Praziquantel for AEFW

[Whisperer]

I have been battling this pesky AEFW and have been reading a lot about it. I tried r/o water dip that did not kill all the flatworms. The frag eventually died likely from stress due to repeated dippings. Have searched high and low for levamisole but was told that the manufacturer stopped making it. So, I searched for other flatworm/fluke treatment. Praziquantel appeared to be the most promising. So, I called a local vet who was sounded puzzled. He reluctantly sold me 10 ml of liquid praziquantel ( 56.8 mg/ml). I was stuck on the dozing! I could not find any info on the correct dozing for the whole tank. I did not want to nuke the whole tank from overdosing.
I am sure that my pink millipora has AEFW, I saw clusters of tiny brown eggs at the bare areas of the base. I carefully removed those with a sharp scalpel. Then it was time to dip in praziquantel. I took a pint plastic container, poured 1 ml of praziquantel and mixed it with a capful ( around 3 ml) of vodka and mixed them thoroughly then I filled it to over 3/4 full with tankwater and immersed the pink millipora. In less than half a minute, lots of flatworms drifted off the coral! It works!!!! The coral was then placed back in the tank and immediately, polyps came out like nothing happened.
I know there are more flatworms in my other corals. Anyone knows the safe dosing to treat the entire tank?

 

[joker295]

i feel you.. ive been fighting aefw for about 2 months now..ive been dipping everyweek in revive and its been working.. 7 weeks later no more worms falling off my coral but i will continue for a couple weeks to make sure i got them all.. i heard of people using flatworm exit by salifert..the only thing is to change water after dosage and run carbon.. i was waiting til i snipped the count down before doing that to clean the rest out... good luck

 

[Reef Bass]

Flatworm Exit is effective against planaria (red flatworms), not acro eating flatworms.

 

[iamwrasseman]

use flatworm exit ,interceptor ,or the safest is a melanurus wrasse . a much safer form of praziquantel is prazi pro and the dose it at 1 oz per 120 gallons it contains 5% praziquantel by weight so you may be able to figure out the dosage from that .

 

[joker295]

I didnt know that my lfs and some other hobbyist said it works against aefw

 

[Reef Bass]

You might want to research some of the threads which contain "gospel" preached by LFS's.

Ok, let's kick this around a bit. Simply from the vast experience availalbe here on RC, if FlatWorm Exit (FWE) were a reliable or even moderately effective cure for acro eating flatworms (AEFW), then there wouldn't be all the threads about how hard it is to get rid of them, or other threads about how one can live with them. The advice would be simple: AEFW? FWE!. Not the case. FWE is effective against planaria, another type of flatworm.

Also, while many meds might irritate, stun, annoy or other wise bother adults (to the point they fall off, or can be agitated or turkey bastered off) they rarely outright kill them and nothing to my knowledge kills their eggs (without also killing the host coral), which is the real problem, so repeated dips are necessary over time to kill newly hatched aefw before they have a chance to lay eggs (break their life cycle). There doesn't seem to be a medicine currently available which is sufficiently toxic to aefws and not coral.

Should you discover one, please let me know and together we will make a fortune.

 

[Whisperer]

It works! I had this elated feeling when I saw them falling off the millipora.
iamwrasserman, it's kinda hard to figure out the dosage because I have the liquid form. I am not sure how the "5% by weight " will convert to "% by volume." Anyone who can chime in? Maybe Mr. Randy Holmes-Farley can. Thanks, BTW.
Can someone tell me now many milligrams of praziquantel in what volume there is in PraziPro?

 

[iamwrasseman]

sorry but i have no clue and was just telling you what i was reading off the back of the label . you may have better luck on google search .try putting in praziquantel for aquarium use and see what comes up .

 

[iamwrasseman]

yup you will find info googling it and the second heading was where i found it . get on that and then repring the same prazi for aq use on the search and read away
good luck !

 

[Whisperer]

Are you tallking about the one with the heading : US KOI LLC? Based on that, 1 oz treats 120G of the praziPro which is <5% by weight praziquantel. Not sure is weight applies to the liquid Praziquantel. If that's so, then, I am thinking 5% of 30 ml (approx. 1 fl. oz) is 1.5 ml of praziquantel. This has left a lot of variables, I know. A 1.5 ml of 56.8 mg/ml will be 85.2 mg for the single dosing os a 120G system. I think is underdose and a fine starting point. Comments?

 

[LifeAquatic]

Aefw

Aefw

I took a pint plastic container, poured 1 ml of praziquantel and mixed it with a capful ( around 3 ml) of vodka and mixed them thoroughly then I filled it to over 3/4 full with tankwater and immersed the pink millipora. In less than half a minute, lots of flatworms drifted off the coral! It works!!!! The coral was then placed back in the tank and immediately, polyps came out like nothing happened.


Why did you mix Vodka in there? Just curious.

 

[Whisperer]

Glad you picked up on that. The liquid prazi is dense, somewhat greasy, and from my research, I read that the tablet is very slightly soluble in water so I assumed theliquid prazi was going to be immiscible. So I mixed it first with vodka. Just a while ago, while inspecting a coral base, I saw clusters of FW eggs. So, I mixed a dipping solution using 1 ml of prazi and 2 cups of tankwater but I did not use vodka this time and the liquid prazi was totally soluble. The vodka was unnecessary. I took some pic of it today. Got a large FW and several small ones after the dip. The coral looks fine a few minutes after placing back in the tank. Will post pic tomorrow.

 

[iamwrasseman]

yes im not going to try to calculate for someone else because a mistake kills someones elses corals . if it were me i would figure out as you did and come up close and give it a try . i just won't be figuring for other people unless i'm 100% sure and i am not .

 

[LifeAquatic]

Praziquantel for AEFW

Is this treatment killing the AEFW or stunning them and making them fall off the coral?

 

[Whisperer]

No question that they are killed both times I tried. They were writhing for a brief period.

 

[MechEng99]

My experience with AEFW over the years is that there are a few different species maybe or resistant strains of AEFW. CoralRx will kill some, but only stun others. Might be the same with Prazi - kills some but not all.

From everything I've read, Prazi in-tank treatments don't work (only used PraziPro, not sure the strength difference between what you have and PraziPro). Maybe at the right doseage it will, but haven't seen anything positive yet. Good luck - I'd love to see these buggers beat!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1486941

 

[Whisperer]

Here are the pics from last night.
The clue to infestation, this was removed with scalpel.

The dip, merely seconds after immersing the coral (Yup, proudly made in USA )

Coral removed after a couple of minutes, got the mother and litter