# Treating shrimp disease with aquarium salt (SOLVED, read post #18)



## zahtar (Sep 29, 2019)

*---------------------------------------Came to a conclusion, read post #18 for the solution--------------------------------------*

Hello everyone!

I noticed yesterday a weird thing on the head of a shrimp I have in a Walstad bowl, which seems to be Scutariella Japonica (according to the pictures on this article Shrimp Disease - Scutariella Japonica. Treatment. - Shrimp and Snail Breeder). The author suggests a few treatment methods, of which I can apply the first one, that is with the aquarium salt.

My question is how dangerous could such a solution be for a shrimp, (1 tablespoon in 1 aquarium water cup) as I am afraid of osmotic shock. Let me know if you have relevant experience. I am posting some pictures of:

a) The infected shrimp
b) Some things like eggs?
c) Something on a hornwort stem which looks like vorticella

B and C are not visible in the bowl, at least not any more. Last night the infected shrimp was munching on one of those things that look like eggs. Couldn't find any today&#8230;

Thanks in advance!


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

I would treat the whole tank with the recommended dewormer. They're likely in the entire tank and will reinfect the shrimp. I know for sure levamisole is invert safe. It's a farm animal nematode dewormer. You aim for 2ppm in the tank.


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## zahtar (Sep 29, 2019)

Hello, thank you for your reply and sorry for getting back so late. I couldn’t find the above meds in the local market, so I tried the aquarium salt method, but unfortunately I went too far...

As suggested in the link above, I dissolved 1tablespoon in 1 cup of water (approx 250ml) and dipped the female and the healthy(?) male for 40-45 seconds. The infected male stayed there for 60s. Afterwards I put them in a container with treated tap water for a few minutes, while I did a full water change at the bowl. All back into the bowl, seemed ok in the beginning. I inspected with a magnifying glass, all heads seemed clear of the parasite. No molts so far, but I’ll remove them if I spot any.

After a few minutes the female and one of the males acted casually, but the other male didn’t. I noticed him with stiff legs and fanning swimmerets not being able to hold height in the water column, then stayed on the substrate like paralyzed on his side. That made me think that I caused him osmotic shock. At some point he seemed to get back to life, but later on I saw him on his side again. I rotated the bowl to take a closer look, but the female arrived and started feeding off him. At that point I realized that he wouldn’t be racing with his buddy round the bowl any more, so I removed him… 

So was it osmotic shock that caused his death? Was it the duration of the dip too long, or is it possible that he was weak already due to the infection and wasn’t able to make it?

Thanks in advance


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

probably osmotic shock. Shrimps are sensitive to that and temperature shock.


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## zahtar (Sep 29, 2019)

The water had exactly the same temperature, so I guess it was osmotic shock... Let's hope I won't have to repeat this, but if I do, I will definitely keep them for a shorter time in the dip. Thanks! 

Sent from my foolphone using Tapatalk


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

In looking at your link for scutariella-japonica and this parasite's life cycle, I don't think that salt treatment will be very effective. Parasite eggs are shielded by the shrimp's exoskeleton, and won't get the full brunt of osmotic shock. And treating only the shrimp won't kill all the young parasites that have just hatched and are in the tank. 

If the problem continues, I would look for a dewormer under farm supplies. Many farmers use levamisole as a dewormer for their livestock. Here, several hobbyists buy levamisole sold as a "goat dewormer." 

Praziquantel is another dewormer, not quite as potent as levamisole, but better than salt. I had no trouble buying "Prazi-Pro" sold to aquarium hobbyists. Easy to use and did the job (killed guppy flukes).


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

If you can't buy Praziquantel in liquid form, you might find it in powder form. It is not water soluble but will dissolve in alcohol like vodka. Dilute that in water.


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## zahtar (Sep 29, 2019)

Thanks for the heads up! 

If it reoccurs, I can get a tablet of Drontal cat, which is a cat dewormer that contains Praziquantel. Namely: 230 mg Pyrantel embonate and 20 mg Praziquantel 

The “instructions paper” also mentions a term that I do not know to translate. According to Google, it could be “excipients” which I think makes sense, so here goes:

Excipients: Cellulosemicrocrystalline, Polyvinylpyrrolidone25, Magnesiumstearate, Silicondioxidecolloidal, Starchmaize
Coating composition: Hypromellose, Polyethyleneglycol4000, Titaniumdioxide

This tab is meant to be used at a ratio of 1 per 4kg of cat body mass (but that might not be important for our case). So my questions would be:

a)	Are the above active substances and other ingredients same for shrimp and aquarium in general?
b)	This is a tablet (more like a pill) so as mistergreen says, I’d have to crush and dissolve in alcohol. Is alcohol safe for aquarium? Around what concentrations? Will it eventually dissolve in DOC, or perhaps pose a threat to invertebrates? I am thinking of dissolving in ethanol 95% v/v and diluting that mixture until I get the right concentration.

Do the above sound good? Thanks in advance!


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

Yeah, alcohol in small quantity is fine in the aquarium. It's processed by bacteria and plants.
As for concentration of Pyrantel, I have no idea. The coating on the pill sounds like it's starch and cellulose, Titaniumdioxide might be toxic to shrimps though.

You might be able to find powdered Prazi on Amazon or something like that in your country. It's pretty common for pond keepers.


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## mysiak (Jan 17, 2018)

Or just get Esha Gdex, it's already dissolved, from reputable company, tested by many aquarists and available in Greece as well (per Google, 1 ml contains: 66 mg of praziquantel).


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## zahtar (Sep 29, 2019)

mysiak said:


> Or just get Esha Gdex, it's already dissolved, from reputable company, tested by many aquarists and available in Greece as well (per Google, 1 ml contains: 66 mg of praziquantel).


YES! THANK YOU!!! I should have checked local aquarium stores before thinking of the cat med solution! Google gave me Drontal as one of the medicines that include Praziquantel. I thought of the above as I periodically give my cat Drontal, but I'll definitely prefer esha gdex if the problem reoccurs. An aquarium specific med is what I'll prefer if it comes down to it.

Thanks again!


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## zahtar (Sep 29, 2019)

Just an update on this, the problem was temporarily fixed with gdex and reocurred. After coming back from holidays I found only one shrimp and the nerite snail alive. The last remaining shrimp in the bowl was heavily infected and a second round of gdex did partial work. Then I tried aquarium salt dip for 40seconds, on the 1st day 1 teaspoon per cup, second day 1 tablespoon per cup. After the gdex dosing cycle ended, the shrimp looks totally clear. So for me it was the combination of methods that did the trick.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

So sorry that you lost your shrimp. I've saved your feedback so that the next time this happens, I'll have a better answer. (I confess that I was grasping, since I have no experience with this dreadful disease.)

It will be interesting to see going forward if your last shrimp is permanently cured. I wonder if the treatments killed all the parasite eggs in the tank? 

The ultimate cause of the problem could be a genetic problem of the shrimp, environmental stress, or an intractable pathogen. I lost my shrimp one-by-one to what I think now was the buildup of plant allelochemicals. It may take awhile for you to sort out the ultimate cause of the problem.


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## zahtar (Sep 29, 2019)

Thank you very much  It was sad to see most of them missing, but no worries though, I did learn during the process anyway, so I'll be better prepared in case is comes up again!

In addition to what we already discussed, I believe you are right about the environmental stress. I didn't mention about the temperature and light cycle factors. Here in Greece it has been really hot during the summer, meaning room temperature fluctuates between 27-30C (80-86F) from day to night, during the day being 29-30C (84-86F). Since these values are room temperature, they are tank temperature too (outside temps are a lot higher). The timer sets the lights for 8-2-4 hours on-off-on respectively. Maybe that was too much light for the shrimp, given that there are no really dark places to hide in this 1 gal bowl. Therefore I think that the shrimp might have been stressed due to the high temperature and lots of light, so maybe they didn't respond well to the initial treatment (gdex on its own). Perhaps that's why there were casualties while I was away too. My brother did feed and do water changes, so it wasn't totally neglected.

The single remaining shrimp (dark red male) looks totally clear now. He has no signs of infection any more, so I moved him to the 4gal tank to be with the rest rcs and the amanos. I'll watch them closely to monitor any signs of the disease occurring and act accordingly. I did a 90+% water change at the bowl and introduced new shrimp there (blue velvet/dream), which were drip acclimated with the same fresh treated tapwater that I filled the bowl with. I am now leaving the bowl light on for 8 hours, while the rest of the day it is just ambient light from the room that reaches the bowl. I am thinking of getting some dritwood, chollawood or coconut to make a hide for the shrimp just in case. Maybe that was the reason they haven't been breeding at all... 

In conclusion, I believe it was the high water temperature and too much light that might have weakened the shrimp and made them more vulnerable to the disease. The salt dip (1tbsp/cup) proved effective in combination to the gdex treatment (made according to the instructions leaflet). If anything new occurs I'll post updates, but hopefully I won't have to!


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## KRiggz (May 31, 2021)

Does anyone have a recommendation for treatment with Levamisole? I have used it before for Camallanus infection and was wondering if the process was the same or what would be different? When treating Camallanus I would mix 1/2tsp to 100ml of water, then dose 1ml per gallon. Blacking out the tank for 2-3 days, doing a full water change and repeating the process for 4 weeks. Anything I should do differently here? I did this once already and would be starting the second round of treatment today. I've tried Levamisole and Salt dips and the buggers are still hanging on to some of my shrimps.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

KRiggz said:


> Does anyone have a recommendation for treatment with Levamisole? I have used it before for Camallanus infection and was wondering if the process was the same or what would be different? When treating Camallanus I would mix 1/2tsp to 100ml of water, then dose 1ml per gallon. Blacking out the tank for 2-3 days, doing a full water change and repeating the process for 4 weeks. Anything I should do differently here? I did this once already and would be starting the second round of treatment today. I've tried Levamisole and Salt dips and the buggers are still hanging on to some of my shrimps.


Try 2ml/G of the meds. Double dosing the levamisole is still safe.


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## Von (Jun 6, 2021)

Hi there!

I am a pharmacist and when I give dewormer to humans, I will recommend retreating after 14-21 days as the dewormer do not kill eggs and will only kill live worms or larvas. Therefore, you will need to treat again to kill those worms that have just hatched. This 14-21 day cycle is usually continued if there is persistent infestation or if the worms have resistance to the drug. I’m not sure if the same rule still applies to aquariums but treatment doesn’t seem to harm the aquarium then retreating might be a good idea.


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## zahtar (Sep 29, 2019)

Von said:


> Hi there!
> 
> I am a pharmacist and when I give dewormer to humans, I will recommend retreating after 14-21 days as the dewormer do not kill eggs and will only kill live worms or larvas. Therefore, you will need to treat again to kill those worms that have just hatched. This 14-21 day cycle is usually continued if there is persistent infestation or if the worms have resistance to the drug. I’m not sure if the same rule still applies to aquariums but treatment doesn’t seem to harm the aquarium then retreating might be a good idea.


My experience is in line with your advice! I have successfully* treated scutariella japonica with sachem paraguard following a scheme like the one you suggest. I'll check my log when I get back home and post details so other members can benefit from this.

*Zero casualties, vs esha gdex which resulted in a few.

*Updating as promised:*
the scheme I followed was:
7 days treatment, dosing the equivalent of the recommended concentration (5ml per 40L) for my net water volume.
19 days wait
6 days treatment as above
16 days wait
3 days treatment
Checked 18 days later, shrimp were totally clean and still are.

I cannot remember why I did the extra three days of treatment in the end, meaning whether there was still an infestation, or did them just as a precaution. But I am posting the entire thing either way.

The "examination" 18 days later was done either with a 5x magnifying glass, or with a photographic macro lens at 1:2 reproduction during lunchtime. And that means shrimp lunchtime, not mine of course!


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