Freshwater dipping

[Sharkbait HooHaHa]

So I recently watched a video of a guy who was trying to rescue two purple tangs that were severely infected with ich. He found them at one of the big chain pet stores and got a huge discount on them. His first step was to freshwater dip them, and he left them in for 15 minutes. He then transferred them to salt water. I haven't been able to find all of the updates, but I know that at least one of the tangs was still alive an improving a week later.

As I was watching the video, I was wondering, would it make a difference (and be less stressful on the fish) if the dip was done in water with a very low salinity rather than pure freshwater. The point of the freshwater dip is to change the osmotic pressure in order to force the parasite to release. Has anyone ever tried using water that has some salt content? Presumably, the osmotic pressure would be significantly different, so I'm wondering if it would work.

I have treated fish with long term hyposalinity to get rid of ich, and I have done freshwater dips as well, but I have never done a dip in extremely low salinity.

Any thoughts?

 

[Mjrenz]

This write up may give you some help with your answer https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/freshwater-dip.248898/

 

[ZoWhat]

Any FW dip is only scratching the surface of the problem.

Like giving a cancer patient 3 aspirins with a Gatorade.

Imo any FW dip just stresses the fish out and usually leads the fish into certain death in 24hrs

Ich is like cancer, prevention is the best cure. Once ich has a stronghold on the fish it's a coin toss if they will survive. Too late searching for miracle cures with major ich breakouts.



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[Sharkbait HooHaHa]

Imo any FW dip just stresses the fish out and usually leads the fish into certain death in 24hrs

That's my take on FW dipping as well. I'd rather get the fish comfortably into a QT tank and dose with the appropriate meds (or hyposalinity if there is time). By the time the infection is bad enough for a FW dip, it's likely too late anyway--unless you are lucky.

The guy in the video did say that he was only doing it in order to try to buy 24 hours to get the fish properly medicated.

Of course, the real trick is avoiding the need for the dip in the first place.

 

[Sharkbait HooHaHa]

This write up may give you some help with your answer https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/freshwater-dip.248898/

Thanks, that was helpful. I'm pretty sure I watched that same video about a year and a half ago when I had an infected fish. That was when I learned about the importance of a QT tank!