through my troubles with hex, I am sure without that advice my fh would surely have perished by now, RD you are a genuine life saver.
I urge anyone that is a relative newbie to keeping these sorts of fish to read this thread thoroughly and follow the advice that RD and many others have given on treating this very common and treatable condition.
Further update, my fh still had rare (but defo there) white/clear poop mixed in with normal brown coloured poop, so on Thursday I decided to de worm him with a product called esha ndx (which is the only form of levamisole I could find in the UK), I should add that before this treatment he was very active and eating like a horse, since the treatment he has become not nearly as active his colour has dulled and his appetite is nowhere near what it was, now I very concerned that I might made the situation worse by doing this treatment. Oh I did manage to inspect a sample of his poop and found what I am nearly 100% sure are capillaria eggs (see pic) I had to search for a while under the microscope to find these so there definitely weren't that many of them present. I don't know whether I should go back to the metro food that I have still got prepared, and also the instructions with the levamisole treatment that I have administered say to repeat the treatment after 14 days but I have now seen things on YouTube and read lots of articles that say the levamisole treatment should be given once a week for a minimum of 3 weeks, so confused on what is going to be the best for my boy really don't want to lose him so I am willing to try anything at this point.
Thanks in advance for any advice
I gave directions for treatment with Levamisole in this past discussion.
https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/levamisole.692192/
Levamisole is safe with rays, but only when dosed correctly. Otherwise, all bets are off. I posted the following years ago, and again just yesterday in another discussion here on MFK. The correct manner to treat is treat using dosage stated below (2 ppm) for 24 hrs, wait 2 weeks, and treat again.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa091
One effective bath treatment dose is 2 ppm (mg/liter) levamisole for 24 hours, with a repeat treatment in two to three weeks.
The scientific community considers 2ppm of Levasimole HCl to be an adequate dosage, which works out to 1gr per 100 gallons, not 5gr per 100 gallons as constantly reported on the internet.
The 5gr dosage rate originates from Charles Harrison, who is a chemist/ fish hobbyist, that sells (or used to sell?) Levasimole HCl, not a VMD that specializes in treating tropical fish. (such as Dr. Roy Yanong)
Dr. Yanong also suggests that the treatment duration be 24 hrs, not 3 days as currently suggested by Charles Harrison. It appears that Charles got his info from a killi hobbyist (Ken Laidlaw), that as far as I can tell has no real qualifications for treating fish for disease etc beyond the hobbyist level.
Dr. Roy Yanong's bio ......
http://sfrc.ufl.edu/people/faculty/yanong/
HTH
https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/levamisole.692192/
Levamisole is safe with rays, but only when dosed correctly. Otherwise, all bets are off. I posted the following years ago, and again just yesterday in another discussion here on MFK. The correct manner to treat is treat using dosage stated below (2 ppm) for 24 hrs, wait 2 weeks, and treat again.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa091
One effective bath treatment dose is 2 ppm (mg/liter) levamisole for 24 hours, with a repeat treatment in two to three weeks.
The scientific community considers 2ppm of Levasimole HCl to be an adequate dosage, which works out to 1gr per 100 gallons, not 5gr per 100 gallons as constantly reported on the internet.
The 5gr dosage rate originates from Charles Harrison, who is a chemist/ fish hobbyist, that sells (or used to sell?) Levasimole HCl, not a VMD that specializes in treating tropical fish. (such as Dr. Roy Yanong)
Dr. Yanong also suggests that the treatment duration be 24 hrs, not 3 days as currently suggested by Charles Harrison. It appears that Charles got his info from a killi hobbyist (Ken Laidlaw), that as far as I can tell has no real qualifications for treating fish for disease etc beyond the hobbyist level.
Dr. Roy Yanong's bio ......
http://sfrc.ufl.edu/people/faculty/yanong/
HTH
Great thanks RD, that defo clears up the dosage and treatment length for the levamisole. I know I have asked loads of you already but if I could just ask what I should do now regarding his feeding, I have been able to feed him some frozen bloodworm and mysis mix but as for anything else he simply will not touch it, I have tried soaking the food in garlic guard but this did not work, would he be OK if I just continued with the mysis/bloodworm mix, just until the levamisole treatment period ends and then try again with his regular food (okiko platinum). I still do have some metro food prepared as well so if it would be a good idea to go back to this I can do that straight away.
Again massive thanks to you for all your help and advice.
Have you tried soaking his pellets in frozen blood worm juice? I mean he's your fish, do what you think is best. I don't want to discourage you from feeding him, but the sooner he's back on pellets the better.
Hello RD seems like you are a very knowledgeable person and hope you could help me out. Its been like 10 days ive got my new kamfa. He hasnt been eating anything yet. Although he is still active and follows me around the tank he doesnt seem to be interested in any food. Ive seen a few times that his poop is white like a thread which is attached to a lump which is also white. I started the 3% epsom salt treatment yesterday with the first dose and today with the 2nd. Can you advice me what am i supposed to do more? Ill make sure to continue for 3 more days. What should i do more to make him feel better? Thanks!
Idk if its protozoans or worms cause if its worms i also do have levamisole to treat it, if he still doesnt eat after the epsom salt treatment what am i supposed to do:?
Idk if its protozoans or worms cause if its worms i also do have levamisole to treat it, if he still doesnt eat after the epsom salt treatment what am i supposed to do:?
