<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13682275#post13682275 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kevin2000
It's huge because formalin is dirt cheap and readily available (with an apparent exception of England). Thats the same bottle that I purchased as part of my QT med kit - I use the dosage outlined in ATJ thread previously provided in a smaller specimen container for every fish before they go into QT.
Not sure how long you have been battling this problem .. but brooklynella tends to be a pretty quick killer and if this has been a prolonged issue you might re-consider the diagnosis.
Good luck.
I'm at the end of my rope, clutching for straws. The maintenance people that take care of my tanks have tried every thing from formalin dips, freshwater dips, with no flukes that would have come off in a fresh water dip, copper, prazipro, FURNASE, FURAN2, with no positive results. The disease appeared to be flukes with raised scales, as if there were flukes under the scales, but the fresh water dip would have shown that to be the case. The 225 gallon show tank is now the hospital tank because there are only 3 fish left. In the past year there must have been over 1,000-2000 gallons of RODI water changes to provide optimal water conditions. The nitrate is almost non existent, the ph is 8.3- 8.4, temp 77-78 F, SG 1020-10-23. The reason that it has come down to being Brook is the fact that it kills one by one. After one dies the next one becomes infected and dies. It has to be a parasitic infection that is not a parasite that goes through the stages of those exhibited by Cryptocaryon or Amyloodinium, because the 14 days of copper treatment would have wiped them out, and furthermore they have never had the white spots exhibited by the aforementioned. The only thing left would appear to be is brook. I believe that when A formalin dip was used in the past and was unsuccessful was that there was a cross infection. The fish was treated, went back into the show tank and was re infected by other carriers. At this point the last option is to dip all 3 at the same time in formalin in a separate tank, place them back into the 225, 3x as explained in the article by Terry B in the Sea scope periodical. They do not display the slime that a clown would, but that may be because they are not clowns. There are a Coris (sp?) wrasse, Naso Tang, and a Niger trigger. They are all aprox. 6-8", and are the only ones that have been in the tank the longest, maybe 2-3 years. The service company would just keep replacing the fish as they die with new fish. The thing is that these 3 original ones have survived as all of the others would die off one at a time. The symptoms are loss of appetite, hiding, ragid fins and the Naso gasping for air at the surface. That was because they shut down the water pumps to see what would happen when the micro bubbles dissipated. Obviously the micro bubbles are supplying the tang with enough oxygen and when stopped, thus the gasping. The last general consensus is brook. I have spent hours upon hours in the last few days reading everything I can find about this. I have moved my schedule around by weeks now to find out what is going on. I'm at my wits end.
