My Callamanus Treatment Method

[HappyGuppy]

Hi Folks, considering the discussions I've started around callamanus, I figure that I should also share what treatment I am doing.  I have spent far more hours researching this than I'd care to admit, even to myself.  A common problem for many of us is here in Canada that some of the more popular meds stated on the internet are very difficult to come by.  Ritchie feed & seed (east location) is the only place that will sell febendazole medications (for horses).  Don't bother trying Petsmart or other petstores as they don't sell Safe-Guard (brand) or the other one (don't recall name now).  Regarding levamasol (sp?) it works by paralysing the worm, not killing it, so the way to have it work is you must vacuum your tank.  After much research I've settled on mebendazole, which is freely available in Canada (I got Sergeant's Vetscription Worm-Away IV for dogs @ Petsmart) and according to some it is even more effective than fenbendazol (febendazol), works similarly, as it is from the same family of drugs.  Don't ask me for footnotes, search it.

Initially I tried a quarter tablet to the tank, then another, and another, a few days apart.  For hydra (which I also recently acquired) it did the trick on the first quarter of a tablet, and snails *seemed* fine.  The shrimp even with all treatments seem completely unaffected.  The snails after larger doses all dies, however the shrimp seems to not mind at all - I've seen articles that febendazol can be safely used in shrimp tanks for planaria & hydra, and I'd add mebendazole to that list for that purpose too (though YMMV).

The tablets are 100 mg mebendazole each (10 tablets in a pack). 

Initially I treated water column, but found that a mix of water column & in the food is needed (also what others online say).  Initially I just did water column, with slight effect on the worms, but once it was in their food WHOA!!! the worms turned brown and disintegrated.

For water column I simply crush 1/4 tablet in a mortar & pestle, then shake in water bottle with water for a while then dump into tank.  You could also add some flake food into the chemical water to soak up the meds before dumping it into tank (good to do).  Do a 25% to 50% water change a few days later.  Oh and don't use charcoal in your filter during treatment time, but it can help to clear the water from it later.

For the food here is what I do (I'd recommend this, but YMMV).  I take a 1/4 tablet, crush in mortar & pestle, then add one clove of garlic and grind to a paste.  Then I add a generous amount of flake food and grind this into a paste.  If I had green peas I'd also put in a couple, good laxative, but alas I don't have any in my freezer, so I don't.  I take a smidgeon of this "paste" and smear it on the glass of the aquarium or just place in the leaves of some bushy plant to hold the glob.  My fish attack this with a hungry appetite!!!  I've read that fish really love garlic, and heck, it's good for them too!  The rest can be place in a thin layer on some plastic wrap and put in the fridge.  It's easy to later break off a piece for feeding time.

My strategy is to keep dosing the water column each week with 1/4 tablet for a 10g tank and feed them this "food" mix for a 6 week period.  I'm sure that this is probably overkill, however I'd rather risk killing my fish than having a relapse.  So far this appears to be working, and I am confident that by the end of the course of treatment that I will be 100% clean.

Just thought I'd share what I am doing.  I hope that this information will save someone many hours of research, trying to find meds they can't buy, and other hassles that I've gone through.  Again, your-milage-may-vary, so do your own research and I take no responsability for the outcome of how your treatment goes - I'm just sharing what I've been doing, and what seems to be working for me.  In 6 months if I see no sign of callamanus then and only then can I pronounce this method to have "worked for me".

[HappyGuppy]

Another thing...

I was contemplating to buy the medicated flake food from Petsmart (Jungle Lab for internal parasites) which I believe contains the levamsol & something else too.  Considering my mebendazole/garlic/flake paste is working I'm happy with just that, however am posting that thought that I've been contemplating as another item to ponder for anyone interested in the subject of this thread.  I'm not using it, but suggesting that it might be worth considering for people who don't want to do the mortar & pestle thing, or might be even good a supplement to the treatment - shotgun medications.  YMMV

[HappyGuppy]

I have mentally adopted the attitude that "everything is contaminated", regardless of whether it is or isn't.  Everything aquarium-related in my house is now either being treated, discarded, or sterilized.  Even my live food cultures are being considered as "contaminated" despite it being highly unlikely - I want 0% chance of relapse.  My microworms, highly unlikely, but am tossing them out (will be asking someone this week for a new starter).  My daphnia, though I think they're clean I've decided to treat them anyways.  Fortunately I keep snails with my daphnia to provide bacteria, so I'll use the snails as proof of effectiveness.  I will does strongly.  Once the snails are dead then "success".  2 weeks later I will repeat the dose.  If the daphnia survive (I think it is very likely they will) then great as they are 100% clean.  If they die then I'll do a water change and wait for the eppiphia (eggs) to hatch.  I think that there is a 95% chance of maintaining the culture after all this treatments. To everyone who has been asking me for the daphnia, and lately I've been refusing... ask me in about a month, and if I have some I'll be happy to share a starter of the culture.

Question  -   In a new tank I've bleached it, including the gravel, to set up a *clean* tank.  I've rinsed it about a dozen times, but am wondering how much should I rinse it to be sure of being safe?  BTW I added a ton of water conditioner.