albino BN and internal parasites

[sophie68]

Hi all

One of my albino BN is pooing white transparent strings and I am pretty sure she has internal parasites, even though I quarantined her for 6 weeks and treated her with parasite clear twice. The other 2 are doing great. What do you recommend as treatment? Shall I take her out? It won't be easy (tried yesterday, she drove me up the wall!!!!)... Can I treat her in the tank with my discus? I know that my last pleco with stringy poo (a beautiful Queen arabesque) died pretty quickly. So any advice is very welcome. I have heard about Levamisole but cannot figure out how you would dose it as it is a dewormer for pigs etc... and they ask you by weight of the animal!

Thanks!
Sophie

[brewmaster15]

Hi Sophie,
Treating the pleco may not be necessary.....It may be dietary... do you have any driftwood in there for it? do you suppliment its feeding?

Sometimes plecos can eat too much of the other fishes food and if the food is old and rotting...get an internal infection.

depending on the above it could also be parasites in which case...it will probably be flagellates and Metronidazole (jehmco.com) would be a good start....it may also help if its bacterial.

hth,
al

[brewmaster15]

On the levamisole..

So any advice is very welcome. I have heard about Levamisole but cannot figure out how you would dose it as it is a dewormer for pigs etc... and they ask you by weight of the animal!

this is a dewormer and has little effect on the other parasites... when used its used as follows....

Levamisole can be used both in the feed and as a bath treatment. One effective oral dose is 1.8 grams of levamisole per pound of food fed once a week for three weeks. One effective bath treatment dose is 2 ppm (mg/liter) levamisole for 24 hours, with a repeat treatment in two to three weeks. However, be sure to consult with a fish health specialist before commencing any treatment and always follow their recommendations.

source...

Nematode (Roundworm) Infections in Fish Roy P. E. Yanong
http://www.simplydiscus.com/library/...ematodes.shtml

[sophie68]

Hi Al,
Thanks for replying!!! Actually, I have 2 big swahala driftwood pieces in my tank and they love it but one of the BN is always pooing (sorry to go into such details...) either dark or green rather thick and very healthy looking poo, whereas the other one even after munching on the wood for hours is still transparent.....Weird!!! I tried the Ultra Cure PX gel tek by AP for internal parasites and so far, nothing. Will try metro bits. Should I try deworm bits also? Thanks! I have to say I have not been feeding them much since they have been in the tank (about 1 week) as there is still quite a bit of algae. I am not sure how much food I should give them and how often. I used to give them zucchini. How often should I give them that again? I just don't want to pollute my water since I only change 50% of the water every other day.

Sophie

[brewmaster15]

Hi Sofie,
I'd try the metro first and see if it helps.... If you want to maximize the effect, isolate the pleco and feed only the medicated food... not sure how much meds a pleco eating wood, algae and other foods plus a medicated food actually would get.

when feeding medicated feeds its critical that the fish only eat the medicated food.

hth,
al