Jennifer

Hehe :lol: Whiteworms are very high in fat, kind of like if you ate at Macca's every single day.

Yes, there is newer technology out there but these still do an excellent job, and at a fraction of the price of the T5HOs. Yes, you may be able to create a cheaper hood yourself but if you aren't interested in faffing around (like me) then it is worth a couple extra dollars to have a ready made system. Also, if you originally thought the price was good enough to entertain the idea, then it isn't a problem, is it? Keep in mind, there are a million different opinions out there and a lot of people who are really into various lighting strategies. My opinion is just one of them, but I can tell you, all I want is consistently good lush plant growth on several of my tanks and these lights fit the bill without breaking the bank. If I only had one tank, then I might consider the T5HOs. 8)

Yes, I have used it and other benzamidazoles in clinical practice and in my own colony fish and have not noticed any problems. However, each type of animal is different and use in fish is 'off-label' (as is most medication for fish) so you never know what you're going to get when dosing, particularly between different species of fish. Again though, the benzamidazole type anthelmintics are very safe and I have used them in breeding fish and have not heard of any problems nor have I noticed problems in my own breeding pairs. That said, I do not generally deworm as a preventative measure so I cannot speak for those who use it repeatedly in any given year, perhaps that is where some of the side effects can occur. I also tend to feed it in a one off event rather than expose the tank to fluctuatng levels of the drug. Even so, I have a lot of confidence in this class of drug as a whole. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't use levamisole though. For most people who deworm only when necessary, there is probably little risk of parasite resistance with levamisole but if it is all you have used, and you treat several times a year, then I would be concerned with resitance issues with any deworming drugs.

I haven't worked in large animal practice in many years but I know it used to come in 100ml bottles.....for injection...but that was in the States, not sure about here. It has issues with resistance so it has gone out of favour with many vets. I just haven't seen in practice in many years. Many clinics will decant many dewormers but not the less common ones like levamisole which is not used by many farmers so it has to be ordered in. Fenbendazole (trade name Panacur) is one of my top personal choices as it is a very broad spectrum dewormer and it does come in smaller sizes as well as granules and liquid forms. It has issues with solublility but I prefer feeding it which is more effective and you don't have to worry as much about how soluble it is in water. It might be good to ask a local farmer to see if they use levamisole, or as you say, to go in with some other fishkeepers and share.

+1

I wouldn't think there would be much of a problem, if you use a very, very small amount.

Ain't it just? They look like larvae of some sort, not sure about the ones with wings or the red ones though. I would think they would out-compete the whiteworms soon with that kind of population. Still, you have some variety to feed the fish with!

The dose rate of 1ml per litre is based on the limiting factor of the effective praziquantel dose rate of 2mg/L. I see you now mention that you are more interested in treating with levamisole, and not praziquantel, in which case you could dose levamisole at the suggested dose rate of 2mg/L (disregarding praziquantel) which would mean that you would add .25mls of dewormer to each litre of water. Yes, it will be a lot, especially if you have a large tank. That is why people tend to buy the levamisole sheep wormer, since it comes in large quantities and is very inexpensive. Remember, you are treating a very large 'animal' that is your body of water. The alternative is to take the fish out and give them a medicated bath in one litre of water and then place them back in the tank.

Ideally you would dose by feeding or providing a medicated 'bath' that lasts for 6 to 20 hours. All it needs to do is achieve adequate blood levels to deliver the medication to the intestines and that should occur fairly rapidly so a 6 hour bath should be more than sufficient but many people prefer to leave it in longer. The worms will die, even if you see them pass and they look like they are still moving, they will die. After the bath, it is best to remove all traces of residual chemical so that you do not promote worm resistance from exposure to lower levels of the chemical. The chemical does break down some but not entirely so adding carbon or providing a water change can remove the rest. Depending on the species of your fish, a 100% water change could be stressful so just change as much as you feel your fish would be happy with - 50% is a safe amount. Since there is still going to be low levels left in the tank, repeating the water change the next day is a good idea.

For both levamisole and praziquantel, the standard dose for fish is 2mg/litre tank water. It can sometimes be beneficial to use higher doses of praziquantel to target some flukes and tapeworms but it is not usually more effective to use higher doses of levamisole since roundworms are much more susceptible to the chemical in the first place. You say the concentration of the Avitrol is: levamisole 10 mg/mL and praziquantel 2 mg/mL. This means that you will be giving an overdose of levamisole in order to give an adequate dose of the praziquantel. It is unlikely to cause any problems at low doses but it would be better to dose at the rates that you need. Anyway, just add 1ml of the Avitrol per litre of water and do a large water change each day for a couple of days afterward. repeat in 2 weeks. HTH

Those lights at that link are absolutely brilliant. I recently upgraded to those on two of my tanks and the plants have absolutely flourished, especially the red ones. It comes with a 15000k Tri-Power T8 tube and an 8000k Super light T8 tube (apparently the combination Amano uses). Highly recommended, you will not regret it if you get them.

If you have recently carried out an antiparasitic treatment and the worms are passing it is possible to see internal parasites outside of the body, however, they usually aren't alive for long. Therefore, I would be inclined to think that these are just environmental worms rather than internal parasites. I had an infestation of red worms in my tank once when I fed too much cucumber. They were all over in the filter and throughout the plants. I just cut back on feeding and vacuumed the substrate and eventually they went away.

How about daphnia? That's fairly easy. Or perhaps you can go collect mysis shrimp? Or, you could even try some chopped earthworms. 8)

orangeboy

Yes, but warm water holds less oxygen as well. 8)

It has been commonly found that the amount of dissolved CO2 in a tank with DIY CO2 is usually only 1.5 to 2 times that in water just out of the tap. This is not a huge difference. Keep in mind, the fancy planted aquaria that you see overseas have serious injected CO2 systems and they often have all kinds of tropical shrimp. The key factors with these shrimp is not CO2, it is using non-toxic fertilisers and providing good aeration. It certainly is possible that the shrimp had CO2 toxicity but I personally suspect it was a lack of dissolved oxygen or a rapid pH swing overnight. If you fed spirulina flakes, and the tank is un-cycled then it very likely could have been ammonia as well. If you used a fertiliser with copper, it could have been that as well. Any number of things really but it is useful to keep these things in mind when introducing more animals so that you can prevent more deaths. Many people advise that you dose excel at lights out because it degrades slightly in the presence of light.

Welcome to the forums. LA and Alan will be great resources for you about beardies. To edit your profile and add your location, all you have to do is click the 'user profile' area in the top right of the screen. Oh, and a 'PM' is a private message and you can access your inbox by clicking the 'messages' area at the top left of the screen (I recently spoke to a new member who was utterly confused by those terms, so I hope that helps a little).

If you ask me, it is pretty cheap advertising for that company.

Sorry to hear that. Don't be too discouraged though, it is all just a learning process. Keep in mind, small tanks are much more difficult to stabilise than larger ones so that will give you a little more challenge! Some possible ideas for what could have gone wrong include: oxygen too low, temp too high, toxins in the water (ammonia, nitrites, chlorine, water conditioners, etc), rapid pH fluctuation (CO2 will cause the pH to drop and this can be significant in a small tank). Shrimp are pretty delicate.

Speaking of intelligence, or more specifically emotional intelligence, it never ceases to amaze me how an intelligent conversation so quickly can turn into personal attacks. :roll:

"Avitrol Plus" has both praziquantel and levamisole so it will kill nematodes, cestodes and trematodes (roundworms, tapeworms and flukes). "Aviverm" is just levamisole so it will be most effective at killing nematodes (roundworms). I don't know the concentration of these products so I can't comment on dosages.

There was a great link posted under this same topic a couple of months ago. It talked about the problems with using too much or too little sugar and regulating production with modifying ingredients. The search function brings up so many links it was a bit overwhelming...but it is there somewhere :roll: Might be good to do a sticky on this topic (if there isn't one already :oops: ).

My personal rating: :lol: Appearance 9/10 Functionality 5/10 Price 9/10 It isn't the most solid piece of equipment but it is appropriate for the price. It has plastic components but it seems sturdy enough. I like the fact that it has a proper 9w compact tube and that it attaches easily to the tank. The plants do very well considering it is only a 9watt tube.

Crikey!! I hope you didn't add much of that 35%!! I can't recall but from memory I think it kills at doses as low as 10mls of 3% solution added to 40L of tank water!