How I Dealt with Livebearer Disease 3x This Year

[Irene]

Recently, Aquarium Co-Op released a video and blog article on livebearer disease, so I figured I'd share my actual, real-world experiences with facing this disease in the past year. My natural tap water has 8.0 pH, 3 dGH, and 3dKH - which means I have fairly soft water and high pH.

1) Balloon Mollies

Unbeknownst to me, these Petco balloon mollies were born and raised in brackish water (a common practice among overseas fish farms where fresh drinking water isn't cheap). I put them in quarantine with the quarantine med trio, and they were very lively and ate well. One month into quarantine, I suddenly discovered a female molly was floating with her head downwards and her fins/tail were covered in a cotton-y, white fungus. I treated her with Level 2 concentration of salt (see this article on how to dose salt), which is 1 Tbsp salt per 2 gallons. The fungus went away and she started swimming and eating again. One week after starting salt treatment, the fungus started coming back again on her fins, so I increased to Level 3 concentration at 1 Tbsp salt per 1 gallon. (My Christmas moss was not happy with the salinity level, but it eventually recovered.)  After watching Cory's care video on fancy mollies, I realized that the mollies lacked the minerals normally found in brackish water, so I also added Seachem Equilibrium. She made a full recovery. Later I moved the adults to a hospital tank with aquarium salt and Seachem Equilibrium, and I raised their fry in full fresh water with no added salt or minerals. Five months later, the juveniles are still doing well.

Figure 1. Day 1 versus Day 11 of salt treatment for female balloon molly

2) Ender's Livebearers

I wanted to breed some endlers, but my local fish stores were only selling males. I brought them home, put them through the quarantine meds, and eventually put them in my main display tank. Then I noticed an endler was resting on a plant leaf and not playing with his fellow brothers. He passed away, and then a week or so later another tired endler started resting on a plant leaf and he also passed away. Thinking it might be worms, I dosed the whole tank with two treatments of API General Cure (separated by 2-3 weeks to deal with any remaining eggs). Unfortunately, it still didn't stop the deaths. Then I bought some levamisole (and the handy measuring spoon) from Greg Sage at selectaquatics.com to treat for roundworms. I dosed the whole tank twice again (separated by 2 weeks), and finally the endlers were happy and healthy.

Figure 2. Endler's livebearer with parasitic infection, showing signs of lethargy and pale coloration

3) Dwarf Platies

I purchased these platies from another local fish store and gave them the quarantine med trio, and within 3 days, one female died. Her body looked perfectly healthy, and she had been active and eating well just a few hours before her sudden death. I put the quarantine tank through two rounds of API General Cure and levamisole dewormers. Another female died just as I was finishing up the last treatment, and she had no symptoms either. I had originally added some Seachem Equilibrium after the first female died, but because of all the water changes I was doing while dosing the deworming medications, the mineral content was low again. After added 2 Tbsp of Equilibrium to the 10 gallon tub, the water turned slightly brownish-orange and I measured around 22 dGH. Whoops, that's way high! I guess the estimated dosing instructions on the back of the bottle aren't exactly accurate. Thankfully, I haven't lost another platy in several weeks now, so I believe these platies were also originally raised in brackish water and were dying from lack of minerals. The good news is that one of my females gave birth to nearly 30 fry. I promptly scooped up all the fry and transferred them to a grow-out tank with only fresh water. 

Figure 3. Happy birthday to the new platy babies I caught from the quarantine tank 🎉

[tuculover]

Irene,

How did you decide to dose the levamisole? I have an endler that is doing exactly what you described. He's been in the tank for two weeks now but only just showing signs in the last two days. All the others are doing well, including some new fry. But this guy likes to hang out on the bottom until the food comes out. Then he perks up for a bit, chases the girls and finally hangs on the gravel again. I added some more crushed coral thinking it could be a mineral issue but I have some levamisole I could try as well.

Thanks!

[Irene]

6 minutes ago, tuculover said:

Irene,

How did you decide to dose the levamisole? I have an endler that is doing exactly what you described. He's been in the tank for two weeks now but only just showing signs in the last two days. All the others are doing well, including some new fry. But this guy likes to hang out on the bottom until the food comes out. Then he perks up for a bit, chases the girls and finally hangs on the gravel again. I added some more crushed coral thinking it could be a mineral issue but I have some levamisole I could try as well.

Thanks!

I was actually researching livebearer disease and came upon Greg's website. The measuring spoon makes it so easy to dose, so definitely check out the information on his page for more info: http://www.selectaquatics.com/Levamisole.htm.

I also made a video about my experiences with dosing levamisole and the exact recipe I used: 

 

[Chandra]

@Irene Have you tried Expel-p instead?

[Irene]

18 hours ago, Chandra said:

@Irene Have you tried Expel-p instead?

Nope, I haven't. Cory says he hasn't finished testing yet, so he's not sure what the correct dosage is. However, Greg has been dosing his version of levamisole for many years, so I trusted his method. 🙂

[Chandra]

@irene Cool. I'm planning an order with Greg this week, will add an order.

In general what do you recommend to prevent tank having these diseases and Columnaris? 

[Irene]

 

5 minutes ago, Chandra said:

@irene Cool. I'm planning an order with Greg this week, will add an order.

In general what do you recommend to prevent tank having these diseases and Columnaris? 

Ah, watch Cory's latest video on livebearer disease! I believe there's a whole section at the end on prevention.

 

Edited July 15, 2020 by Irene
forgot to quote previous person

[MattyIce]

My Jack Dempseys have Camallanus, i estimate the one has had it for about 2 and a half weeks and the other for about 1 and a half weeks, noticed it about 2 weeks in. they are about 4.5 inches long, both are eating and pooping, but the worms are visible on them.

I first noticed the worms last Saturday, at that point, i dosed Prozipro and epson salt along with feeding them a mix of focus, metroplex,garlic guard, mysis shrimp, and blood worms 3 times a day. no change Monday, so i ordered Lavmisole (and the spoon) from select aquatics.

unfortunately the levamisole will not arrive until Friday. called around to several vet's, pet stores, and animal feed/supply stores and the levamisole was special order everywhere, so Friday seems to be the earliest i can get levamisole.

I can get fenbendazole tomorrow morning, would it be worth it to do a 60-70% water change, dose the Fenbendazole for a day and a half, do one or two 60-70% changes to get the fenbendazole out and does the lavamisole when it arrives?

[Irene]

On 7/15/2020 at 5:06 PM, MattyIce said:

I can get fenbendazole tomorrow morning, would it be worth it to do a 60-70% water change, dose the Fenbendazole for a day and a half, do one or two 60-70% changes to get the fenbendazole out and does the lavamisole when it arrives?

I've heard that fenbendazole kills camallanus worms as well, but unfortunately I've never used it so I'm not sure about the dosing instructions. I also don't know about mixing medications either, so I would probably just stick with one type. With both fenbendazole and levamisole, make sure to do a second treatment on the fish 2-3 weeks after the first treatment so that you'll get rid of any new worms that hatched from eggs. Best of luck to you and let us know how it goes! 👍

[MattyIce]

4 hours ago, Irene said:

I've heard that fenbendazole kills camallanus worms as well, but unfortunately I've never used it so I'm not sure about the dosing instructions. I also don't know about mixing medications either, so I would probably just stick with one type. With both fenbendazole and levamisole, make sure to do a second treatment on the fish 2-3 weeks after the first treatment so that you'll get rid of any new worms that hatched from eggs. Best of luck to you and let us know how it goes! 👍

Figured the Prozi and Metroplex weren't doing anything and i would be best off just waiting till i got the correct medication.  Did 20% changes with light gravel vac wed night, and thursday, redosing epson salts after.

Fed them bug bites instead of the medicated food, said rich in fiber, and dropped the tank temp from 78 to 75.

Today a little before the mail usually arrives i changed out 40% of water, and dosed the new water at 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons of epson salt and 1 table of fritz salt per 50 gallons.

An hour later the levamisole arrived, scooped out a cup of tank water, used the spoon to measure the correct amount out, dissolved it in and added it spread out over the tank.

the worms seemed to retreat, at first i had thought they immediately dropped off, but after about an hour they were back to how they normally looked, after about 2 hours they were out much further than normal.

The fish that had been sick the longest, i had not seen poop since yesterday evening.  About 40 mins ago he pooped, with the worms blocking, several small pieces of poo had gotten arranged sideways in his intestine and came out like that along with several worms.

They both still have some worms to pass but at this point i don't think i have to worry about either of them dying from not being able to pass them.

Now I just need to do the 25% change/redose tomorrow and treat them again in 2-3 weeks.

Thank you!!!

[Irene]

I'm so glad the levamisole seem to be working! It's so satisfying to see the worms drop off and vacuum them out of the tank.

[MattyIce]

3 hours ago, Irene said:

I'm so glad the levamisole seem to be working! It's so satisfying to see the worms drop off and vacuum them out of the tank.

I've been monitoring my fish for hours everyday, once my male passed what was impacting him, the results, this is borderline miracle how well it works.

My only regret is trying the prozi after seeing the red worms, should have immediately ordered from select aquatics that Saturday.instead of waiting until Monday.

I also feel that the epson salts really helped, I think if i hadn't dosed at the amount i did, prior to medicating, the one fish would have died passing that impaction, though the size of the fish was greatly in my favor.

Edited July 18, 2020 by MattyIce

[Alesha]

On 7/14/2020 at 4:18 PM, Irene said:

I was actually researching livebearer disease and came upon Greg's website. The measuring spoon makes it so easy to dose, so definitely check out the information on his page for more info: http://www.selectaquatics.com/Levamisole.htm.

I also made a video about my experiences with dosing levamisole and the exact recipe I used: 

 

This video rocked, Irene! Thanks so much for linking it here. Just purchased Levamisole and the measuring spoon!