Fresh Water Baths And Quarantine

[Uriel]

Do you guys use Fresh Water baths for your new fish and do you have any quarantine procedures. Just see people reccomending drip acclimitisation and then people saying they use Fresh water baths. Seems a little contradictory.

 

[-Nemo-]

I wouldn't do a freshwater bath without reason, it can be very stressful for the fish, not to mention they aren't the best remedy anyways. I recommend just setting up a quarantine tank and placing new fish in there for a few weeks and not to treat unless necessary.

 

[HappyGeorge]

I just acclimatise everything for an hour, 15 mins closed bag, 15 mins open and then slow adding of tank water, never lost anything yet. I know some do it for a lot longer but comes a point when I think the stress of being in a bag/container outweighs the shock of any water change. Never heard of freshwater dipping unless its to solve a particular problem.

I had Brooklynella on one of my clowns, it was looking pretty poorly so did a 4 minute dip in RO, she was very peaceful the whole time she was in there and she looked immediately better on removing her. A couple of days later she was clear.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as a treatment but wouldn't want to do it as a matter of course, would think the odds of losing a fish due to stress of being caught, stuck in fresh water, caught again and dumped in tank would be greater than the problems solved.

I am running a quarantine tank for my reef tank, only exception is stuff from my LFS Reeftank, if he has £5K of corals in a tank with a fish he has had for over a month in his shop I am prepared to risk it. Wouldn't do it with a normal LFS though, this guy is a one man band who I trust implicitly.