Freshwater dip question

Cflip

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I know to slowly acclimate fish. What doesn't make sense is why bother if you are going to do a fresh water dip?
 

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Freshwater dip is used for the osmotic shock to parasites. It's also doing the same to the fish but you are then returning it to same water its body is adjusted to. So a short term stress that is used when needed. Change salinity in the tank abruptly, there is no relief in 5 minutes, relief only comes when they have adjusted to the change.

Also fish adjust more readily to lower salinity than raising salinity.
 
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Cflip

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Freshwater dip is used for the osmotic shock to parasites. It's also doing the same to the fish but you are then returning it to same water its body is adjusted to. So a short term stress that is used when needed. Change salinity in the tank abruptly, there is no relief in 5 minutes, relief only comes when they have adjusted to the change.

Also fish adjust more readily to lower salinity than raising salinity.


So if I'm getting a new fish shipped over do I still acclimate it first then fresh water dip or fresh water did then acclimate?
 

aykwm

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It is very important to acclimate the fish, especially since its being shipped to you so there will be ammonia build u too. I would suggest adding ammonia reducer to the water the fish came in while acclimating for temperature. Then you can slowly acclimate it to your tank salinity, ph, and other variables found between your water and the suppliers water.

I dont reccommend doing FW dip immediatly, let the fish relax for a day or two to settle down. Also when doing FW dip you need to ensure the temperature and ph of the fresh water match your salt water. The only difference should be the salinty which in case of FW is zero
 

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I use a quarantine and setup the tank ahead of time with the salinity set to what the supplier tells me they are keeping the fish at.
Once I have the fish, I use a small gauge needle and syringe to puncture the bag and take a sample, use packing tape to cover hole. I then compare the salinities and match the quarantine to whatever was in the bag.
Once I float bag for temperature match, I dump as much bag water as possible and put the fish directly in quarantine with no drip acclimation.
I don't do a freshwater dip as a matter of course on all new additions. They are observed and try to get eating before any meds or baths are administered.
My last fish purchase did need a FW dip, I did everything like normal but the fish went: bag, dip, tank.
Quarantine doesn't have to be fancy or even require medications(I do treat prophylacticly fwiw), think of it as an acclimation tank. The fish can recover from stress of shipping, get used to you, the foods you offer, lighting schedules, salinity can be slowly adjusted over a couple weeks, etc.
 

cmcoker

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Be careful adding prime to the bag water, I know many people do but more suppliers are keeping low level copper in their fish tanks. If the bag has copper in it, the prime (and other ammonia neutralizers) will make the copper toxic and kill the fish.
 

aykwm

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Be careful adding prime to the bag water, I know many people do but more suppliers are keeping low level copper in their fish tanks. If the bag has copper in it, the prime (and other ammonia neutralizers) will make the copper toxic and kill the fish.

Good to know that, havent heard about this over here
 

cmcoker

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Good to know that, havent heard about this over here
Yes, I doubt it would be a good idea to ship fish in copper water, and this may apply more to local purchases but better safe than sorry. If you can match salinity and temp, is just get them in fresh water asap. Even if that means using a bucket to have some water that is adjusted to match the bag and acclimating from there, imo
 
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It just seems like you will stress them out twice if you do the dip in a day or two. Would have to catch them again and then back again.
 

cmcoker

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It just seems like you will stress them out twice if you do the dip in a day or two. Would have to catch them again and then back again.
I only dip if it's needed, the fish I freshwater dipped before qt I suspected flukes. I still treated with general cure but the FW dip was to try and reduce them before he went in at. Otherwise I would only dip if I suspected flukes or as part of treating a case of velvet.
If it's a quarantine with just some pcv, catching is not all that hard. The same fish ended up with a bacterial infection that wasnt responding to the usual antibiotics. I ended up doing a daily 5 hour enrofloxacin bath, outside of the quarantine tank. He was caught everyday for 21 days. He's in the display now. This was a flasher wrasse, so not the hardiest but not the most delicate fish either.
 

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I use a quarantine and setup the tank ahead of time with the salinity set to what the supplier tells me they are keeping the fish at.
Once I have the fish, I use a small gauge needle and syringe to puncture the bag and take a sample, use packing tape to cover hole. I then compare the salinities and match the quarantine to whatever was in the bag.
Once I float bag for temperature match, I dump as much bag water as possible and put the fish directly in quarantine with no drip acclimation.

This ^^^ It's not always advisable to use an ammonia reducer in newly shipped fish unless you know what chemicals are in the water. Ammonia reducers can react badly with some medications or chemicals - like copper for example.

If you know what is in the water the fish is shipped in and absolutely HAVE to do an acclimation, then ammonia reducers are a good idea. :)
 

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