Safe worming treatments for catfish

[glo]

Hi,

I have a tank of geos. All appear healthy. Last night a female red hump with a mouthful of eggs (therefore hasn't been eating for a couple of days) seemed to have a white poo - normal size, not thin. Once she passed it, it turned out to be a flat worm about 0.5 - 1cm long. While I was looking at it moving around the bottom of the tank, one of my small orange head tapajos ate it!!! Based on other threads I have read in this forum, seems like tapeworm??

I have a dozen albino and normal bn in this tank. I also have some discus, cories, hoplos etc in another tank that I would also like to dose with prazi and levamisole.

Based on what I have read, the levamisole is safe for catfish. I have read that people have used prazi on catfish with no ill effects, but in the past, I have used some prazi medication ("worm rid"?) which comes with a warning against using it on catfish.

I would prefer to dose the whole tanks to be sure I get rid of the worms, plus as I don't have a spare tank it would be inconvenient for me to set up a hospital tank. I could do this but it would be a hassle and I don't want to mix the inhabitants of my 2 tanks.

Does anyone have any experience or advice on using prazi on bristlenose and other catfish? I'm keen to dose those worms asap - it was a disgusting sight seeing that fish gobble up that worm. Even though I have no problem in seeing them eat blackworms, the sight of my orange head tapajos eating a tapeworm is not so appealing!

[taksan]

Levimisol is safe for catfish

[glo]

is prazi safe for catfish? if not are there alternatives that treat tapeworm as i understand levamisole does not.

[sammigold]

I read on Planet catfish forums that you could probably safely use "sterazin" on your catfish. I know that the bottle has pics of a clown loach on it and most times if its ok with a clown loach it should be ok with a catty. You could always ring the manufacturer to make sure.
Sterazin is for gill and body flukes and internal worms. HTH

[Phlipper]

The Sterazin may be worth a try ?............I just used Prazi on my main tank containing Corys, Albino Bristlenoses and 1 large Featherfin plus Yoyo Loaches, Discus etc etc etc and I was worried but all fish coped very well. I think the key is to add the required dose a little at a time so the fish get used to the foreign chemical slowly rather than the shock of it all at once. I dosed a 70% dose rate and pre dissolved it beforehand and dosed it a little at a time over a 2 hour period.

There is never any guarantee things wont go wrong, but this is what I do and I have no problems so far, and seeing as it is almost positive your fish has tapeworm then I dont think you have much choice but to try it ?.....good luck, I think all will be OK 8-)

[Robdog]

I know that the bottle has pics of a (insert attractive but difficult fish) on it

I think this is a mistake made by a lot of beginner fish keepers. (I'm not saying that you are a beginner sammi by any means by the way)
Those small Aquaone tanks have great photos of discus on them but aren't really suitable.

[sammigold]

I know what you are saying Robdog... Never judge a book by its cover... but in the case of medication, I think it would be a VERY irresponsible manufacturer that would place a pic of a "known" med sensitive fish on their bottles if that medication was not able to be used for that particular fish.

In the past when I have had to medicate my loaches I have always rang the manufacturer to find out suitability and recommended doseage just to be sure....

And just for info sake, LOL , I have been keeping discus for the past year and other tropicals for the past 8 years. :-)

[glo]

guys,

i used sterazin with no ill effects. can't tell if i got rid of the tapeworms as i only ever saw one and saw no other symtoms. i guess time will tell.

one thing i did manage to do was kill all my 10 day old red hump fry by dosing the tank with algae killer (at least i suspect this was the cause)! i thought this was safe as i previously used this on my fish and bristlenose (even when they were holding fry), but maybe i overdosed or maybe the fry are more sensitive to medication once they are free swimming.

[samir]

I've tried Sterazin with no ill effects on my cories or my discus and as a matter of fact, no ill effects on the flukes either.

[Nathan]

ive used sterzin with about 5 or 6 catfish in the tank, there was no problems with it, but i was treating flukes, didnt kno it helped with worms aswel.

[Phlipper]

Ummm, this may or may not mean much, but I have never used the Sterazin so cant really comment on it's effectiveness, but I am using a similar product called Myxazin, made by the same company to try and treat an Ulcer on one of my Angels as was suggested by one of the local shops. I have been using it for double the time period now as was suggested on the bottle and it has made little impact on the Ulcer, but absolutely no ill effects upon the fish. So, my point is just how good is Myxazin and Sterazin, both products seem to have no ill effects on the fish, but I wonder if they actually have any effects on the ailment the fish may be suffereing.........do they actually work as claimed ???

[samir]

Phil, Myzaxine worked for me once, and Sterazin well thats just 100% fluke friendly. you could probably grow flukes in it. Maybe try tetracycline for the ulcer.

[*Chris*]

sterazin only works a few times in the same tank it doesnt kill all flukes that is the problem
so the remaining flukes build an immunity to it so of course there offspring are going to have the same immunity
waterlife products in general are ok but they seem to be too general treatment based . Rather than trying to isolate one parasite or problem they are made broad spectrum
if you have ever noted the amounts of each active ingrediant in the bottle it is only a quarter of that used in say a single dosage recommended for each of those active ingredients
AI