new fish medication question

[nemo14]

Hello Everyone!

Just a quick question has any one used the medication wormer plus its a dry powder? question: it say to mix 0.5g for 30 us gallons but i have a few hospital tank 10,15,and a 20 us gallon now if i don't get the right measurement per tank can i end up over doseing my fish with this medication?

Was thinking of using


1/16 tsp -   for the 20 gallon tank

1/32 tsp -  for the 15 gallon tank

1/64 tsp -  for the 10 gallon tank

Any input would be great.

Thank in advance.

[nerdRVT]

The drug in this product is Flubendazole. There's some literature showing that this drug can cause liver toxicities in some species of fish, like Discus. It's hard to say how various species may react, as pet trade fish are diverse and the pharmacokinetics of this drug could be very different in a tetra versus a betta.

Rather than converting to tsp, I strongly suggest that you get a fine milligram scale so that you can weigh out the amounts. Based on what you've written, the dose (which is weird because we're mixing metric and imperial units?) is 16.7 milligrams per gallon.

[lucius]

+1 to getting a scale but if you can't then this is what I would do.

You have 45 gallons in total to treat and the dosage is 0.5 g for 30 gallons so this technically should mean that 0.25 g will treat 15 gallons.  Add the two dosages up and you have 0.75 g for 45 gallons.  Put 0.75 g into a measuring cup with 1.5 cups of water and mix very well.  Then pour the water into your tanks as follows.

1/3 cup into 10 gallon
2/3 cup into 20 gallon
The rest into the 15 gallon

According to an online calculator, 1/8 tsp and a pinch is the closest to 0.75 g.

[nemo14]

Hello Lucius and Nerdrvt  Thanks for the fast reply on this medication i value your input and bought a Seachem Digital Spoon Scale that Measures in 0.1 gram increments up to 300 gram i think this was my best bet don't want to damage the fishes liver with an over dose.  Boy they are not cheap the digital spoons but then again my fish are not cheap ether so well worth the money.

Thanks guys for all your help take care my fish friends.

[nerdRVT]

That digital spoon doesn't sound accurate enough. 0.1 grams is 100mg. You need a milligram scale as you are dealing with amounts at 0.016 grams per gallon. The margin of safety for drugs like this is small, especially when you are dealing with fish which have unknown tolerance to a drug.

The suggestion of making a stock solution is good too, but keep in mind that the drug may degrade significantly when dissolved after a few days, and may not be viable after 48-96 hours, depending on the chemical characteristics of the drug. I seem to recall reading that this drug breaks down after 4 days in suspension?

If you do make a concentrated stock, date it, and keep it in the dark, as drugs in this family can often be quite light sensitive in solution.

Here's an example of a consumer-level scale that'd be used for small quantities like you need to do: https://www.amazon.ca/Smart-Weigh-GEM20-Precision-Milligram/dp/B00ESHDGOI

I use a higher end scale (lab grade) for when I need to medicate animals at the facility, but this scale should be accurate enough for home use, as long as it is properly calibrated as the instructions state.

[nemo14]

Ok i bought this one as well i  will have both but will use the one that you pointed out it measures down to 0.001 of a gram wow that's what i need oh well i will try and sell the seachem measuring spoon . it's brand new.