Fenbendazole - A Word of Warning

[Mistakes Are Crucial]

Hi,

My disaster is more than well documented on the Australian Discus Forum so I'm not going to harp on about it but I thought I would make mention of it here because if it saves just one tank of fish for one of you guys or girls it's worth it.  3-4 weeks ago, on the advice of a professional (we should have done more research of our own, our fault not hers) we used Fenbendazole (Panacur) to worm our Discus because our usual Levamisole hadn't been available for 4 months.  Shortly after I began losing fish and ended up with a total fish room wipe out, 700 fish, 15 breeding pairs of Discus and 4 years hard work down the gurgler in 2 weeks.  We weren't the only ones either, another mate of mine used it and has had the same results, 10 grands worth of fish dead.

Since all this we've done one hell of a lot of research and it would appear that the suspension clogs the gills of fish rendering them unable to breath.  Some people have used it without issue but it is particularly dangerous with Discus, Angels and some catties.  As I've said before I know nothing about Africans so I don't even know if you treat them for round and thread worm but if you do, please don't use Panacur in water.  It's fine in food.
MAC

[christo]

dually noted, sorry to hear about your fish mate


christo

[Mistakes Are Crucial]

Thanks mate, we're over it now and moving forward but bloody tough at the time.
MAC

[hareysfish]

hi MAC

sorry to hear about your fish ,i usually treat my africans with para-x  worming tablets with out  any problems. never kept discus, so im not to sure if they will affect the discus in any way.

[braddo]

Actually MAC have used it on africans including tangs to rid tanks of hydra but is it at 10ml to 40 litres without a problem what dosage was yours at.

[Dead Fish Floating]

Mate thats a real ba$tard of a way to learn a lesson like that.
Cheers for the heads up on the easy way.
I have been sold on Levamisole for a while now. One of my favorite meds.
Cheap, safe and does the job.
But benn curious about Fendendazole for a while, may just give it a skip tho.

[braddo]

Personally wouldn't use it for worming but hydra is near impossible to get rid of but it wipes em in 2 days but I would only use it at that dose no higher.