Levamisole medication ineffective when dosed only in the water?

[rebe]

I've been doing some reading this evening about medication I've just used (eSHa ndx) and a couple of articles say that it's only effective when dosed in the food the fish eat? Otherwise when dosed in the tank water it only paralyses the worms protruding from the fish?

This article for example: https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/10-12-nematodes/

Maybe it's not at all true but I wanted to check with you experienced and knowledgeable fish keepers here.

 

[Colin_T]

Medications in the water get absorbed into the fish via osmosis and kills/ paralyses worms in the fish. I never added Levamisole to food and only added it to the water and worms were seen being expelled a few hours later.

 

[rebe]

Medications in the water get absorbed into the fish via osmosis and kills/ paralyses worms in the fish. I never added Levamisole to food and only added it to the water and worms were seen being expelled a few hours later.

Brilliant, thanks Colin!

 

[MaloK]

Medications in the water get absorbed into the fish via osmosis and kills/ paralyses worms in the fish. I never added Levamisole to food and only added it to the water and worms were seen being expelled a few hours later.

Levamisole is typically absorbed by fish through their gut (that is why you can target add it to food in community tanks) . Secondary absorption comes from gills then skin. And this can vary a lot from species to health....

And it's why overdosing irritate guts first, To the point the fish wont recover.

Osmosis is a passive process and cannot be a carrier because it is based on equilibrium... if your fish is in equilibrium: There is no transfer.

I like you a lot and (having read a lots of your posts) consider all the help you given to all members here... But you need to strongly re-evaluate your medical stance and stop throwing Aquarium salt as a miracle remedy...

As a guy that is already used to be hated for what I'm saying, because my brain runs on dead pan facts only.

It does not compute with me.

 

[rebe]

Osmosis is a passive process and cannot be a carrier because it is based on equilibrium... if your fish is in equilibrium: There is no transfer.

Thanks for the reply @MaloK but I'm afraid I need this part dumbed down for me, in simpler terms
I do know what osmosis is, and what an equilibrium is. Do you mean that osmosis won't work for the medication because the fish are already water saturated? I don't understand otherwise

 

[GaryE]

I have used levamisole in food, and it was very effective. The problem is dosage - how can you be sure the distribution is reasonably even? I used a homemade paste food, tried to spread the med evenly and fed. The nematodes were killed and the fish recovered for long lives.

I still questioned the unevenness of each dose.

Salt is a desperation med for me. With my very soft water, I sometimes see velvet, and if it is really bad, I regretfully use salt along with other medications. I dislike it because it doesn't break down, and takes a lot of water changes to get out. It is as alien a chemical to an Amazon fish as any pharmaceutical product. If people use it because it's 'natural', it really is a misread of nature. I've seen it used to great effect on beaten up Cichlids, but I try to avoid it.


When it comes to medication, the word 'natural' always sends me to research active ingredients and to try to understand how they work, just as I do for any medication.

 

[Ichthys]

I've been doing some reading this evening about medication I've just used (eSHa ndx) and a couple of articles say that it's only effective when dosed in the food the fish eat? Otherwise when dosed in the tank water it only paralyses the worms protruding from the fish?

This article for example: https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/10-12-nematodes/

Maybe it's not at all true but I wanted to check with you experienced and knowledgeable fish keepers here.

If it's on that site, it's not true. That is an awful site riddled with misinformation. Just follow the instructions on the bottle, and steer clear of aquariumscience.org...

 

[Colin_T]

Levamisole is typically absorbed by fish through their gut (that is why you can target add it to food in community tanks) . Secondary absorption comes from gills then skin. And this can vary a lot from species to health....

And it's why overdosing irritate guts first, To the point the fish wont recover.

Osmosis is a passive process and cannot be a carrier because it is based on equilibrium... if your fish is in equilibrium: There is no transfer.

I like you a lot and (having read a lots of your posts) consider all the help you given to all members here... But you need to strongly re-evaluate your medical stance and stop throwing Aquarium salt as a miracle remedy...

As a guy that is already used to be hated for what I'm saying, because my brain runs on dead pan facts only.

It does not compute with me.

@MaloK I don't see you offering medical advice to fish. I don't charge people for my information and I have a lot of experience fish keeping and treating fish after spending 20 years working in wholesale and retail pet shops, as well as keeping fish at home since the 1970s.

Where the hell did salt come from?
We are talking about a deworming medication. And I have a lot of experience deworming aquarium fishes at home and in the shops. And I have always treated the tank and the worms get expelled. You can literally see the fish pooping out the worms. And most fish end up looking really skinny the next day after they have expelled all the worms.

For the OP, treat the entire tank so the medication gets into the fish however it gets into them. As Gary said, if you mix it with food, you can't guarantee the dose that each fish gets.

 

[Ichthys]

I never use oral medications for fish for the reason already stated... You have little to no control of the dosage. In the uk we just add Sterazin (piperazine based) to the water to kill worms. There's none in the fish so they absorb it (osmosis) and the dosage is known and controlled.

Edit... Diffusion, not osmosis. See post below.

 

[FranciscoB]

In the basic cellular sense, there are 3 types of transport across cell membranes: Osmosis, Diffusion, and Active Transport (several types).
Osmosis is the movement of Water across membranes.
Diffusion is the movement of Solutes along a concentration gradient (from higher concentration to lower).
Both osmosis and diffusion are passive processes.
Active transport is the movement of materials Against a concentration gradient, or involving molecules that are either too large, or that due to their polarity or other features would not diffuse passively across membranes.
Levamisole is a solute (even if dissolved in water). It will NOT move by osmosis but can move by diffusion.
Levamisole in food or in the water will work.