RE: Flubendazole

[Charles n Sue Harrison <csharrison at inkmaker_net>]

Hello Gary, and all,
If the same lethal reaction occurs with the material you have in your 
second test, I will be glad to send you some of mine, and I want some 
of yours, just to be sure the compounds are the same. Let us know.

Prevention is always the best, but in many cases the infection may be 
encysted and not evident until there is a trigger or poor living 
conditions which allow the parasite to take over. Unfortunately the 
physical size of the fishes and the rapid development of the 
parasitic infection often prevents the fish from overcoming the 
infection. Having an effective drug around which will give the fish 
the chance is a good idea.

Also unfortunately the older usual drugs used to treat another 
protozoa infection - malaria - are no longer near as effective as 
they once were. This is simply due to culling out the susceptible 
individuals with the usual drug(s) and leaving the strong to survive. 
Recognizing this fact, one still needs to be able to put to use 
effective means to our disposal to maintain the life forms we intend 
to keep.

Dammed if you do - dammed if you don't -

Stumbling onto an effect seems to be a major part of scientific 
discovery. If one of my tanks had had no Hydra in it I would have 
never tried the Flubendazole in the first place. The occurrence of 
the hollow belly Australies in the same tank was luck also. Seeing 
them put on weight was simple observation, and running with the idea, 
well you all know where we are now. I have examined many fish guts. I 
know what the Heximeta protozoa looks like. In most of the wasting 
fishes I have examined I have found the protozoa in their gut. 
Flubendazole does kill this protozoa without discoloration of the 
water, changing the pH or killing off the plants. Information from 
others to whom I have distributed the drug is coming in. Gary's 
information is the only negative and we have yet to confirm it as a 
direct lethal reaction.

Miracle drug? someone else said that, Flubendazole is an anthelmintic 
compound as Barry said. No antibacterial activity that I know of. But 
in comparison to the things which have been used to treat Hydra, - 
Copper wire and a battery, Formaldehyde, heavy salt treatment, 
Methylene Blue and Malachite Green  - not really a miracle, but a 
whole lot better and much more effective.

I have treated fish with heavy infection of Velvet. The drug killed 
the Velvet, not the fish. No discoloration of the water, no damage to 
the plants and the snails live on as well. I have never had a 
treatment as effective.

I think more testing is in order.
I do plan to continue distributing the drug and collecting information.

Charles Harrison



>From: "Gary Bartell" <garybartell at sprintmail_com>
>eliminating Hydra, Heximita, Velvet, Ick and Glugea
>
>   Hi All,
>
>   Thanks to all who commented on my fish deaths, since so many have used it
>with no problems I can only assume that other factors caused the deaths.  I
>was supprised to see that so many  are using meds.
>
>   Most of the time I don't use Meds, I try to do what I can to prevent
>illness rather than trying to cure it.
>     Thanks,
>
   Gary
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