Fresh water dip

[plawrence5]

In what instances and circumstances should you use the fresh water dip? What is the correct procedure?

[ndas2976]

Fresh water dips are used to rid external parasites. Fw dips work great for getting rid of flukes but ich you might have to give several baths. Also fw dips are extremely stressful for fish. Be sure the temp. and ph match your tanks temp. and ph and the time for the dip should last between 5 - 10 minutes. Just be sure to watch the fish you are dipping carefully. If the fish starts laying on their side or labored breathing put the fish back into the tank right away. Each fish will react different to a fw dip, some will have no problem lasting the full 10 min. and others won't last 2 min. Be sure to do a little research to find out what fish species are more sensitve to fw dips, then possibly consider other treatments for the more sensitve fish.

[sir_dudeguy]

I use it on zoas. I've heard that you can use it on other things as well, but i never have.

For zoas, i acclimate them to the tank for the normal acclimation time, and then get a bit of RO water and put them in that for like 15 minutes. You'll see all kinds of worms/pods coming off that rock. Most will probably be good, but you may find a bad one every now and then. And then i just put the zoas in the tank after that 10-15 minute dip. Usually takes them a bit longer to open back up after a dip, but they've all done well for me.

[kevin2000]

A FW dip can be an effective treatment for some parasites (flukes, black ich etc) .. but FW dips are stressful and can do more harm than good unless performed correctly. Further .. the most popular use of FW dips is in the treatment of ich and FW dips are not effective at eliminating ich (some trophonts wll be buried too deep in the fish for dip to have any impact).

Heres a link which discusses how to perform a FW dip.

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

Hope this helps.