Formalin

[Billy]

hi all,
This may be asked many times before !!

Has anyone used Formalin to treat fish disease before ?? Many website suggest Formalin to treat external parasite/disease!

Do it work well on velvet, gill/skin flukes disease??

My friend use (100%) formalin to treat his fish but sometime the fish is burnt from over dosage. He told me that it can also easily kill a tank of fish if not careful!!

Also will a LFS stock formalin ?? if not where else can you buy it ??

[weird]

Yes, usually in combination with malachite green. It is commonly sold as a "multi-cure" product. Works well for whitespot. However I find salt and heat the better treatment. But if salt and heat failed then I would consider using formalin and malachite green. You have to remove carbon from your filter, and increase the airation of your tank. I have heard of fatalities so reseach its application, especially with discus. The last time I used it was about 6 months ago so I am abit hazy on the exact treatment.

[Billy]

oh i didnt know "multi-cure" has formalin in them.

where can i find some pure formalin or high % formalin.

[kevkoi]

U can get formalin frm the chemist, but u really don't want to be playing around with pure formalin. If you want formalin (usually formaldehyde) use something like multicure.

Problem with it is that when used to treat fish, it will knock your filter bacteria right back and u will almost have to start cycling again. So yes, the disease is cured, but now u have to worry about amonia and nitrite spikes killing/stressing your fish! :lol: (Can't win! LOL)

Formalin is what is used to preserved dead things... just in case u didn't know. It kills bacteria and pretty much everything external... but at high enough concentration, it will preserve your discus for eternity! LOL

Kev

[dreamer]

thats why you dont treat the whole tank .... just dip the diseased fish into formalin solution ...

[Sean]

Hi Billy
I have used formalin or formaldehyde solution (37% soln) at a dose rate of 1ml per 38 lt of aquarium water. It worked well for me to treat the whole tank, but the idea of taking a fish out in a bath for 20mins or so sounds a good idea providing it is not too sick to take the stress. Just remember to have plenty of aeration as formaldehyde takes the oxygen out of the water. At this dose rate I did not have a noticeable effect on the filter i.e. there was no increase in nitrites or change in pH. Formaldehyde is a nasty chemical but doesn't last too long in the tank. I repeated the treatment after 3 days immediately following a 40% water change. I have clown loaches and tetras which were not effected by the treatment. Good luck
Sean