Preventive Dips VS Quarantine Tank
 

Ok so I was thinking it over. If you get a fish from your LFS and dont want to put it in the main tank due to effects of ich contaminating main tank etc, why waste your time Quarantining for weeks when you can give it a dip? So now the factor of ich or undesirable parasited entering your main tank in factored out the only remaining problem is that the fish could die due to stess of the whole process (salinity change?). What i'm asking is can you get away with just dipping your fish in a formaldehyde/freshwater bath instead of quarantining as far as spreading ich goes?

Dips dont get internal parasites.

QT, Eliminates all parasites.

I dip + QT.

Medicate my QT with Copper etc etc while its in there

all fine and dandy 4 weeks later

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11571427#post11571427 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by OnoIgotICH [/i]
[B]Dips dont get internal parasites.

QT, Eliminates all parasites.

I dip + QT.

Medicate my QT with Copper etc etc while its in there

all fine and dandy 4 weeks later [/B][/QUOTE]

I do the same thing, better to be safe than sorry.

Dipping wont stress the new livestock out too much??? Why bother dripp acclimating them for salinity changes for hours if your going to put them straight into freshwater? isnt that too stressful?

Dipping creates massive stress on the fish but doesn't kill the ich. There are more than the visual signs of ich that can be on the fish. There can be ich embedded under the skin, in the gills and in the process of falling off of the fish itself. Dipping in a freshwater bath with chemicals will not kill all forms of the ich on the fish. May kill one form but not the others that are still eating the fish and that will fall off and multiply after the fish is in your main tank.

Dipping will definately not rid a fish of Ich. It might reduce the quantity of the parasite but not enough to prevent an outbreak

ive never qt or dipped anything, provide a stress free environment, spot on water parameters and soak food in garlic juice and kent marine-c..................watch ich disappear

You haven't had real ich then -what you've described will not make cryptocaryon disappear, let alone velvet.

And nor will dipping - the fish will be dead long before parasites embedded below the fishes slime coat and skin surface.

Read the articles in the fish diesease section.

^^^ Seriously, this is advice that you should think twice about. Playing Russian roulette with the lives of your fish and all inhabitants in your reef tank is NOT advisable.

OOPS, that was about jenni's post