Flasher wrasse and formalin

mrbacony · Jun 9, 2021

Tomorrow I will be picking up a Carpenters flasher wrasse From my LFS. I plan to put him in observation qt (no copper). But before I put him in qt, I was going to use Safety Stop (formalin and methyl blue). I realize wrasses are more sensitive to meds, but will they handle formalin and methyl blue bath without issue?

Jay Hemdal · Jun 10, 2021

Formalin is time/concentration dose dependent. The range is roughly anywhere from 25 mg/l for 24 hours to 167 mg/l for 45 minutes (250 mg/l for cold water fish). Do you know the concentration and time of the safety stop?

To be honest, I'm not a fan of "dip and move" treatments. They really aren't 100% effective during one pass, so if there is an active infection on a fish (like flukes) they just slow things down a bit.

Jay

mrbacony · Jun 10, 2021

The package says to mix the contents with one gallon of tank water and soak for 45 minutes. It says there is 20ml in the package. But that may be 10ml of formalin and 10ml of methyl blue. Probably not enough to help long term as you suggested.
I ended up doing the bath today when I got the wrasse and it seemed to take it ok. He is not in my QT tank. Pretty stressed right now. He is hugging the bottom and barely moving. I am sure he will probably perk up ina day or 2.