Question to fellow ray keepers. Have you used Levamisole on Freshwater Stingrays? Was it well tolerated?
Thank you
Thank you
Broadening of my general knowledge base. In discussion with a veterinarian friend, we were discussing a theory that praziquantel is widely misused. With it only targeting certain stages of some parasites, the usual one to two week treatment durations may not always be enough to fully eradicate some parasites. The egg stage in most parasites is not treated. Treatment for 3-4 weeks (sometimes temperature dependent) is what she says would be necessary to fully guarantee complete elimination. She also said that ingestion is the best way to use it to treat an individual organism, treating the water column would ideally be to prevent transmission, treatment should be more direct. She was surprised we don't feed it to the rays. I opened up Dr. Ross's book and sure enough he says the same thing, use praziquantel internally. Inject it into earthworms he recommends. So she knows her stuff, and doesn't even fully specialize in fish. It's a good theory.Dieselhybrid with prazipro being proven to be safe for rays and fully capable of handling worms and flukes, why levamisole? Pretty much targets the same parasites doesn't it? I'm sure you have something in mind...just curious why your interested in levamisole! Lol
Hi Carlos! The Freshwater Stingray book by Dr. Ross says "...7mg/kg of body weight, three doses given as one dose every other day" My friend said to use 5mg-10mg/kg but said 7 doses, one every 3rd day. She's never read his book. So similar recommendations. She did say to treat the water column to prevent the spread and more easily treat anything external or in the gills. The difficulty is that most people use prazi-pro brand, which is dissolved in a solvent, as pure praziquantel HCL isn't water soluble. I don't know the solvent used in prazipro and if it is safe to use internally at concentration. I also would have difficulty breaking the correct units down per ml/cc for injection. So for this application pure praziquantel powder would be most desirable. It's readily available online, for less per unit than prazi-pro brand. I use the pure powder, I haven't used the brand name liquid stuff in years. So this application wouldn't be difficult for me to try next time I need to treat.Interesting and a very informative, if you were to treat rays internally with prazi what would be the proper dosage? How much to inject into the worms if needed? Would ray size be the determining factor?