Flubendazol (sp?) - OK with eggs/fry?

[Martin S]

After manually removing most of the lice from my auchenipterids, I have acquired sufficient Flubendazol (powder) to treat the tank to make sure I haven't missed any. Only problem is I have some Tatia sp(2) fry (about 3-4 weeks old) and another batch of newly hatched eggs.
I believe both Larry (Apistomaster) and Barbie have both mentioned using this stuff, so hope one of them (or anyone else) will have an idea if it's safe, or will it kill the eggs, the fry, or both?
Thanks
Martin

[Mike_Noren]

To the best of my knowledge - someone correct me if I'm wrong - Flubendazole has no effect against fish lice (Argulus).

[MatsP]

Mike,

I did a quick search for Flubendazole, and found this page saying that a Flubendazole-based medication helps against Fish Lice. http://www.rainbowkoi.co.uk/products.asp?ptype_id=5

That is of course not saying that:
1) The above website is right.
2) That there aren't OTHER ingredients in that particular medication that is actually the one to be effective against fish lice.

--
Mats

[apistomaster]

Martin,
I have never been blessed by a spawning of T. perugiae let alone ever needing to treat them with flubendazole.
However, I have used it to kill Hydra growing in tanks of Black Phantom Tetras and Asian Rummy Nose Minnows, Sawbwa resplendens and this medication did not harm their fry.
I happened to use the 5% powdered flubendazole at at dosage rate of 1/2 teaspoon/10 US gallons.
It has a remarkably good safety profile. I now buy it as a 10% powder.

For fish lice and the parasitic crustacean, Lernea spp, Anchor "worms", I believe most of the drugs or chemicals that work are much more toxic. The medications tend to fall into 2 categories:
1. Copper based
2. Insecticides based organophosphates
None of these are allowed by the USDA for use on aquacultured food fish in the US.
There may be some other treatments that I am not aware of. In Baensch Vol 1 he mentions using Masoten and Lindane for Lernea.
For fish lice, he describes a treatment of dilute Lysol/Sodium permanganate?(Potassium permanganate?) dip followed by another bath in Neguvon or several days of treatment with DDT and Lindane. All pretty drastic sounding to me.
I believe the restrictions on the possession, sale and use of chemicals and vet medications are much stricter in the UK than in most states in the USA so I do not know what your options are.
Have you already positively identified the parasites microscopically? If you are fortunate enough to be actually dealing with flukes then flubenenol or flubendazole would be best. I would be very concerned that other medications could be fatal to your catfish fry.
I have only encountered Lernea a few times over 4 decades. When I had a fish shop, the anchor worms were fairly common among our goldfish shipments and Florida pool raised live bearers. In addition, I have also occasionally encountered them on imported wild Tetras, usually on just the odd specimen or 2 in a shipment. I used one of the insecticides that are probably now no longer allowed to be sold.
Is it practical for you to sort and separate the infected fish from the non-infected fish? Fish to fish transmission isn't as contagious as more common parasites like Ich so you may be able to isolate it and break the chain of transmission.
I have encountered fish lice a few times but I used a forceps to remove the parasite then gave them a dip in a salt water solution.

I just saw Mat's new post while writing mine. I am skeptical of the value of flubedazole/flubenol against fish lice or anchor worms since both are arthropods and flubendazole has proven to be quite safe when used to treat fish or Hydra in tanks containing ornamental shrimp.

[Martin S]

Thanks Larry, very useful.
I have decided to not treat with Flubendazol, and go with the manual removal. A product called Parazin is available which states it destroys aquatic insect and crustacean predators/parasites, lice (Argulus) included. I have removed 6 lice spread over 3 fish (2 x C.perugiae and 1 x T.sp2) and have seen no others, so will contact Waterlife here in the UK and see what they say re: fry/eggs before purchasing and dosing the tank.
Thanks all
Martin