FW Dips

[GaryP]

I have seen a couple of threads mention the effective, or lack there of, for doing FW dips.

I found a pretty good procedure in one my reference books, The Book of the Marine Aquarium by Dakin, and thought I would share it with you.

1. Prepare 1.5 gal. of FW.

2. Add approx. 1 heaping teaspoon of solid buffer to balance pH to that of your tank. .

3. Add 0.25 gal. of SW.

4. Adjust temperature to match that of the tank the sick fish is coming from.

5. Capture fish and place in the dip water.

6. Expect the fish to lose equilibrium in the FW. It should soon recover. After the initial shock, any indication that it is not recovering its ability to maintain balance should be a trigger to remove the fish back to SW. Closely watch the fish during the entire process.

7. The recommended dip time is 3-10 min., but my experience has been to go on the long side of that, 10 min., if possible.

Now, that said, my experience with dips has not been real positive. It seems that I have lost fish more often than not. On the other hand, it may have been that the progress of the infection was at a point where the fish was already in bad shape and was probably going to fish heaven anyway. The shock of the dip was enough to kill an already very sick fish and I may have only helped the process along. Fish euthanasia?

IMO, the best thing to do is keep cleaners in your mixed tanks, whenever possible, to help prevent heavy parasitic infections in the first place.


Gary

[Instar]

Of course you could always just buy healthy fish in the first place. I pass a LOT of things over at our LFS's because they are a mess. You gotta learn to 'see' those problems beneath the surface. And then you have to learn to acclimate the fish from the SG of 1.017 (local fish store and wholesaler SG) to your tank salinity without tearing up their mucous membranes. If you do it too fast, all those diseases held at bay in the diluted water will explode. It can't be done in an hour!!

[Instar]

In days gone by, I used a potassium permanganate FW dip. It was very effective. Can't give you the formula right now as it was a long time ago.

[GaryP]

Good point Larry. One of my current project to develop a better system of doing acclimitazation. That's one thing I have learned from you over the last couple of weeks. I just need to find a large enough container to put in my sump so I can do drip addition from my main tank. I'm using a specimen container now but I'd like to try to find something a little larger. Any suggestions?

Gary

[GaryP]

Just fry the little buggers with oxidizer huh?

Gary

[jay3]

There is no exact time to dip every fish. You must leave them in the freshwater only until they become stressed, i.e. labored respiration or trying to turn on their side. If you leave them in too long you will lose many of them. I usually only leave them in the water approx 1 minute, or sometimes less. This has been very effective at controlling parasites. Every fish handles the dipping differently, and some cannot handle dipping at all!
Jay 3