Might have to eat my own words re: quarantine

[TimT]

Hi Mindy,

Originally Posted by Myka

Where do you get the info that Formalin is worse for fish than copper?

Compare the health effects of Formalin(burns, blindness etc) to the health effects of copper(irritation etc). Here is some info from the MSDS for 37% formalin.

ACUTE HEALTH EFFECTS

Swallowed:

Toxic if swallowed.

Will cause burns to the mouth, mucous membranes, throat, oesophagus and stomach. If sufficient quantities are ingested (swallowed) death may occur.

The methanol stabilizer in solutions is a cause of visual impairment and possible permanent blindness.



Eye:

Will cause burns to the eyes with effects including: Pain, tearing, conjunctivitis and if duration of exposure is long enough, blindness will occur.



Skin:

Toxic by skin contact.

Will cause burns to the skin, with effects including; Redness, blistering, localised pain and dermatitis.

The material is capable of causing allergic skin reactions and may cause skin sensitisation. Toxic effects may result from skin absorption..



Inhaled:

Toxic if inhaled.

Will cause severe irritation to the nose, throat and respiratory system with effects including: Dizziness, headache, in-coordination, chest pains, coughing, respiratory paralysis and or failure.




It only takes 60 to 90ml of it ingested to kill a human.

When you do a Formalin bath on a fish you are burning off the protective slime layer, burning it's eyes, mouth, gills, throat and stomach.

With a FW bath non of these things occur.

With a copper treatment the fish is exposed to 0.26mg/l of ionic copper. Fish can survive exposures over 0.45mg/l of ionic copper.

Something else to consider is that 75% of the fish in this hobby have been cyanided when caught... so their lives are already shortened considerably. Exposing them to a little copper for a short time is not going to do to much, a lot less than the damage inflicted by the parasites. The problem with copper is that people don't generally have a reliable way of testing the concentration so they over/under dose. Sadly the fish usually dies either way.

Cheers,
Tim