Angelfish not eating after treating with Metronidazole

[rtaquariums]

Hi everyone

Before I start, I currently reside in India, where meds like Prazipro and Paracleanse aren't available in the local market, and can only be imported into the country at exorbitant costs. Hence, my decision to proceed with the steps outlined below.

I have a group of 5 juvenile angelfish which came from the store with internal parasites cause they all were passing white, stringy faeces, in a 40 gallon tank. I put them through a 10 day course of treatment with food soaked in 400mg metronidazole once a day with 40-50% water changes after 8 hrs and they did eat the food but 2 out of the 5 didn't get better.

The following week I noticed the 2 outliers not doing too good and just hanging at the top of the water, not showing any interest in food or anything, and they did have white, stringy faeces again. The other 3 were eating fine and doing great. Since they shared the same tank, I decided to treat them again with metro soaked food in the hopes that it would help the ones that were eating as well.

This time, I used 800mg of metro instead of 400mg like last time. Around 6 days into the treatment, I noticed that all 5 of them stopped eating any of the food, and so I stopped the treatment with the 7th day. It's been over 2 weeks since then, but none of them has eaten any food since then (as per what I've noticed).

Also, I have a couple of Ramirezi, some juvenile Red Head Tapajos I'm growing out and a large male Bristlenose pleco in the same tank who all went through both treatments and are doing more than great, pigging out during feeding time.

All 5 Angelfish are currently very active, have great finnage and are swimming throughout the aquarium, squabbling with each other and even coming up to the top of the water when I approach to feed them. But they show zero interest in the food, sometimes mouthing a piece and spitting it out immediately and then swimming away. I can see that their stomachs have sunken in as well.

Looking for any help and advice to get them to start eating again. And on the subsequent treatment required. I'm currently on day 3 of trying to get them to eat food soaked in Garlic Guard but no luck yet.

Water Parameters:

86 degrees

30 nitrate

0 nitrite

0 ammonia

7.5 ph

[Colu]

Can you get holed of flubendazole or levamisole  

Edited July 1, 2021 by Colu
Miss spelling

[rtaquariums]

Not sure about Flubendazole, but I may be able to get Levamisole Hydrochloride tablets which are sold for human consumption.

Another question which is have is between Praziquantel and Levamisole, which one is more preferred/effective in treating for internal parasites? And what would be the recommended dosage and treatment regime for them?

[Colu]

Levamisole is a more effective med for treating some forms of internal parasites I am not sure about the dosage for levamisole table's where I am i get it  in a liquid form and dosage on the bottle is 54mg  its 1drop per liter for 24 than do a 50%water and retreat in 2weeks praziquantel powder dosage is 2.5mg per litre or 9.5mg per gallon

Edited July 1, 2021 by Colu

[rtaquariums]

Okay great, then I'll get the Levamisole and do a round of treatment to see if there's any improvement.

I happened to find this video by The Fish Doctor on YouTube, where he says to dose 2mg of Levamisole HCl per liter of water as the recommended dose. Is that a good guideline to go by?

Thanks for all your help again✌️

[Colu]

On 7/2/2021 at 8:28 AM, rtaquariums said:

Okay great, then I'll get the Levamisole and do a round of treatment to see if there's any improvement.

I happened to find this video by The Fish Doctor on YouTube, where he says to dose 2mg of Levamisole HCl per liter of water as the recommended dose. Is that a good guideline to go by?

Thanks for all your help again✌️

I would follow dosage used by fish doctor

[Odd Duck]

On 7/2/2021 at 2:28 AM, rtaquariums said:

Okay great, then I'll get the Levamisole and do a round of treatment to see if there's any improvement.

I happened to find this video by The Fish Doctor on YouTube, where he says to dose 2mg of Levamisole HCl per liter of water as the recommended dose. Is that a good guideline to go by?

Thanks for all your help again✌️

Yes, on the levamisole dose at 2 mg per liter of water.  And levamisole is my first go to, but praziquantal is a perfectly adequate dewormer.  They just treat different types of intestinal parasites.

[rtaquariums]

Thank you @Colu % @Odd Duck! I just got the Levamisole HCl tablets delivered today, and will be setting up the quarantine tank for the angels.

The angelfish still haven't eaten a bit of food till now but are just as active as before and not looking sick. Hopefully the treatment cleans them up and gets them eating again.