Levamisole In-Tank Treatment for AEFW

Vlad

There's little doubt in my mind, it is the little extras that put you over the top with PROHIBIT in terms of overcomming the AEFWs.

Hopefully, Roberto's efforts will provide a more specific form of Levamisole.
 
Any info and/or hope for us Roberto?

I'm content with living with them in my tank - until we find something that works.
 
Any info and/or hope for us Roberto?

I'm content with living with them in my tank - until we find something that works.

I don't know that we are ever going to find anything that works any better than PROHIBIT unless it is truely AEFWs specific.

In a full system, that may be the best we can do. Consider what would happen if the PROHIBIT or any in tank treatment actually killed the adult AEFWs and everything else that size in the system.

The PROHIBIT paralizes the larger AEFWs and that is what it is intended to do. That allows the oportunity for predation or removal by mechanical filtering or siphoning.

In a controlled study, we may be able to find out if it is leathal for newly hatched AEFWs. Maybe even at a lower dose than the adults. And there's a good chance it may be leathal to smaller individuals.

The short of it is, is that it is becoming clear that the use of Levamisole in system requires that the system be very clean and well oxygenated.

The Levamisole itself will not harm your fish or corals at the 5 g/300 gal dose. It is the colateral effects that may be detrimental to your system. At just about 3.75 ppm this dose is a fraction of the LD-50 for Levamisole which s 250 ppm.

Dipping can not erredicate AEFWs without complete isolation of acros. Isolation has to include the complete removal of ALL acro tissue from your system. I know in my case, there are frag pieces and encrustations of acro everywhere and that would be a very hard goal to meet. The use of Levi may still give us a tool for clearing out the system. Predators can only controll AEFWs, you will still spread the buggers with every trade of a frag.

It is also becoming clear that in well developed infestations, you really have to clip corals and remove bases. It is within and beneath these bases that the adult AEFWs are laying eggs and hiding during the day. Within these bases, in the paper thin crevesis, concetrations of Levamisol (or dips) may not reach the dose level as the water may not exchange. This may be why so many of us note that they love millies and tricolors like valida as these produce wide spread well puddled bases.

There's not going to be a silver bullet for this beast. :fish1:
 
I agree 100% Bax.

I hope we do come up with a silver bullet, though.

I do have a plan, though.

Once I get my LED fixtures built for my QT/Frag tank, I plan on fragging every coral I have and running the frags through the QT and using bayer to dip them. Once I get them into the frag tank, I may reconsider doing the full tank treatment. I just can't stomach losing everything, nor can I stomach tearing it down. So until then, I'll just live with them. They aren't doing that much harm right now. I still haven't seen any flying off in the last four weeks when basting.
 
Well, I have to say that my friend's tank, after third treatment is, as far as we can see by dipping and basting corals (all of them) is AEFW Free.


As I say the Ascaridil really KILLS the AEFW, the medication don't only parallizes. They kill.

I think that this s the key.

I'm trying to ship some pills to USA. O hope it works so I can help other people.

I'll post detais today night.
 
I'd love to get some from you roberto. LMK what the regs are on getting it here.

Thanks,
Ronnie
 
sorry if i'm re-asking..

did anyone have a redox meter on during a treatment? Just curious what happens to the redox potential. I'm guessing huge swing...
 
Yes, we have redox controller and YES huge swing so we maintain skimmer without cuups at FULL time.

Our third treatment has fisnished and no eggs and ANY AEFW found this time.

We are excited about that. We will make the fourth treatment just to make sure.

So far no losses at all.
 
Sorry, first-timer here on this forum and I'm really only here to ask about Levamisole.

I noticed your discussion of Levamisole and I didn't get a good answer from some of the FW forums I was on for availability... just curious if you guys know of a good place to find it. Been searching all over for the stuff... I used to buy it from a ValleyVets but they don't have any and haven't responded to my email asking when they'll get more.

Any ideas why it's scarce all of a sudden? I saw a seller on eBay selling it, but someone beat me to it with a "Buy it Now" because it seemed expensive. I checked this morning and didn't seen any available :(

Thanks in advance!
 
Apparently people have been using it to cut cocaine. That may be part of the availability issue.
 
good work hope you guys figure this out before I get back in ..Aefw wiped my tank out slowly over 6 months last year lost the rest around Jan. and have been fish only since..hopefully I will be able to get back into this hobby for the winter months and start from fresh..good luck
 
I found this medical write up on Ascaridil. It is another drug mixed with Levamilsoe hydrochloride.

http://www.orgyn.com/resources/genrx/D001632.asp

I need to dig some more to find out about the other drug.

The detailed record of my treatment and the references I found in that effort was blown away in a crash of my local club's web site. I want to find out the life span of the AEFW after hatching. I can't find the reference that described it. Does anyone have such a reference? I know the eggs take 21 days to hatch, and I know the hatchlings dive into the nearest acro and begin feeding on it immediately! But, can't find the description of the post hatch life cycle to adult hood and breeding age.
 
Bax, Ascaridil is used in human as colon cancer drugs with flourouracil....I tried to find out active ingredient of prohibit and all I can find is levamisole HCL which ascaridil has too..
So far I don' t see any difference in the two...
 
Bax, Ascaridil is used in human as colon cancer drugs with flourouracil....I tried to find out active ingredient of prohibit and all I can find is levamisole HCL which ascaridil has too..
So far I don' t see any difference in the two...

If that's the case, and it is just a 50% pill of Levamisole, then this is better than the pigeon pills folks were using earlier but not as good as PROHIBIT.

I think it goes back to:

IF YOU ARE GOING TO TREAT YOUR SYSTEM WITH LEVI, BE SURE IT IS CLEAN AND WELL OXYGENATED, AND READY TO REACIEVE A MAJOR AZZWUPPIN IN TERMS OF LITTLE CRITTERS!!!!
 
I want to find out the life span of the AEFW after hatching. I can't find the reference that described it. Does anyone have such a reference? I know the eggs take 21 days to hatch, and I know the hatchlings dive into the nearest acro and begin feeding on it immediately! But, can't find the description of the post hatch life cycle to adult hood and breeding age.

In the journal "Taxonomy and Life history of the Acro-eating Flatworm Amakusaplana acroporae nov. Sp. (Polycladia: Prosthiostomidea)"
http://www.springerlink.com/content/b78j5254rw683150/ it didn't have much on the adult hood and breeding age.

21 days for embryonic development to hatch at ~25C.
Hatchlings as the are called are able to swim immediately, attach to coral and, begin to feed on coral tissue. I don't think there are any stages after the hatching as the juveniles are small scale version of adults. I would venture to say that the juvenile would reach adulthood rather quickly as they grow and start reproducing.
 
Well, I don't know if the only component on ascaridil that kills the AEFW is the levamisole. After i read the last posts I have made some tests.

Test One: Pure Levamisole

At concentrations of 11g / 300Gal really kills the worms BUT kills everything else. At safe 5g /300 Gal, it only freeze for a few moments than when the medication is removed, they turn back to live.

Test two:

At safe 5g of ascaridil per 300gal: KILLS the aefw almost instantly. You can change the water after 10 minutes and NONE came back to life on the test.


Maybe some other component helps to kill the worm.

I'll research more with a quemistry that's friend of mine. Maybe some technical answers come from this conversation.

What I can say for sure is that My friend had a huge infestation and after the third treatment NO aefw was found. we will do 3 more treatments to be sure.
 
Bax, Ascaridil is used in human as colon cancer drugs with flourouracil....I tried to find out active ingredient of prohibit and all I can find is levamisole HCL which ascaridil has too..
So far I don' t see any difference in the two...

I prescribe flourouracil for the use on warts. 5FU is an anti cancer (DNA) but will it target afew?

Hmmm I'm thinking with the thought that if ALL eggs are found only on skeletons what if I can drip a cidal paste around the trunk of the coral base?
 
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