Treating Internal Parasites with Medicated Live Blackworms

[TheEngineer]

One reason i always shied away from feeding meds. You never know what amount the fish have actually ingested. I always stick to medicating the water in suggested doses.

It's really not my area of expertise in the slightest. It seems like a logical argument that getting higher concentrations of the medicine to the source will have a better effect. But are infrequent higher doses better than sustained lower ones? I have not a clue. Based on the evidence here, it would seem to suggest that feeding combined with Prazipro was insufficient at saving this fish, but that doesn't mean treating the water would have saved it. Sigh...

 

[Humblefish]

It's really not my area of expertise in the slightest. It seems like a logical argument that getting higher concentrations of the medicine to the source will have a better effect. But are infrequent higher doses better than sustained lower ones? I have not a clue. Based on the evidence here, it would seem to suggest that feeding combined with Prazipro was insufficient at saving this fish, but that doesn't mean treating the water would have saved it. Sigh...

For treating internal parasites, it is optimal to deliver the med(s) right into the intestines where the worms live. This is best accomplished via food soaking.

If the fish is not eating or not eating enough of the medicated food, then dosing the water column becomes your next best option. Saltwater fish do drink the water they're in and there are other ways for their bodies to absorb medication.

 

[Daniel acuna]

Day 3:
The worms are dead. To be honest, I'm not surprised. That at least tells me that you can't medicate a batch of them and use them for the full 10 days of treatment. It still doesn't answer my original question though of whether or not you can treat the worms and then feed them to the fish within 48 hours.

My friend i have try the same on my discus it does work how ever if the fish is too sick and not eating you need a water treatment in a small hospital tank about 10 gallons. Now you have the idea but you need to know metroplex is 70% metronidazole and metronidazole lose his power 8h after getting wet it means you shouldn’t treat you back worms for days bc after 8h the medicine is gone all you need to do is treat them fro about 30 min to 1h before you feed your fish just ad 1 metroplex and one focus with the little spoon they come to one hose spoon of black worms if you have alot of fish sick or half spoon to half house spoon let it rest for 30 min to 1h and feed them all and do the seme for 7 to 10 days remember just treat what you are gonna feed keep the rest on clean water for the incoming days i hope it help you fix your problems good luck…

 

[EllRin]

I have 5 Vanderbilt chromis in quarantine and after successfully treating them for velvet they were kind enough to also have an internal parasite. Two of the fish have the tell-tale white-stringy poop of internal parasites. I took a quick video in case anyone is wondering what that looks like.



The advice from the ever helpful @melypr1985 was to continue Prazipro and start feeding the fish food mixed with Metroplex and Focus. The Focus is supposed to help bind the Metroplex to the food. These chromis eat just about anything I put in, but they are huge fans of live blackworms. I wondered if I could somehow infuse the blackworms with the medication and the question still remains. So I'm chronicling a little experiment to see if it is an option or not.

More pictures and progress notes to follow.

I know this thread is old but I hope this helps anyone looking for answers: Metro plex does not absorb well into any tissue by just putting it into the water— to get the anti parasitic benefits of metroplex to work the animal—in this case the worms—they have to actively ingest the metroplex. Try crushing up an algae or shrimp tablet or both and combining it with a dose of metroplex and seacham focus to bind the medication to the food— throw it in the freezer and then feed it to the black worms. It’s something I’m about to try myself to see if it works. I know black worms are notorious for carrying parasites no matter where you get them. A 0.6% salt bath will help get rid of a lot of ectoparasites but not the endo protozoans like heximita and spironucleous. Seeing as how I’ll probably lose this thread and never find it again since I’m using my phone here, I probably won’t be able to post my results. I suggest feeding the medicated food to a small control batch of black worms and just making sure the water is clean/doesn’t get too cloudy from the food. I truly admire the OP for their efforts, which is what gave me this idea! Thanks for sharing your experiment!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I know this thread is old but I hope this helps anyone looking for answers: Metro plex does not absorb well into any tissue by just putting it into the water— to get the anti parasitic benefits of metroplex to work the animal—in this case the worms—they have to actively ingest the metroplex. Try crushing up an algae or shrimp tablet or both and combining it with a dose of metroplex and seacham focus to bind the medication to the food— throw it in the freezer and then feed it to the black worms. It’s something I’m about to try myself to see if it works. I know black worms are notorious for carrying parasites no matter where you get them. A 0.6% salt bath will help get rid of a lot of ectoparasites but not the endo protozoans like heximita and spironucleous. Seeing as how I’ll probably lose this thread and never find it again since I’m using my phone here, I probably won’t be able to post my results. I suggest feeding the medicated food to a small control batch of black worms and just making sure the water is clean/doesn’t get too cloudy from the food. I truly admire the OP for their efforts, which is what gave me this idea! Thanks for sharing your experiment!

Sorry - I'm just seeing this now (old posts don't get flagged for me to look at).

Medicated foods are best blended in with a binder. I use unflavored gelatin, but other people use agar. Focus is a common binder for home aquarists. "Gut Loading" is what the OP was discussing, it's been used with live brine shrimp and blackworms in the past. The trouble is, just like with soaking food in medication, you have NO idea as to the dose.

Here is my post on how to do medicated food properly:

Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods

This article offers information about developing medicated foods for aquarium fish

www.reef2reef.com

Jay