Levamisole with nerite snails and shrimps

[neofy705]

Hello all,

I'm paying the price of my mistakes. I didn't quarantine some fish (guppies) and fast forward a couple of weeks one of them had a camallanus worm sticking out.

Now I have quite a few fancy nerite snails (red racers and pink lady) as well as some rarer shrimps (white amanos) and I'm worried about treating.

I did some research and it seems Levamisole (eSha Ndx) is the way to go but opinions seem to be divided on whether it's safe for nerites and giant ramshorns.

Does anyone have any experience with nerites and this medication? Or any advice on how to safely use it? I thought maybe I should dose half one day and the other half the day after.

Any help would be appreciated

Cheers,
Neo

 

[neofy705]

This thread was started due to lack of information online (or better say conflicting information) on how nerites tolerate levamisole. Hence I decided to use this post to share my experience with this medication in my tank in hope it helps someone.

The aquarium:
Capacity: 250L
Inhabitants: Honey Gouramis, Rummynose tetras, hillstream loaches, borneo loaches, Ruby tetras, male guppies, albino cories, otos, amano shrimps (including Snow/white Amanos), cherry shrimps, red racer nerites.

Ph: roughly 6.5-7.5 ( fluctuation due to CO2)
Kh:3
Gh:7
Tds:290

Prior to treatment:
Oxidisers turned off. Lights off. Purigen removed.
Air pump added to increase aeration. 25% water change. Half the nerites transferred to different tank. (Basically all nerites that were accessible at the time. 7 Clithon sowerianum and 1 red racer nerite). The reasons for removing some nerites was to ensure that should the snails be affected I still have some left but also to avoid having loads of ammonia bombs in my tank if they die.

The reason I'm medicating:

I had to make sure that it's camallanus before treating. So I caught the fish with a net and removed the worm using tweezers. It is not recommended to do this as it can lead to infections.

On close inspection using the macro camera of my phone I confirmed it is camallanus.

I could see the larvae moving at the tip of its tail (tiny transparent worms). The worm itself was barely moving.

Monday @8pm
I dosed 10ml of eSha ndx.
The livestock seem completely unaffected. I fed frozen brineshrimp to help "push" any worms out.

Tuesday @2pm
All livestock seem completely unaffected. Blue guppy has white stringy poo. All fish and shrimp look happy. Nerites are out of sight so I cannot check but they definitely moved since last night and I don't see any dead ones on the bottom.

Update
Tuesday @8pm
All livestock seem fine. I have spotted 2 of the 4 nerites grazing which is positive.
50% wc performed while vacuuming the substrate. Activated carbon and purigen added to filter. I can confirm that it's shrimplet safe. Loads of live baby shrimps!

Wednesday @10am
Everything is back to normal.

I cannot comment on the efficacy of the medication yet. I will repeat the treatment in 2 weeks.

Update
I have repeated the treatment after 3 weeks. No ill effect on the snails, shrimps and rest of the livestock. No signs of camallanus either.

 

[rockpaper]

Please keep us updated! De-wormers are nerites are such a chore. Thank you for reporting in!

 

[neofy705]

I have completed the treatment with eSha Ndx (levamisole). I have followed the instructions carefully. It seems to have eradicated the worms without affecting nerites/shrimp(lets) and other sensitive species (hillstream loaches etc).

Original post updated.