Bit the bullet - levamisole flatworm treatment

[untamed]

Get some soft and rigid airline tubing and make yourself a flatworm siphon tool. Stick about 5" of rigid airline tubing on the end of the flexible tubing so you can work the end like a siphon. (oops..meant to say "like a pencil")

Siphon as many of those bugga's out a there as possible both before and after treatment, but especially before. They are reputed to give off a toxin when they die, so you want to remove every one that you can see before you kill off what you can't see....then siphon off the bodies.

They siphon really easily.

[Alberta-newb]

Originally Posted by untamed

Get some soft and rigid airline tubing and make yourself a flatworm siphon tool. Stick about 5" of rigid airline tubing on the end of the flexible tubing so you can work the end like a siphon.

Siphon as many of those bugga's out a there as possible both before and after treatment, but especially before. They are reputed to give off a toxin when they die, so you want to remove every one that you can see before you kill off what you can't see....then siphon off the bodies.

They siphon really easily.

You bet, still at it....going to be a long night! What surprised me was the sheer numbers of worms that I couldn't see before the treatment, having a lot of rockwork looks nice but sure presents some problems. It's times like this I wish I had gone BB.

[Bryan]

Where did you purchase the Levasole?

[Pan]

Good luck killing them all off...

You needs a coris wrasse

[Borderjumper]

A pair of mandarin's took care of mine.. havent had a one in ages!

[mseepman]

Mandarins eat flatworms? I've never heard this before. Has anyone else had this experience?

[Alberta-newb]

Well it's been over 24 hours and my treatment may end up with one casualty This morning my streamlined rabbit "the brown trout" was looking pale and very listless, I also observed the foxface "Fluffy" capitalizing on the situation and harrasing him endlessly. Following some good advice I put a mirror in the tank to distract the foxface, this worked but by this afternnon the streamlined was looking worse, spending most of his time just laying on his side. I believe I stressed him out to much with all the mucking around last night, the 30% WC, and the toxicity of dead flatworms may have been to much for him. I moved him to a hospital tank after work today and I have seen some improvement but he's far from out of the woods. Fingers crossed I didn't kill him

Other than this problem, everything else is looking good. All corals are opened up, rest of the fish look fine, and even the snails pulled through (often a casualty with levamisole treatment). I can also confirm my pistol shrimp is alive and well and even engaged in a tug of war with me over a piece of krill today.

Bryan: I bought my levamisole from a killifish keeper in the states (used in FW tanks against parasitic worms at much higher dosages?) It now appears that it is getting near imposible to locate as it has been pulled from the shelves as a pig/sheep dewormer. Had my local vet try and get some without luck. It turns out it is going through human trials as some type of immuno modifier. Guess the drug companies figure they can earn a lot more from a few pills, then bottles full to farmers.

Pan & Borderjumper: Indeed I would like to have gone "natural" but I think my flatworm problem was too big and a single fish couldn't have kept up with the population explosion that was going on. I was looking into a coris wrasse at one time but had decided against any wrasses as they would be pod competitors for the mandarin I was hoping to get in the future. I hadn't gotten a mandarin yet as all advice says to wait untill your tank is well established and my reef has only been up 9-10 months...sigh..real bad timing.

On a positive note I was looking in my fuge today and can still see lots of pods so they came through ok as well. I should also note that I cannot see any flatworms anywhere so far.

Will keep you posted on long term results.