Thoughts on Pyhthon and spreading disease

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redtailfool

Dovii
MFK Member
Feb 17, 2005
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I always wonder what are the chances of spreading disease from one tank
to another when you do water changes using a python?

I have a hospital tank right now treating a very sick fish. Im nuking this guy
as much as i can and also doing daily water changes. But i also do regular water changes on my other two tanks. Sometimes its not possible to do the 2 first and then the hospital later.

What are the precautions i can take ?
what are the chances of contaminating the "clean" tanks?
 
A lot of that depends on what exactly you're treating. Protozoans/parasites will be more easily spread this way. Bacterial or fungal infections are not so easily spread. I usually use a seperate hose for my q tanks just to be safe. But if you use the same one, and you're dealing with a more contageous form of infection, you might consider sticking the python in the freezer for a few hours after contact with the sick tank. Or you might run very hot water through it as well.
 
i am just depending on good ol chlorine to kill the pathogens. =(
or maybe i should dry it out thoroughly..
 
With as many tanks as I have, I can't supply hoses and nets for each tank. So, I use a 50:50 mix of bleach and water in a bucket for the gravel washers and a bin for the nets. I just rinse them off well before using them in the tanks.
 
Oddball said:
With as many tanks as I have, I can't supply hoses and nets for each tank. So, I use a 50:50 mix of bleach and water in a bucket for the gravel washers and a bin for the nets. I just rinse them off well before using them in the tanks.
Click to expand...


thats a good tip Phil .
 
I have put a power head in a bucket of bleach water and pumped the water thru my python hoses to clean and sterilize them. I put the other end of the hose (oppisite end of where I connected the power head) back in the bucket so I could circulate the water. I was mostly doing this to get that black/green stuff off the inside of the hose. After I run clean tap water to rince out the inside of the hose. Works great....

Joel
 
Rather than using bleach, I use a different mixture of chemicals for my 'Netsoak'.. Never thought of that, but if disease was a worry, you could dip the python in this solution. It is a heavy concentration of aquarium salt, methylane blue, and malachite green..
 
Freezing and drying and even hot water will not help with many protozoal or multicellular parasites, it will kill some but many will go dormant if frozen, and encyst if dried or heated to anything less than boiling. The 50/50 bleach, Mile's stew of salt and meds, and a 10 minute dip in hydrogen peroxide 3% will all kill even the harmless tartigrade which can even survive short periods of boiling. Any of these will even destroy viruses if the fixtures and hoses are thoroughly soaked for a couple minutes and all could be reused if kept in a sealed 5g bucket between uses. I wonder though if soaking the tubes in Mile's mix would discolor the plastics.
 
Use non detergeant bleach only and then rinse in fresh water. DO NOT use detergeant bleach as it leaves soap residue.
 
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