Reguarding: Dose for scaless Fish

[Lil'Fishy]

This is not realy a question but more of a caution, and please correct me if i'm wrong. Formaldahyde / Formalin is a very toxic chemical, even in small doses. It can cause extreme irritation in Humans, let alone fish. The fact that it could be deemed a carcinogen is also distubing. Why, oh why would this be somethign used use to medicate fish??

http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/FO/formaldehyde.html

http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/F5522.htm

http://www.proscitech.com.au/catalogue/msds/c004.pdf

 

[Menagerie]

The rough idea is to kill the parasite before the fish. In low doses, the parasite should die first and the fish should live. This is how most of the meds work.

 

[An t-iasg]

Yes, that's true -- you are choosing the medicine, which is the "lesser of the two evils" between this type of med and the disease/parasite.

I can't use any formaldehyde-type med -- I get a big rash on my arm or hand if I touch the water. Cheap gloves work, if they don't leak! Usually I will try to pick another type of medicine.