Help with freshwater dip please

[grimlock3000]

Reference other thread, pages 5 + 6:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=37836&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

My Clownfish likely has Brooklynella (Thanks QS!), I called every LFS in my range and none have Formalin in stock. The LFS I usually go to reccomended a freshwater dip and said they have have really good luck with Clowns in the area that had similar parasites. I am not the first person to get a Clown like this from the local PetCo.

Anyway, I was told to put the fish in a small container with water from my freshwater tank for 5 minutes (depending on how the Clown reacts), then dunk the fish in two containers of water from my saltwater tank to make sure no parasites that fell off make it back into the salwater tank. I have a bunch of clean gallon jugs I am going to use for this.

My big question is, can I add anything else to the freshwater dip to help with this? I can get copper meds and other stuff locally without a problem, just not Formalin for some reason

 

[quarryshark]

I can send some formalin if you need. I have a whole bottle from a previous treatment, let me know. The FW dip may help, but probably won't cure.
As for the dip, you need to PH and temp adjust it to match the tank water that he is in. Set up the water, heat it and buffer it up until you have a match. If you don't do this, he may go into shock.
PM me if interested, I can get you some formalin.
Malachite Green has also been reported somewhat to work, can you get that?
Either way, get that qt tank set up, you will need it.

 

[grimlock3000]

Yep, I can get Malachite Green. "Quick Cure" is just Malachite Green and they push that stuff like drugs all over the place. I still might take you up on the offer for some Formalin though, then I could put some in the medicine cabinet. I will see how this goes. I want to dip this fish ASAP before it gets worse.

I have some Kent ProBuffer to help raise the PH in the freshwater dip water. Is there anything that stabilizes PH faster? I use the Kent in my saltwater mixing bin for a day or so before even testing it. Baking soda maybe?

I will check on the status of my QT tank when I get home. It is in my basement and got moved a few times, I gotta find which box the tank is in. If that goes well, I can start mixing up some salt in the tank tonight.

 

[quarryshark]

Baking soda will work, but the buffer should work just as fast IMO, especially is a small bucket. Just add a little at a time and test. It's a plus if you have a PH monitor and run an airstone to mix it up faster.
I will bring the formalin to work tomorrow in case you need it. I have daily UPS pickups and could get it right out.
Dipping is stressful, don't be alarmed if he just lays there. If he starts trying to jump out or is spitting water at the surface, thats when you abort.
Try to go 5-7 minutes if he can handle it and put him in the qt tank. Thats what I would do under the circumstances. Then you can decide what med you want to use.
I posted a link to this thread in the staff forum to see if anyone has any other idea.

 

[grimlock3000]

Well, the QT tank will not be ready without some salt mix time so I am going to have to dump the fish back in the tank after the dip tonight. I only keep about 3 or 4 gallons of mixed salt in my bin. After this, I will probably increase that to 10g or so. I also question my current abilities to keep the QT tank stable enough to help the fish instead of making it worse. The only good thing about this situation is that I only have two fish to lose if I really mess up

If the dip tonight fails, the second attempt will be with Formalin and the fish will go into QT. Then I can treat the fish directly in the QT as needed. Will keep you updated...

 

[quarryshark]

I also question my current abilities to keep the QT tank stable enough to help the fish instead of making it worse.

Don't worry about that, with daily water changes to keep ammonia down it will stabllize itself. Med will mess up the biological filter anyway.

 

[grimlock3000]

That is good to know. I really like this Clownfish, it has some very cute tendencies. I am very optimistic that I can do the one dip and the fish can take care of itself after that. Probably a pipedream, but I gotta be positive

 

[quarryshark]

Good luck, will keep my fingers crossed for you.

 

[steve-s]

Yep, I can get Malachite Green. "Quick Cure" is just Malachite Green and they push that stuff like drugs all over the place. I still might take you up on the offer for some Formalin though, then I could put some in the medicine cabinet.

Quick cure is 99% formaldehyde, just dilute the solution and do the dip as suggested above. Formalin is just a 37% solution of formaldehyde. Be very sure of temp and pH prior. Temp is very very important and use an airstone if possible.

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/brooklynella.html

Cheers
Steve

 

[grimlock3000]

Is Malachite Green just Formaldehyde then?

UPDATE: Ok, I see that is it both Formaldehyde and Malachite Green.

Any comments on if I should do a 30 minute saltwater dip compared to a 7 minute freshwater dip?

 

[quarryshark]

No its a different med, I guess that "quick cure" that you mentioned earlier happens to have formalin in it. I have never used it so I didn't know.
But that is good new.
When I first got one of my Heni's, he had a case of Brooklynella. What I did was a SW bath with the formalin. 4-5 treatments and he was cured. A SW bath with the quick cure might be easier on him. You can leave him in the bath longer with SW (I think the treatment called for 30 min) and as long as you have an airstone in the container it was less stressful than a FW dip.

 

[steve-s]

Is Malachite Green just Formaldehyde then?

Nope, just the quick cure is primarily formaldehyde.

UPDATE: Ok, I see that is it both Formaldehyde and Malachite Green.

Correct.
99% Formaldehyde and less than 1% Malachite green

Any comments on if I should do a 30 minute saltwater dip compared to a 7 minute freshwater dip?

Don't do a FW dip, just do the 30 min SW formalin treatment. Be very very sure you watch the temp (not to go above 80°) and heavily aerate during the treatment using an airstone.

Cheers
Steve

 

[grimlock3000]

Got the fish in a SW dip now with .25mL of Quick Cure, which has the same Formaldehyde content at .6mL of Formalin. I am using a 1g container with an air stone on full, water is about 78F. Been about 10 minutes, fish is still swimming around fine in its container. I have the rinse container ready in case anything goes wrong. Back to check on the fish...

 

[quarryshark]

Ok, sound good so far.

 

[grimlock3000]

Fish has been in there 30 minutes now, still wiggling light a Clownfish, not swimming around much, he is just hovering on the side of the container opposite the wall of bubbles coming out of the airstone. Gonna try to go for 45 minutes, maybe 60 if is holds up...

Update, been 45 minutes, fish doing great. Going for 60, then pulling the plug.

//Update: Made it 60 minutes in the dip, then rinsed off the fish and put it back in the tank. Fish is swimming around normal. No word on the condition of the bumps on the fish, I do not want to turn on the light until the morning.

 

[grimlock3000]

I found my QT tank and it had a bunch of junk stacked in it (like candles) so I decided to never use that for fish again. Gotta get another 10g...

Anyway, I feel like such a crappy fish keeper right now! The Clownfish was mostly better after the first dip and only had a couple spots left that were not going away. Tonight, I snuck up on him, and repeated the procedure same as before to see if I can get the last couple spots with another dip. I used tank water, the correct ammount of Formalin (measured in a medical syringe), temp matched the water, airstone running the whole time... Only problem is that this time, when I returned the Clown to the tank, it was simming all wobbly like it was dizzy. That was about 15 minutes ago when I put it back in the tank, the Clown might be a tiny bit better now, but it is still not normal. Maybe the second treatment was too long, but the fish looked OK the entire time. I hope the fish is better in the morning, I feel like I am going to puke right now because I may have hurt my fish

 

[quarryshark]

You time might be a little long. When I treated my heni, I kept him in the SW bath for about 30 Min and repeated every other day for 4 treatments.
Stupid question , but you are using SW for the bath right?
[/quote]
Anyway, I feel like such a crappy fish keeper right now
[/quote]
No way man!! You are doing everything you can.

 

[grimlock3000]

Yeah I used SW right out of the tank, mixed in the Formalin, stuck the air stone in the water for a few minutes, then added the fish and started the timer. If I have to do this again, I will stick with 30 minutes. The fish did look OK for the 60 minutes, but once it went into the tank it was obviously being affected by something. It is hard to judge the fish until it goes back into the main tank.

Anyway, the Clown recovered fine by this morning. I think. I watched the fish throughout the day and it appeared normal. I think I watched the fish so much I am not even sure what normal is anymore. When I added some frozen food to the tank, the Clown did the same thing it always does which was good. Only weird thind is that now my Clown sleeps in a completely different area of the tank. It would always sleep right next to the heater in the corner of the tank. Now it sleeps directly next to Maxi-Jet 400, completely different side of the tank.

 

[steve-s]

Be sure you are also monitoring the temp and pH throughout the treatment. Formalin becomes quite toxic above 80°.

Cheers
Steve

 

[steve-s]

Update?

Cheers
Steve