Thanks for sharing this! Very helpful! I just dosed about 2 hours ago.My experience using fish bendazole to eliminate blue clove polyps (sympodium):
I visited this thread almost four years ago to help with a GSP takeover. Ultimately, I decided to take the safe route and remove the rock altogether. Now I'm back with a more full reef tank and the possibility of removing the rock from the tank just wasn't feasible. Only this time it was blue sympodium that snuck in undetected on a frag of zoas and quickly took over.
Before dosing the tank I removed my two starfish. I did not remove any other animal. I have a fairly diverse livestock of fish and inverts. No seriously fragile fish but as far as inverts go I have urchins, conchs, RBTAs, RFAs, a few crabs, and what remaining snails I have left that my wrasses haven't killed off. Fortunately, at least in the short term there was no deaths. I also have a diverse collection of coral. Many sps, lps, mushrooms, and zoas. However, no other softies that would be affected by the bendazole. I have not lost a single coral - at least not from the bendazole directly.
My tank is a Red Sea Reefer 525XL with a display volume of 108 gallons and a sump of 31 gallons. I've always estimated my total water volume to be around 100 - 110 gallons after displacement from rock and sand. With this in mind I used a whole 250mg package of fish bendazole each time I dosed. I purchased this a long time ago before I decided to go a different method. One thing to note is the medicine was expired but it didn't seem to affect it's potency.
This was the schedule:
Before treatment: Turn off skimmer, discontinue carbon reactor, turn off UV sterilizer. I kept GFO running.
1st treatment: The day of the first treatment I mixed a 250mg package of bendazole in RO water and dosed the full amount to the tank.
2nd treatment: One week later I performed a water change like normal and afterwards dosed another 250mg packet to the tank. I read another post where they waited two weeks before dosing again but I wanted to hit them again while they were weakened.
3rd treatment: Another week later I performed a large water change and afterwards dosed my final 250mg packet to the tank. Without my UV sterilizer and skimmer online my nutrients are starting to take off. I know growth is slowing because my ALK uptake has slowed. My alkalinity is measuring high as well as nitrates and phosphates. I also see what looks like cyano starting to take hold from my filtration being offline.
I'm going to let it run it's course until my next scheduled water change this weekend. After which I'll bring the skimmer, UV, and carbon back online. I would say it's been a great success. If the sympodium happens to come back I wouldn't hesitate to use this treatment again - if the medicine can be found again.
There's a few pictures that tell the story. The picture before the treatment shows how much the cloves take over and smother everything around them. It killed off a bunch of zoas and started to grow on parts of my acros. The after photos show them all gone. Now the process starts to get all my parameters back in order.
Eliminating Blue Clove Polyps with Fenbendazole
- Thread starter Peanut
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nkyreef
Well-Known Member
If you can manage taking your skimmer, UV, and any other filtration offline - I would. We know that carbon will remove medicines from water. As far as the other means of filtration go I wasn't sure if it would affect the potency of the bendazole so I didn't risk it. Especially since it's so hard to locate these days.
One thing I did overlook was how much my nutrients increased. Which at first wasn't a big deal. Until my nutrients got so high that it slowed growth. I never adjusted my alk/calc dosing so those readings continued to climb. I know from past experience that my tank does not do well above 9.0 dkH. I had a little die off and it'll take some time for those corals to recover.
Once the last dose of bendazole was complete I followed it up with two 20% water changes. After the first water change I dosed Chemiclean to take care of some cyano that started to take hold. Two days later I did the second water change and started running carbon again. Everything is on the mend now.
Good luck - I hope you have success!
I put the half the packet of Fenbendazole at 5pm Monday then added the rest Tuesday morning. No skimmer absolutely no biological filtration whatsoever. Last night my phosphate and nitrate we’re starting to rise so I’m doing a water change now and it seems to have worked! I see no BCP whatsoever. And when I got home last night I had a sand sifting starfish that was turned upside down, looked like he was dying so I moved him into the quarantine tank that I set up for my leathers. He’s doing fine now, I didn’t lose any snails, I didn’t have very many to begin with thanks to my wrasse. Anyway if you’re having that problem this stuff works! You can get it at your local vet, a friend of mine sent me the packet that I had, I think it was 2 g I don’t know for sure is a pretty small amount. I’ve got 125 gallon tank with a 40 gallon sump. You can get it at your local vet, I’m going to get three more packets this morning before I go to work. $15 for three packets are roughly 5 bucks a packet I’m assuming any vet has it because it’s hard to find on the Internet. Hope this helps somebody!
Does anyone run polyfilter (before or after) and have any advice on removal or not? I'm still in planning phases prior to dosing and wanted to know if it impacts the efficacy if left in. Thanks!
menglish
Active Member
I have not run polyfilter, but given what it does, I would suggest removing it during the treatment and return it once the treatment time is up. I am thinking of it just like i do carbon
menglish
Active Member
@Reefman71
Did i get that you only used it for two days then did a water change?
If so, i do not feel good about that. They will start closing up after 24-48 hrs, but can still come back if you remove the drug too soon.
Also, i am not sure what concentration you treated with
Did i get that you only used it for two days then did a water change?
If so, i do not feel good about that. They will start closing up after 24-48 hrs, but can still come back if you remove the drug too soon.
Also, i am not sure what concentration you treated with
Thanks!
I just started my treatment today, crossing my fingers all goes well!
below is a hazy pic but hoping to get rid of the BCP and brown star polyps in a few weeks.
I’ve had a few pop back up….Thanks!
I just started my treatment today, crossing my fingers all goes well!
below is a hazy pic but hoping to get rid of the BCP and brown star polyps in a few weeks.
What was your dosing routine @Reefman71?
I'm still in middle of 1st cycle treatment... my plan is the following (dosing this spaced in 2 week increments)
10/31: cycle #1 - dose 125mg for 50 gal (2.5 mg/gal) - about 2.5 mg/gal cumulative in system
11/14: cycle #2 - dose 125mg for 50 gal (2.5 mg/gal) - about 5.0 mg/gal cumulative in system
11/28: cycle #3 - dose 125mg for 50 gal (2.5 mg/gal) - about 7.5 mg/gal cumulative in system
I might do water changes in between, so will end up with less than 7.5 mg/gal total in the system. December will be my carbon month... assuming all goes to plan.
So far, my observations about 4 days into 1st treatment cycle are that the BCP are indeed ticked off but not dead, they're closed up, and I can actually see my live rock again! Removed all snails, so they won't be affected during the treatment. Other inverts in tank like hermits, cleaner shrimp, micro brittle stars and pods seem to be OK so far. There were some spaghetti worms that I don't see anymore, and digitate hydroids seem to be slowly withering too. I'll try to get a pic sometime this weekend for an update.
I'm still in middle of 1st cycle treatment... my plan is the following (dosing this spaced in 2 week increments)
10/31: cycle #1 - dose 125mg for 50 gal (2.5 mg/gal) - about 2.5 mg/gal cumulative in system
11/14: cycle #2 - dose 125mg for 50 gal (2.5 mg/gal) - about 5.0 mg/gal cumulative in system
11/28: cycle #3 - dose 125mg for 50 gal (2.5 mg/gal) - about 7.5 mg/gal cumulative in system
I might do water changes in between, so will end up with less than 7.5 mg/gal total in the system. December will be my carbon month... assuming all goes to plan.
So far, my observations about 4 days into 1st treatment cycle are that the BCP are indeed ticked off but not dead, they're closed up, and I can actually see my live rock again! Removed all snails, so they won't be affected during the treatment. Other inverts in tank like hermits, cleaner shrimp, micro brittle stars and pods seem to be OK so far. There were some spaghetti worms that I don't see anymore, and digitate hydroids seem to be slowly withering too. I'll try to get a pic sometime this weekend for an update.
The first time I used half a packet, the second time I used the full packet and waited four days before turning my skimmer on or adding carbon. Day 3 was when I really saw results. The BSP where definitely ticked and disappearing. I lost a starfish that I forgot even had in there, another one survived? Looking back I should’ve waited five or six days? I’m hoping the small patch that I removed yesterday as an isolated incident and I don’t have to do this all over again. My advice would be to wait five days before introducing carbon or anything else I just let it do it’s thing. None of my corals really seem to be affected.
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