Treating Hexamita aka Spironucleus

[joan]

Reading this thread with great interest...dealing with a 10 year old female King Kong Blood Parrot who has stopped eating x 3weeks, not bloated or emaciated, but has all the symptoms of Hex. Had my vet look at a fecal sample and water sample and she said she " sees a Jungle " and doesn't know what is good or bad. Treated for hex with metro once already to no avail. Vet saw " eggs " of some sort. Going to try epsom salt , but she isn't eating, so do a water tx with epsom salt ? IF it's worms, where do I buy Levasimole ?

 

[Rocksor]

As stated in the first post, make a 3% solution and use a pipette with airline tubing at the tip, and squirt it down the fish's throat.

As for levamisole, here's a link to using it and finding sources of it.
http://www.loaches.com/Members/shari2/levamisole-hydrochloride-1

 

[Miike47]

Just about all of the Haps/peacocks in my 125 are spitting out food instantly or have no interest in eating. This has been going on for a couple days now. I have been doing weekly 40% water changes and feeding a mix of flakes and pellets once per day.

I have never had my fish get bloat but based on what I have read this sounds like the symptoms. I ordered some Metro today and tried adding 4tbs of Epsom salt directly into the main tank since no one is eating. I had read blanched peas could also help but the fish did not eat them tonight. The majority of the fish are two inches with a few star sapphires that are close to four inches so I won't be able to force feed them an Epsom Salt meal.

Should I add another dose of Epsom salt tomorrow then treat the tank with Metro in a couple days?

 

[RD.]

Epsom salt baths are typically used to treat constipation, ditto to feeding peas. If your fish has hex/spiro it is far more effective if your fish ingests the magnesium sulfate directly into its gut. Otherwise use metronidazole. Good luck.

 

[sinibotia]

Thank you so much for this! My spawning angelfish pair were slowly losing their appetite and have had clear stringy feces so I attempted this treatment last night and this morning they are already eating with greatly improved vigor!

 

[Kaia]

I got some new fish from our trusted lfs for Valentine's Day and am paying for not quarantining them since I have never before had any issues with this store's fish. At first I thought it was ich - and began treating right away - salt in water temp up at 80 and using ich attack for a week now but spots are still present on the new mucholochi rainbow and now my new irian red rainbow just presented with fuzzy white fungus looking stuff on his fins ;( there are also clear/white stringy things in the water... I added pimafix to the water can I feed Epsom salt on top of other treatments? Can parasites cause these fungal looking symptoms? Help! My tank is 75 gallons set up in mid Jan using the biomedia and water from my 35 gal at my previous house. And been doing small frequent water changes to adjust to new house water. Got 4 new rainbows on Valentine's Day and that is when the trouble began. One died that looked fine on last Tuesday.

 

[RD.]

You really should post this as a stand alone topic, you'll probably receive more help.
You can certainly feed epsom soaked food to any fish that is still eating, with no worries.

 

[Kaia]

You really should post this as a stand alone topic, you'll probably receive more help.
You can certainly feed epsom soaked food to any fish that is still eating, with no worries.

Thanks! I will do both

 

[FishKing5]

Treating Hexamita aka Spironucleus with Epsom Salt Solution


This is a rather safe way to treat any newly imported fish, as a prophylactic, just as one would use a de-wormer. It's not only an extremely cheap way to treat fish, the active ingredients are readily available world-wide, and it's also much safer than using most forms of medication. Unlike most medications, there should be no worries about flagellates/pathogens building up a resistance to it, and excess magnesium is easily flushed from a fishes system. In my experience, it's very easy on fish, even very young juvenile fish. The best part - it works! (If the fish has worms when arriving, the epsom salt solution in the feed will also help with purging any worms)

While Metronidazole has always been the drug of choice when combating internal parasites such as hexamita and/or spironucleus, metro (or any other type of medication) should never be used on a regular basis as a prophylactic, and doing so may cause flagellates/parasites to develop a resistance to the medication, and possibly even mutate and become super bugs. It's also been stated by at least one researcher that excessive use of metronidazole can cause organ damage in fish.



Other cons with metronidazole is its solubility in water is very poor, in aquarium settings it has been suggested that it can precipitate out of solution within 6-8 hours, and it can become rather expensive when treating large systems.

While doing some online research on spironucleus I came across an interesting study that mentioned the use of Magnesium sulphate (Epsom salt) in treating internal parasites in angel fish.
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-120399-140825/unrestricted/ANGEL.PDF

A long read (200+ pages) but the idea of using something as basic as epsom salt to treat internal parasites in fish intrigued me, which in turn lead me to dig deeper.


This is where it got interesting ........

The Israeli Journal of Aquaculture – Bamidgeh 57(2), 2005, 97-104.

http://siamb.org.il/uploads/57_2_Ogut.pdf






In his book; Fish Disease: diagnosis and treatment, Edward J. Noga mentions treating hexamita (spironucleus) orally with Magnesium sulphate.

This is certainly encouraging news for anyone who's fish is still eating, or begins eating after treatment with Metro. Not only does Epsom salt assist in recovery when added directly to the aquarium (as per the links above), but according to the research posted above it has a deadly effect on hexamita when ingested.

Dr. Edward J. Noga, MS, DVM, is a highly respected professor of aquatic medicine and immunology, and he has been published approx. 150 times in related papers/journals. His lab at NC State University specializes in the study of infectious diseases of finfish and shellfish. As a side note for Discus keepers, Dr. Noga's book on fish disease is the book that Andrew Soh often refers to for disease/treatment information.


Now for the treatment ......


For a 3% solution of Magnesium sulphate, add 1 level tablespoon (15 grams) magnesium sulphate to 500 milliliters of distilled water. Stir, and it's good to go.

Use an eye dropper or pipette to add to pellet food (or any other food that will readily absorb it), and stop dripping water once the pellets become saturated. Use only enough water to saturate the food, with no excess water, so that the water soluble vitamins in the food remain intact. Feed twice a day, for 3-5 days. (I went with 5 days)

In extreme cases, the oral solution could be administered to a fish via a pipette.Just make sure to use a flexible tip so as not to damage the fishes esophagus when squirting the solution down the fishes throat. Only a small amount is required, but repeat daily until the fish is accepting pre-soaked pellets, and continue treatment for 5 days.


My own experience with this treatment ........ so far it's proven to be a life saver, where all other previous 'textbook' methods of treatment for internal parasites have failed, including several days of treating with 500mg Metro per 10 gallons, while feeding Metro soaked food at the same time. (fish was chewing & spitting, but was eating some food twice a day)

In less than 48 hrs of the 3% Magnesium sulphate treatment, for the first time in 30 days the fish was no longer shedding the mucous lining of his intestine. (white/clear feces) After 5 days of feeding the 3% solution via pellets, the fish had made a complete recovery & was back eating like gang busters.

Hopefully some members here will find this information useful.

Neil

Thanks so much for providing this. My melanura had been dealing with HITH that I treated and seemed to fix but then started becoming pretty stressed and wasn't eating like they use to until I started using this treatment with the Epsom salt soaked food. The 2nd day they were all eating like pigs again and coming up to the glass waiting for food, and not spitting food back out. I also noticed they no longer are pooping the white stringy stuff anymore and their poops are looking nice and healthy again. So thanks much for this info. This had been stressing me out a lot for quite some time lately.

 

[shunaiz]

Guys i need your help.. please help me ..
My flowerhorm is in a critical condition of hexamite.. please reply someone..