Prepare to remove fish or flush out salt baths with fresh water when fish first show signs of stress. Treatment procedures involve calculating the volume of the water to treat, calculating the dosage of salt to apply, deciding which treatment method to use, and determining the rate of salt to apply for specific diseases. Each of these steps is outlined in the following sections. The method of salt application depends on the disease organism, the fish, and the size and type of the aquaculture unit. Dip treatments involve very strong solutions to which fish are exposed for short periods of time, usually 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Prolonged baths are useful for treating fish in small tanks that can be rapidly flushed.
Strong solutions of salt are added to the water. Fish are held in this salt solution with aeration from 30-60 minutes or until they show signs of stress. Indefinite treatments are used when transporting or handling fish, or when dealing with large volumes of water, such as ponds, where low concentrations of salt are used indefinitely. Calculation of Volumes Knowing the volumes of your tanks and ponds beforehand is essential. The most common shapes of culture tank raceways are square, rectangular, or round tanks.