[thanpapa]

Μπλε μεθυλενη (methylene blue) εχετε χρησιμοποιησει ποτε? Οταν καποτε μπορουσα να πιασω τα ψαρια μου, τα εκανα baths σε methylene blue με πολυ καλα αποτελεσματα (κυριως για το oodinium).
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Methylene blue and fresh water! What? Disappointed? Hear me out, this stuff works! And it's very safe. Methylene blue and fresh water is useful for both marine fishes and many invertebrates, a help against ich, skin and gill flukes, funguses, velvet (Amyloodinium) and most other external parasitic and infectious diseases. It has several other added benefits. It's a good oxygenating dye, sort of like our blood's hemoglobin, aiding in keeping oxygen concentration high. It also is helpful in reducing light penetration, soothing frightened livestock. In fact, Methylene Blue converts methemoglobin to useful hemoglobin, reversing the ill-effects of nitrite and even cyanide exposure. These qualities are what make Methylene blue particularly useful as an "anti-fungal" for transporting stock and rearing eggs. Add to this the low cost, ready availability and lack of restriction on it's use and disposal and we have a winner! Score!
Should you have an impecunious situation, or are just a cheapskate (an inexpensive ray?), rather than buying Methylene blue solutions pre-made you can "make your own". Stock solid Methylene blue can be purchased from chemical supply outlets. Check your local "yellow pages". About one gram of dry material can be dissolved in about one hundred milliliters of water and about ten mils of this solution used per approximately one gallon of dip. Actual, keenly accurate measures aren't necessary as this material is safe and effective over a wide range of concentrations.
Okay, I'm Sold, How Do You Do This Stuff?
Here's what you need: 1) the intended livestock, 2) an adequate net and 3) bucket (no toxic chemical residues) or two, sufficiently large for the use at hand but not enough to allow the stock to thrash about in, and 4) dip material! Here goes:
1) Make up the dip mix. Use new or system water, adjusted/conditioned as prescribed.
2) Net, lift out the stock and place it/them in the prepared dip.
Thou Shalt Not Mix the Shipping Water in With The Dip Mix!Consider this just another (XI?) Commandment (no blaspheming intended). In fact, some fastidious types rinse the intended before the dip and after, before placing them in their next "home".
3) Watch Your Stock! What's that, number XII? No, I'm serious, unless you've done this a bunch or are using the suggested mellow Methylene blue, stay right there during the process. Your new acquisitions might just hop out onto the floor, you never know. Actually, the only reasonable way to gauge how much may be too much time to spend in the dip is to examine the dipped's behavior. If it becomes erratic (should I offer a definition? Nah!) with thrashing about, inversion, wild attempts at missile-impersonation, time's up.
4) Either rinse in an intermediate system-water only dip, or just net/lift the stock and place in the next quarantine/treatment or permanent system.
5) For long-duration baths, multiple-use of the same, OR the use of RO/DI water it is necessary to add a mechanical aerator (science jargon for bubbling airstone... pump, tubing...).