Flubendazole in food

[Fisutar10]

I had Capillaria worms in my Ancistrus when it dead. I have wormed all my 10 tanks with Camacell treatment. It must put to water and its duration of action is 5 days. (1 pill =12,5 mg diflubentsuroni, 341 mg pyrantelitartraatti, 17,6 mg flubendatsoli).

http://www.orionvet.fi/flubenol
I try to find wormer which I can use in fish food. I live in Finland and we can use Flubenol vet (44 mg/ml Flubendazol). It is oral pasta for dogs and cats. 22 mg Flubendazole, effect composition /kg (animal weight). It is same as 0,5 ml Flubenol pasta (=22 mg Flubendazole) for 1 kg animal. 3 days cure for dog and cats.

Have anybody experiences Flubendazole in fish food? Dosage is the big problem. I have different species and sizes fish in my tank.

I have find different instructions, which are conflicting.
http://www.versaquatics.com/treatmentandmethodology.htm
C6 ==> B (Flubendazole in food).
"Add 100 mg flubenol 5% to 100 g feed mix B5."
Must it interpret that Flubendazole (effect composition) must be 100 mg to 100 mg food or hole treatment (Flubenol 5% must put 100 mg to 100 g food)? I think that it must be effect composition (Flubendazole 100 mg to 100 g food)?


http://www.simplydiscus.com/library/dis ... tion.shtml
"Medicated Food - 200mg per 100gr of beefheart" (200 mg flubendazole (effect component) to 100 g food)

http://www.rainbowfish.info/forum/viewt ... =15&t=1783
"Flubendazole 5% mixed with fish food at 100 mg/100 gm of food. Feed every second day for 5 days. On those days feed only once with the regular diet. Treatment should be repeated after 21 days."

Many people refer Dieter Untergasser: Fish Diseases, but I have not seen this book unfortunately.

Have anybody opinions and experiences Flubendazole in fish food? How much and how long you have this treatment?

[Barbie]

Dosing in food has long been a source for discussion. Using gelling foods sound perfect, but the heat from activating the gelatin can destroy the meds. Soaking food in it will become losing concentration upon introduction to the water. The only truly "accurate" method is catching the fish, weighing them, and then either administering paste (that you then watch them flush out their gills if you didn't get it far enough down them) or injecting them with specific dosages. Neither of which is going to be terribly safe, IME.

In the past, I have euthanized full tanks of fish to rid myself of camallanus. When I look at it that way, it makes it easier to attempt a pretty good dose in the food. The main problem is that wormer tastes awful and most fish won't touch food that has it in it. You might be able to camouflage the taste by feeding food soaked in garlic for a week or something. I am sorry, I don't really have a concrete answer. Maybe I need to mix up a batch of repashy and see at what exact temperature the gel starts to set up and then research how warm you can safely get flubendazole ;).

Barbie

[PseudaSmart]

I agree with Barbie that you have brought up an interesting topic.

Besides all of the trouble already mentioned one must also remember the entire life cycle of worms and other parasites. There are several stages outside a host and can re-infect the fish later. It would seem that medicated food would have to be fed for an extended period of time to break the cycle. Again proper dosing each fish would not be easy.

The next approach would be to treat the entire tank. Again there are problems because Flubendazole is sold as a powder and ‘is almost insoluble in water and most common organic solvents.’ As stated on many Blogs it is difficult to mix, ratios are hard to calculate, and dosage amounts frequently conflict. In the US it is not easily available.

Fenbendazole is easier to find in the US. It is a very similar to Flubendazole but IS NOT the same. It also is typically sold as a powder and is difficult to mix in this form. A Google search also provides a lot of conflicting information for usage of both in aquaria.

So now that all of the disclaimers are out of the way, here is a simple process that I have used to eliminate parasites and worms from my tanks.

First one of my big secrets. I do not use the powder form of Fenbendazole! I buy liquid goat dewormer from my local feed store. It is a 10% concentration in liquid suspension form. It is 100mg / 1 ml. This makes dosing math very easy especially when you use a 10 ml syringe. Make sure to shake the bottle before using.

My standard process
1. Clean tank and gravel then top of tank with fresh water.
2. Remove carbon and turn off UV.
3. I use 0.1 ml per 10 gallons of water (1 mg / 1 gal). Drip along edge of tank not in one place.
4. Clean tank and gravel after 2 days.
5. If problems remain repeat with 0.2ml per 10 gallons of water (2mg / 1 gal)
Hydra is also killed at the levels used above. Through experimentation I have found that trumpet snails in all stages are killed using 1.0 ml / 10 gallons of water. I did keep some fish in the tanks and they survived with no ill effects but I would remove any fish you do not want to risk.

I have used this with my Pseudacanthicus fry on occasion without issue.

I know this is not the specific answer you requested but a solid plan B.
Regards,
Jim

[Fisutar10]

Dosing in food has long been a source for discussion. Using gelling foods sound perfect, but the heat from activating the gelatin can destroy the meds. Soaking food in it will become losing concentration upon introduction to the water. The only truly "accurate" method is catching the fish, weighing them, and then either administering paste (that you then watch them flush out their gills if you didn't get it far enough down them) or injecting them with specific dosages. Neither of which is going to be terribly safe, IME.

In the past, I have euthanized full tanks of fish to rid myself of camallanus. When I look at it that way, it makes it easier to attempt a pretty good dose in the food. The main problem is that wormer tastes awful and most fish won't touch food that has it in it. You might be able to camouflage the taste by feeding food soaked in garlic for a week or something. I am sorry, I don't really have a concrete answer. Maybe I need to mix up a batch of repashy and see at what exact temperature the gel starts to set up and then research how warm you can safely get flubendazole ;).

Barbie

Thank You for answer. I think also that the point is the animals weight and I must know it. Temperature of water also have influence on metabolism of fish. I put Flubenol pasta to granules which absorb well pasta (quite toothpaste). All fish ate very well it. I gave it 3 days and second time after week 3 days. All fish feel well (also small plecos) but...I had two hoplos in this tank and male which is big gourmant became apathic. I put baktopur direct treatment separate tank ant it took 2-3 days when it began eat. I think that it have eaten too much medicine food. Now hoplos are well. The same hoplos became ill when I put Camacell treatment. Now I do not treat them Camacell and maybe not Flubenol.All other fish Camacell treatment went well, but hoplos. I have also many loaches and Camacell treatment went okay.

Granules absorb quite good Flubenol but when I put it to water I saw that part of it loosen to water. There is also gel food to fish (for example Tetra's schrimp gel).

Camallus worm I have not seen in my tank. Namatol of Sera is powerful treatment for Camallus also but I have many plecos and loaches and Sera says that it can be harmfull to them (scaleless). Therefore I used for Capillaria Camacell and hoped that Flubenol pasta would work. Worming must do many times because it not kill eggs and larvae usually.

[Fisutar10]

I agree with Barbie that you have brought up an interesting topic.

Besides all of the trouble already mentioned one must also remember the entire life cycle of worms and other parasites. There are several stages outside a host and can re-infect the fish later. It would seem that medicated food would have to be fed for an extended period of time to break the cycle. Again proper dosing each fish would not be easy.

The next approach would be to treat the entire tank. Again there are problems because Flubendazole is sold as a powder and ‘is almost insoluble in water and most common organic solvents.’ As stated on many Blogs it is difficult to mix, ratios are hard to calculate, and dosage amounts frequently conflict. In the US it is not easily available.

Fenbendazole is easier to find in the US. It is a very similar to Flubendazole but IS NOT the same. It also is typically sold as a powder and is difficult to mix in this form. A Google search also provides a lot of conflicting information for usage of both in aquaria.

Thank You answer! I agree and therefore I want to find way to put medicine to food. I don't want dissolve Flubendazole to asetonic because I am not sure that it is healty to fish. But in the other hand, in many medicine is quite "poison" for example formaldehyde.

We can not buy Fenbendazole here in Finland unfortynately:(.

Side-effect of worming is also that invertebrates dies (snails, shrips).

[TwoTankAmin]

I am going to disagree with much of what has been posted on this thread and do so based on personal experience. Firstly, you can easily find flubendazole in the US from Dr Charles Harrison. I will link you below.

Secondly, while dissolving the powder in water is not easy, it is also not impossible. There are two ways (both of which are listed on Dr. Harrison's site. The one I use is to put several drops of plain vodka (not scented etc.) into the powder in a measuring cup to make it a paste. Then you dilute this with tank water to make less than one cup and put this into the tank. It clouds the water for a while as it further dissolves, but it works. The second method is to heat some tank water well, but short of boiling, and then add the Flub. to that. I have used both methods and much prefer the vodka. (I recently used a need for dosing flub. as an excuse to grab a bottle of Stolichnaya Gold. )

Thirdly,flubendazole is readily absorbed by fish through their skin, you do not need to feed it.

Now here are two excellent articles on the use of this med:
http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/FlubendazoleTreatment.pdf
http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/FlubendazoleArticle.pdf

Both of the above are on the site where you can buy Flubendazole as well as another useful med for similar purposes, Levamisole HCL:

Site: http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/
Iterms for sale: http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/ItemsForSale.html