Fresh water bath questions

snowrip · 03-27-2006, 06:39 PM

What are the benefits of a FW dip? Is a FW dip only for parasites, or can it be used for other pests/problems as well? It seems like this would stress the fish in question, which in itself can lead to other problems... like ich. When should a bath be used, and for how long?

Thanks for any advice/tips/know-how... I'm learning!

tims · 03-27-2006, 06:58 PM

mmmmmmmm... well sorta loaded question...

fresh water baths for d=fish are used most of the time to help do the Ick thing. but as you said it will stress the fish out even more, i really dont like ot do it unless other options are out the door..the fish is having a problem already, shocking him wihthte fresh water ( less then 2 minutes) opens the door for other problems like fungus or other infections.

Fresh water dipping of corals are used to help rid some of the pests that can come from pieces recived from LFs and others tanks.. most of the time it is best to just place corals ina QT tank and keep a close on them..

HTH

snowrip · 03-27-2006, 07:43 PM

Thanks for the help! I know that each time you bring something home from the LFS, you stand a decent chance of bringing home something you don't want in your tank. Is it a good idea to give every new fish a dip, or is that overkill?

tims · 03-27-2006, 07:46 PM

naaaa just set upa QT tank, if you keep it the same SG level as your maindisplay you willbe good to go..

snowrip · 03-28-2006, 11:44 AM

Cool... thanks for the heads-up!~

RichardS · 04-01-2006, 12:59 PM

You can check my response in this thread for some info on fw dips.

http://thereeftank.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66713

I've done fw dips on hundreds, maybe thousands, of fish. Very beneficial IMO as long as you keep in mind what fw dips can & cannot do for you.

tdwyatt · 04-02-2006, 01:54 PM

Most of the commercial and large professional systems do FW dips for ALL of their FISH acquisitions as a matter of policy, and maintain the new acquisitions in quarantine for a period of time. As already mentioned, there are limitations to this procedure, and corals with soft tissue would be better served by observation in QT prior to treqtment, if for no other reason than to allow for recovery from transport. I am not so sure that I would routinely treat all coral acquistions, however, some will benefit from this, especially if you are trying to keep flatworms out of a system and there is some question about the source. Still, I'd hold the corals in a QT tank for a week and look for issues before treting ANY CORAL with a FW dip.

HTH

tdwyatt · 04-02-2006, 01:54 PM

System hiccough, duplicate post