PlanetCatfish.com

Sometimes it's mentioned to give a fresh imported fish a "dip" in a bucket with formaldehyde solution.

BUT very annoying is that they never give the concentration they use, and if it's dipped in that concentration or that several drops of that concentration are added to a bucket with 2,5G of water or something.

not a mistake you want to make with any fish.

btw it's a treatment against gill- and skinflukes (worms) for wildcaught fish.

anyone knows what exactly the concentrations are and how you use this treatment with ALL the nifty details?
tnx

Have a look on some of the Discus forums. Theres a whole lot of info on dipping fish in baths of salt, formaldehyde and other harsh chemicals.

I have salt dipped my Discus on a few occasions and the effect is amazing. One this I do know though is that the scaleless fish and armour plated fish dont like salt, at all.

Two web sites to look at are:

http://www.ukdiscus.co.uk
http://www.dph.nl

Hope this helps

Tom

PS, formaldehyde is a known carcinogen and is used to embalm bodies - Be CAREFUL

I know about the toxic properties of formaldehyde*; wasn't planning to go at it without gloves and a well-ventilated room.

tnx for the links; unfortunately neither yielded any results with searching for formaldehyde or formaline.
anyone else knows about it as well?

*studying chemistry and biology for 5 years helped; but in those days we prepared and dissected so many animals soaked in the stuff that I'm probably not suitable for a normal burial.
my body's likely to be put in a lead barrel and dumped in some old saltdeposit to avoid humanity from going extinct

Sid,
I have been doing it for years. That said, I do not have a specific formula or mix ratio. I place the fishes in small groups in a small tank with about a liter of water and add about 10-15 drops of a commercial formaline solution. I leave them until they start to look a bit disoriented. I have had such success with this treatment that I give it to fish I buy from wholesalers/retailers that look rough or came from a tank with ill tankmates. I would not suggest this method if the fish is coming from a good place and appears healthy.
-Shane

great advice, Shane!
knew I read it somewhere, perhaps in a post about collecting fish.
any idea how strong the commercial solution is?
this stuff isn't easy to get here, so I might end up with getting it through chemistry at school and then I have to make that solution myself.

I only plan to use it on fish from disputable sources, rough tanks or by-catch wildcaught imports; but unfortunately when getting rare cats or c!chlids I'm often depending on those.

Recently I had to treat 2 Lophiobagrus cyclurus that came from a tank with a massive gillfluke infection.
despite the Lophio's being healthy (2 Haplotaxodons died from the parasites in that tank), I'm not risking -for example- my granulosus and so forth.

unfortunately the treatment I currently use lasts at least 10 days
you have to dose, wait 5-10 days and dose again.
the medication is good, but sometimes 2 fish occupating 2 quarantaine tanks* can be quite a problem if other fish are arriving as well from a WC import......

*nasty toxic territorial buggers like L cyclurus adults can and do go mideaval on each other in a quarantaine tank!
their toxins (wich they can shed when stressed, for example when getting medics!) prevent the adding of other fish for a wormtreatment as well....

In the US, hobby grade formalin is <3% formaldehyde. It can be used as either a long or short-term (dip, at higher concentration) treatment. I find the latter more effective. Also, it acts synergistically with Malachite Green. Do not mix with potassium permanganate unless you want to blow yourself and your fish up.

The instructions for Kordon Formalin 3 can be found here:
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/meds/medication1a4.html

That was a very useful link, Dinyar!

and, no, haven't applied yet for Al Quaida membership, wasn't planning on any explosions in the near future

I know about the qualities of potassium permanganate; having made termite a couple of times.....mixing any medications is a very bad plan anyway.

This link might also be interesting: http://www.fao.org/docrep/field/003/AC278E/AC278E00.htm

Standard recommendations are 150 ppm for bath (30-60 mins, with "vigorous aeration, remove fish instantly if they show signs of poisoning"), 25 ppm for prolonged exposure.

1 ppm = 1 ml of 37% formalin stock solution to 100 liters of water.

tnx man, it gets better and better.

I bookmarked this thread