sub ceroh
Aquarium Advice Activist
Sorry for the bad info.
Blue Tang Acting funny
- Thread starter titoav15
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
I didnt see any. Listen, you post your experience and no one can argue that. Experience is just as viable in this Hobby.
I`m not a fan of them either. IME and IMO they do more harm than good. Not argueing with anybody but just sharing mine and others experience.
mdaniel2882
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Well, if you are a big fan of qt tanks then you are a fan of using medications because that is the whole point of qt. If that is the case, then you deem a fw dip as more stressful than medications such as formalin, copper, malachite green, etc. which are widely used? I do not see the logic, especially when hyposalinity is near fw conditions anyways and requires 4wks of it compared to a 5-15min. fw dip. Perform a fw dip correctly and there is limited stress in the grand scheme of things. Use a qt and begin treatments asap, before parasites and other disease set in further
Hypo happens slowly over many days. the fw dip is instantaneous. It must me a shock. IMO QT does not equal hospital tank. Fish can be cured of many things just by keeping water quality high and letting nature take its coarse. I see a QT as something to keep nasty things out of your display tank and a hospital tank as a way to treat sick fish only if necessary. I have never put any chemical in a QT or a display tank and the only fish I have ever lost were the 2 damsels I had when I set my tank up and had no idea what I was doing. I guess I have been lucky because I have never had anything happen in QT that would require medication.
In the professional realm, public aquariums and associations, a qt (hospital tank) is a proactive solution in eliminating expected diseases and parasites. A holding tank usually comes after proactive qt where the animal is held for further observations with limited to no prophylactic treatment. Expecting an animal to be fully cured of the myriad of common diseases by maintaining proper water conditions is a fallacy. Once a fish has been compromised it is extremely difficult and stressful for them to naturally recover without the aid of medications. As for fw dips, which is a Standard Operating Procedure in just about every public aquarium and association, if you adjust the pH and temperatures accordingly then there shouldn't be much more stress than what the animal is already going through. I have dipped countless seahorses, butterflyfish, angelfish, triggers, puffers, fairy wrasses, etc. and have yet to lose a single one to the procedure; It's taken roughly 5-10secs. for an animals breathing rate to return to "normal" during the treatments I've given. I understand the concern, but there really are more benefits to freshwater dipping than to not. Here's a decent article: Dips/Baths and by Steven Pro (scroll to dip): Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part II by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com and seemingly most of your fish disease/vet health books incorporate them for recommendation.
