Fenbendazole Deworming Flakes to kill blue clove polyps

[bobnicaragua]

I’ve been feeding Angels Plus deworming flakes with fenbendazole every day for 9 days now. There has been no impact on the blue clove polyps. The last couple days, I’ve been feeding multiple times a day.

I pulled my carbon and GFO, but the skimmer is still running. I also have a good sized refugium.

I decided to try this after reading how @jda had success with this method. It worked for him after 5 days. Do I need to pull the cup and just let my skimmer overflow? I’m feeding a lot of flakes.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Sorry, I i don't know anything about how the pesticide gets from the flakes to the coral, or how fast or to what extent, or how much is needed.

 

[Maritimer]

Chris Meckley mentioned these on the final episode of "Rappin' with ReefBum", stating they were good for acro-eating flatworms and vermetid snails. I haven't got any of the blue cloves or acro-eating flatworms - that I know of - but vermetids? I've got _plenty_ of those! As soon as I could locate Angels + website, I looked into purchasing a bag - but they were out-of-stock. When they replenished a week or two later, I purchased a bag of the Fenbendazole flakes and one of the Praziquantel flakes.

Meckley said that he used the flakes as part of a concoction / blended food? that he makes for his corals; I don't know the details of how he makes that. What I can say is that crumbling the flakes into the return chamber, while it makes a fine particulate that drifts through the water column, and I _have_ seen the snails capture and reel in those particles ... seems to have little to no effect on the snails. Additionally, my fish show no hesitation about snapping up any larger particles, so I'd have to guess that any bitter taste from the medication is minimal at best.

I can't say whether the formulation of the flakes has changed, or I'm just doing it wrong, but for me - no joy.

I am aware that Fenbendazole is reputed to be deadly to soft corals.

~B.

 

[slingfox]

@Maritimer How has your experience been with the Angels Plus dewormer food?

Note that for vermitids, I used to have thousands in my display tank. I got rid of them by doing a combination of 1) significantly reduced the pellets I fed (I only feed an amount where the fish eat every single pellet), 2) switched to pure frozen mysis or shrimp (I used to use frozen with a bunch of stuff mixed in) and only feed after thoroughly rinsing, 3) daily applications of coral snow, 4) two waves of bumblebee snails (added 40+ in total). After about a month the vermitids were eradicated from my display and you can’t find them anywhere in my display tank anymore.

 

[mfollen]

I had a small patch of brown cloves that somehow found it’s way in.

I’ve been dosing the flakes for maybe a month and a half, and they finally started to die off the last week or so.

I’d just keep at it, eventually they should start to wither. I think it takes some time to build up in potency. I heard some brown cloves are more resilient than the blue cloves.

 

[Maritimer]

@Maritimer How has your experience been with the Angels Plus dewormer food?

Note that for vermitids, I used to have thousands in my display tank. I got rid of them by doing a combination of 1) significantly reduced the pellets I fed (I only feed an amount where the fish eat every single pellet), 2) switched to pure frozen mysis or shrimp (I used to use frozen with a bunch of stuff mixed in) and only feed after thoroughly rinsing, 3) daily applications of coral snow, 4) two waves of bumblebee snails (added 40+ in total). After about a month the vermitids were eradicated from my display and you can’t find them anywhere in my display tank anymore.

I've got - well, added - 30 or so bumblebees to the tank. I do feed both frozen and pellets; I can't say with certainty that the fish get all of them, but I worry about the gobies sometimes. All of my other fish are pretty chubby, but my shrimpgobies maintain a slimmer look, and it might be because less food gets to the bottom of the tank. I feed a lot over the day, but a little bit at a time.

I've been feeding the Angels + flakes twice a day, crumbling it into tiny bits in the return chamber of the sump. Enough to make a "snowstorm" in the tank. Fish take a lot of it, but I've seen vermetids reel some of the flakes in.

Duncan coral isn't happy; I've read that they don't react well to the stuff.

~B.

 

[slingfox]

I've got - well, added - 30 or so bumblebees to the tank. I do feed both frozen and pellets; I can't say with certainty that the fish get all of them, but I worry about the gobies sometimes. All of my other fish are pretty chubby, but my shrimpgobies maintain a slimmer look, and it might be because less food gets to the bottom of the tank. I feed a lot over the day, but a little bit at a time.

I've been feeding the Angels + flakes twice a day, crumbling it into tiny bits in the return chamber of the sump. Enough to make a "snowstorm" in the tank. Fish take a lot of it, but I've seen vermetids reel some of the flakes in.

Duncan coral isn't happy; I've read that they don't react well to the stuff.

~B.

Hopefully the Angel’s Plus helps get rid of the vermitids. Would be nice to have more tools to combat that pest!

 

[reefadict007]

I also hope that these flakes will work miracles on the vermetid snails. Thank you all for your contributions so far. I am looking forward to solving this problem, so please share any tips and tricks you might have.

Thanks!

 

[bobnicaragua]

I used the flakes for almost 2 weeks and just gave up and dosed fenbendazole. My clove polyps are gone, but I still have vermatids.