Fresh water dip

[Wineo]

Hello everyone!
I am going to start adding fish to my relatively new system and wanted your opinions on Fresh water dipping of fish.
How long do you guys keep the fish in the fresh water?
Also, other than bringing up the PH, do you use any chemicals such as Methyl blue to kill parasites?
thanks for all of your help, I look forward to your responses.

Wineo

[Bughead]

Hi, and welcome

I've had success with fw dips, although it tends to freak me out a bit. Some people suggest keeping the water somewhat brackish, like sg 1.009, which may be less stressful on the fish. I add methylene blue, which increases available oxygen. Put enough in to make the water a beautiful dark blue. It does not kill parasites, just increases O2.

You can leave the fish in anywhere between 3 and 20 minutes. ( some suggest 30 minutes). I usually try to aim for 10-15 minutes, but I don't know who gets more stressed, the fish or me.

Be careful to watch your fish closely. He may suddenly become airborne, prefering the carpet to the dip. Often the fish will lie down, which is OK, as long as it's breathing and not breathing too hard. I like to encourage the fish to remain upright with a little gentle prodding.

One other thing, I put the fish into a plastic breeding cage (a large net will work, too) and lower it into the dip. When the dip is finished, I raise the cage and gently poor a little tank water over it to rinse any parasites so they won't be transported back to the tank. I then place the fish, still in the cage into the tank. I leave it there a few minutes before releasing it.

And as you said, match the temp and the pH in the dip to the tank water. I used a special dipping medicine once, but it seemed to stress the fish more and since the fresh water makes the parasites drop off the added chemical is unnecessary.

Good luck

P.S. I don't know if this is of any consequence, but since the ich parasites some out more in the evening, maybe it would be better to do the dip then. Seems logical, but then, maybe not.

[Wineo]

Bughead-
Thanks so much for your response. Since I am an old hand at freshwater and not salt, this will be my first addition so I'm sure that it will stress me as well. Thanks again!

[FishKid]

im getting an eyelash blenny soon, and wouldnt want to introduce any parasites to my tank which has 2 true percs.... Is there anyway better (less likely to drive me crazy) than a dip? like keeping the fish in a 5 gal, with tank water and that kick-ick stuff? i might not even do that.

[icemark]

As a reminder with fresh or brackish dips, This does not replace having a quarantine tank, and sometimes will not kill all the parasites on the fish.

There are also some serious concerns you should have about stress on the fish. More than one occasion I have heard of someone dipping a problem fish (such as the infamous Yellow Tang) killing all the parasites on it. But when they placed it in the tank, it was so stressed that the minor amount of ick already in the tank caught hold on the tang much easier, plunging the fish into another cycle with the parasite.

So dipping should not be considered an automatic thing for every new fish you buy. If you are getting the fish from a reputable store where you can check the stock for signs of parasites, and they look clean, I might let it go right in.

On another hand (or foot) if you got the fish mail order or the like, and think it may be infected you will radically stress the fish even more by dipping it. I mean already it has been bouncing around in a bag of its own wastes for 24+ hours and now you throw it into fresh water? Sounds like you are just asking for problems.

A quarantine tank is really the only way to go. Even if it is just a 10 or 20 gal (depending on the size of the fish in your system) with a heater and power filter. Let the fish live in quarantine for 2 weeks, then go into the show tank. much less stress.

Dipping should really be considered a radical approach to solving an life threating problem, not a everyday thing.

[FishKid]

How could i keep a lawnmower blenny in a qtank if they only eat algae at first???

mark

[icemark]

Mark,

You'll have to place a rock that has algae in the Q tank with the fish so that it has something to eat.

[Bughead]

Icemark makes some very good points. I had a powder blue tang with ich from Hell. After the first dip, I should have just isolated him, treated the main tank (Kick-ich works great) and left the poor guy alone. But a few days later when I saw he had white spots again, I dipped him again. A week later, more white spots. Oh, God, how I wish I'd only medicated his tank and left Tangy alone. I want to cry every time I think about it. I decided to fw dip him again. He immediately laid down and stopped breathing. I put him in a big bowl of tank water and sat it on the coffee table. He still didn't want to be upright, but I kept gently prodding him, and after an hour he was upright, and after another half hour he was turning around in the bowl.

I put him in the breeder cage and floated him in the main tank for another hour. He kept turning around and acting like he wanted to swim free. I was afraid that leaving him in the breeder cage over night would stress him too much, and I didn't want to release him into the main tank where he'd give ich back to those fish. As I look back on that, I know it was dumb, but I just wasn't thinking clearly. I loved this fish so much.

I decided to release him back into the 40 gal tank where he'd been isolated with a regal tang. Since both tanks had the same temp and basically the same water, I put Tangy in without any acclimation. He spun and spiralled and sank to the bottom, lifeless. I cried and cried.

On a happier note ;; I have successfully dipped. The fish I've gotten from Petco, I've dipped, then isolated a week or two before introducing them to the main tank. Tangy-Too (powder blue, same soul, different body) and Roger Rabbit (foxface) were dipped first. They've been in the family almost a year, have nearly tripled in size, and have never shown any signs of ich.

Like I said, Icemark gives some good guidelines.