new disease treatment

[JohnsonSBK]

there is a new product on the market called Minnfinn i use it at work on koi fish and can say it does all that it says it does. i was wondering if anyone has used this on saltwater fish and if the results were the same? im working on getting some sick fish from a local fish store to see for myself.

 

[JHemdal]

JohnsonSBK,

That isn't a "new" fish disease treatment, just a different application of one that has been around for long enough to get EPA approval (Hydrogen peroxide). I'm not sure that the peracetic acid component has gotten approval for use in food fishes. The use of various oxidants to control fish diseases have been examined many time before - ozone, peroxides, bleaches, KMNO4, etc.etc. They all have two drawbacks: 1) There is often a very slight difference between the dose needed to treat the disease and the dose that will kill the fish (which is why these techniques are often only used on fish eggs, or in bare systems). 2) The available oxidant is always dependant of the organic loading of the system that "scavenges" the oxidant. So - tanks with higher bio-loading will require higher doses - and vice versa, so the dose is always a moving target.
That said - this product was one of the few that I've seen lately that will actually list its ingredients!

JHemdal

 

[JohnsonSBK]

JHemdal,

it seems you know a great deal about different treatments. your definatly right about bio loads although i can only speak for the product in the way ive used it (koi fish) it definatly has a high dependency on bio load. to counter act this we use it as a dip instead of a tank treatment. would you have any insight on the use of paracetic acid treatments in reguards to saltwater fish? how it would compare to say a formalin treatment?

 

[JHemdal]

I agree that this product would be much easier to contral as a dip treatment, the only caveat being that if the fish is then returned to the tank it came from, reinfection is likely.

Sorry - I've not used paracetic acid as a disease treatment, so I can't say how it would compare to formalin.


J

 

[JohnsonSBK]

JHemdal,

i have been using this product extensivly and i use a nuetralizer after about an hour of treatment. im some cases with high bioloads i havnt nuetralized it at all and the fish have been fine. my question is if i use say 100% dose and the bio load eats up 50% but i still nuetralize for 100% could i see negative things come from the nuertralizer which is sodium bicarbonate mostly. and is there any way to test for paracetic acid?

 

[JHemdal]

Are you sure you are using sodium bicarbonate as the neutralizer? The work that I've done with oxidant neutralizers has been with sodium thiosulfate - "hypo" or "fixer" from the DIY days of photography. I'm not certain what issues there are with overdoses of sodium thiosulfate. I know that you can safely add up to double the dose needed to neutralize the oxidants, but that is as far as I've ever taken it.

As I mentioned, I've never worked with paracetic acid, but if I had to guess, I would say that as an oxidant, it would react to a free chlorine test just like ozone, hydrogen peroxide, chlorine and bromine does. I would look for a presence/absence thing - get a cheap free chlorine test, (maybe from a pool supply store) one that has a DPD reagent. Then - test the aquarium. Any pink color indicates residual oxidants.....

Jay Hemdal

 

[JohnsonSBK]

ya its sodium bicarbonate and sodium thiosulfate, bicarb for the acid thio for the peroxide thats a good idea ill have to look into that