A simple way to fight against parasitic infestation on saltwater fish is to give them a quick freshwater dip or bath. This easy and effective treatment is often use as the first step in treating parasitic infestation prior to move the fish into a quarantine tank for long term tratment.

By ‘dip’ we mean a short immersion of fish into prepared water (freshwater).

Setp 1:
Make sure to clean all equipment you will use for this treatment with RO/DI or distilled water.

Step 2:
Add RO/DI water or distilled water to a clean container. Make sure pH is the same as it is in your quarantine tank. Always calibrate your pH meter before to use it! Beacause some cooling will occur, it is best to adjust bath water to about 3F above the temperature of the quarantine tank. It is always best to add 2 drops of Methylene Blue per liter of water. Methylene blue helps calm the fish and makes breathing easier. At the same time, it will make life difficult for some parasites.

Setp 3:
Once the freshwater dip is ready, acclimatize your fish to the water of your quarantine tank (the tank where you will quarantine the fish after the freshwater dip and before to add it to the community tank).

Step 4:
Place the fish in the freshwater dip container. Do not pour the water from your main tank or from the store in the container! Use a net to move the fish from its bag to the container and make sure to rinse the net well after. The fish should stay in freshwater for a maximum of five minutes. After 5 minutes, check your fish and live it there for an other 5 minutes. Repeat this until the fish has been in the bath for 30 minutes or until the fish is in legitimate danger or until it looks like the fish is giving up and stops swimming around. Don’t freak, fishes can handle an hour in this bath. Remember to watch the fish closely while in freshwater and don’t worry if it thrashes around at first.

What you need to do is to look closely at the fish to see how it is breathing. Don’t worry about rapid or normal breathing during the first few minutes. The methylene blue should calm the fish down shortly. The bath should be stop if the fish breath very fast or not at all.
Tangs and few other fishes will often sink at the bottom of the bath and play dead. In that case, prod it gently with a rod or spoon to see how it react. If it flops or swims then falls over, it is okay. It will most certainly swim around once some time goes by.

Step 5:
When time has come to stop the bath, slowly sink the container used for the freshwaterbath into the quarantine tank so that the fish can quietly swim out.

This is it! To reduce stress, turn the light out for several hours. Then follow normal quarantine procedures.

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