A MinnFinn Moment Vol. X

By Paul A. Curtis

Hope you have had a good summer! From all of my conversations across the country, it sure looks like a tough season for many. The long very cold winter has taken the lives of many fish and pumps, and has caused a long delay to the start of the pond season. All that we can do now is hope the nice weather lasts long into fall with a late arrival of old man winter.

Tech Notes and New Products

AquaFinn is on Yelp Help us spread the word about the benefits of AquaFinn and earn yourself a 5% discount on your next order! Write a review on Yelp (http://www.yelp.com/biz/aquafinn-escondido), then send a copy of your Yelp review with your next order. Limit one discount per customer.

AquaFinn is on Facebook I will be posting new products and information regularly, so please go to our page and Like it to stay current on MinnFinn and MedFinn news. You can find us at https://www.facebook.com/minnfinnmedfinn/.

AquaFinn is on Twitter I will be hosting fish disease discussions, so please go to the page and Follow it to collect fish health tips and tricks. You can find us at https://twitter.com/AquaFinnFish.

MinnFinn Max at PetSmart

PetSmart has started using MinnFinn Max at their fish distribution centers to reduce fish disease and mortality, thus improving fish quality to their customers.

MinnFinn Mini for Aquarium It is here and it turned out great! We are in a several aquarium fish stores now and it has been selling well and doing exactly what it is supposed to do. It continues to be effective for reducing the same types of diseases that MinnFinn regular treats in koi and goldfish, and is proving to be safe across a vast list of species with minor changes to the treatment protocols. More and more tropical fish producers have already tried it and many are now using MinnFinn exclusively or for

the majority of their treatment needs. It even works on clown loaches at the Koi and goldfish dose!

A unit of MinnFinn Mini will treat 220 gal of water and contains a bottle with 50 ml of MinnFinn, a 20 g pouch of NeuFinn, a plastic pipette to measure out the MinnFinn, a scoop to measure the NeuFinn, and a card insert with treatment directions. Sensitive tropical fish species such as guppies and tetras have been responding well to treatments at half the dose used in koi and goldfish while other more robust species like the cichlids and plecos can take the full Koi dose.

Please do not hesitate to call if you would like more information at 760-518-8170. It is good to have a viable and safe alternative to traditional medications containing carcinogenic formaldehydes and dyes like malachite green.

MedFinn Medicated Feed It looks like the industry truly needed a floating medicated feed with accurate dosing directions. Floating medicated feed allows you to see which fish is eating, so you can determine if further action may be needed for those not feeding. Combine this with the use of FDA-CVM criteria for Romet usage, and you have a powerful tool for fish keepers.

The use of antibiotics in the aquaculture industry is very highly regulated and restricted. There are only 3 antibiotics legal for use in food fish: oxytetracycline, Romet and florfenicol. All of these must be used under strict guidelines and only for specific pathogens to avoid creating antimicrobial resistance which could make future treatments ineffective. On a farm with lab facilities or at a diagnostic lab, the organism affecting the fish can be tested for sensitivity to various antibiotics, allowing identification of the most effective antibiotic.

In the world of home ponds, it is usually impossible to determine the most effective antibiotic, so medicated feeds currently on the market have included many antibiotics to maximize effectivity. This is very dangerous because the antibiotics that are not effective or in too low a dose will enhance antimicrobial resistance. If this is occurring, treatment of internal bacterial infections could become much more difficult or even impossible.

In the development of MedFinn, we have been careful to use the required dose and number of treatment days outlined by the FDA to minimize antimicrobial resistance. Our food delivers Romet-TC and is available in a floating 1/8” pellet in 1 and 5 lb bags. If a different size is needed, we can make custom batches in 25-pound lots. Pricing can be provided at the time.

To make it easier for the customer to determine how much feed they need, an online worksheet is available at http://www.aquafinn.com/products-minnfinn_med_feed.htm. Look for a link called “MedFinn Store Calculator Sheet.” On this sheet, you can enter the number of fish at each length (in inches), then the sheet will calculate the amount of food needed for the 10 day treatment.

With the success of the MedFinn medicated food, AquaFinn is working on an aquarium sized pellet for the home aquarist. Look for this product in the near future.

If you are interested in any MedFinn products, please call or e-mail at the contact info found at the bottom of the newsletter.

Alternate Application Protocol In the application of MinnFinn, the label has you apply the entire dose at one time. An alternative method that has worked well is to add it in steps. First add a half dose and watch the fish for 5 minutes. If all is going well, continue with the other half of the dose. This approach gives the first time user the ability to observe the fish’s behavior in steps and to become accustomed to the changes. For severely infected or stressed fish, it will make the acclimation to the treatment easier and reduce the treatment stress. When fish are already stressed, we need to ensure we minimize any added stress when we can.

Tank Oxygen Levels One of the reactions the fish have to MinnFinn is lethargy and often some piping (breathing heavily at the surface of the water). MinnFinn can be irritating to the gills, affecting either oxygen uptake or the release of carbon dioxide. To minimize irritation, we recommend increasing aeration during treatment, which not only ensures adequate oxygen but also improves product mixing. We have noticed insufficient oxygen when fish were placed in tanks that were newly filled with well water, which often has little to no oxygen. Koi can tolerate very low levels of oxygen, so did not show serious signs of anoxia until the MinnFinn treatment was applied, at

which point fish died rapidly from what appeared to be severe anoxia. The gill irritation appeared to reduce the fish's oxygen exchange below a tolerable threshold. In a normal pond, this is not usually an issue, but the supplemented aeration is good insurance and good for mixing.

Any Other New Products You Would Like to See? Here is a chance to voice any ideas for new products you would like to see. What weaknesses do you see in the disease treatment and health husbandry industries? Would a new net dip be good? What about a spray that you could use to safely sterilize bins and equipment?

MinnFinn Topical Treatments MinnFinn has been used very successfully as a topical treatment for severe lesions on the outside of Koi and goldfish. For example, serious mouth rot will be accompanied by a lot of dead tissue, which makes it difficult for a bath treatment to get at the cause or the problem. Use a cotton swab soaked in MinnFinn to clean the wound of debris, protect the wound from pathogens, and allow the medication to get at the infected site, eliminating the problem organisms and speeding healing. Swabbing has worked very well on some stubborn lesions.

If you are using Regular Strength MinnFinn, you can use it directly from the bottle. Just pour a small quantity into a small glass container and dip in your cotton swab. If you are using MinnFinn Max, you will need to dilute before you swab by mixing 1 (one) part MinnFinn Max with 3 (three) parts water. You do not need much, so just mix about one milliliter of Max with three milliliters of water in a small glass container and swab as described above.

AquaFinn Customer Service AquaFinn it is not just about selling treatments for your fish – we pride ourselves in having the best customer service in the fish industry. Lines of communication are always open to help with questions about doing a treatment or about the health of your fish. Our first priority is improving the health of your fish. Paul Curtis has over 20 years experience doing fish health work, with most of that in the commercial aquaculture field. He also has a great deal of experience in water quality and general fish culture.

Treatments from the Field

Casey Sparks from Pond World Distributing wrote: “Per our conversation the other day, I used MinnFinn to attack acropora eating flat worms on 2 of the corals in my personal saltwater aquarium. The 2 corals were a tri-colored valida and a Tenus. Both of the corals were exhibiting bite marks and degradating color of the flesh on the coral. I also noted egg strings at the base of the coral. These signs are classic cases for acro eating flatworms.

I removed the corals one at a time from the display tank and placed them in a small 2 gallon aquarium. The Tenus was dipped in Revive first for 15 min to try to get rid of the flatworms. I did not see any of the flatworms let go of the coral with this dip. I then placed the coral in the same 2 gallon tank and started with a 1/4 dose of MinnFinn for the tank. I started the 1 hour cycle and observed the coral. I also had a hermit crab and a couple of snails in the tank to see what happened to them. After about 30 min I was not seeing any signs of the flatworms or anything else letting go. I upped the dose to 1/2 for the next 30 min. I started to see some pests like red bugs start to leave the coral. I also saw the egg clusters look like they were letting go. I did not see any flatworms on this coral but I also did the other dip with Revive prior to this dip. I used a turkey baster and blasted the coral and a lot of the eggs and some flatworms came out. I kept the coral in the dip for 1 hour then neutralized. I put the coral back in my tank and since the color has come back in the coral and I do not see any signs of the flatworms. The second coral was a lot more dramatic. This coral is a tri-colored valida. This coral was exhibiting half of the colony with color loss and bite marks from the flatworms. I removed this coral from the tank and put it in the 2 gallon QT tank. I dosed the tank with 2 Ml of MinnFinn. I told you on the phone that it was 2 Ml per gallon but I was using 2 gallons of saltwater. The dose is 1 Ml per gallon. After about 10 min, I noticed the whole coral was alive with flatworms and they were running for cover. After about 30 min the flatworms were folding up like leaves on a tree and falling off of the coral. I used the turkey baster and blew the coral and flatworms were coming out all over the place. I neutralized the tank at 1 hour and then placed the coral back in the show tank. It has been 5 days and the corals color is coming back and the polyps are coming back out. I am very excited about this because to date no one has come up with a treatment that will kill these pests and not damage the coral. I will keep you posted on any other developments that happen.”

Jillian Leslie in Massachusetts wrote:

“Hi Paul This is Jillian the girl from Massachusetts who’s been talking to you about MinnFinn for the last few days. I just figured I’d send you another quick note. I used it in the small quarantine pond the same day (the one that has held my rescue fish for over a week) and they showed no signs of stress at all during treatment like my fish did. I think it may be because they are in a shaded area that gets little sun, and my pond at the time was in full sun. I did add two large aerators to both ponds during treatment. They came through the treatment great and looked markedly better today. I had one fish with a scale hanging off and a couple of small areas of redness from loosing other scales, and another that had a lot of bruising from jumping out of the pond and getting tangled in the net I had placed over the pond. Both fish look almost completely healed today. I’ve seen no more flashing in my pond and my fish have returned to being calm again (I still plan

on doing a second treatment to be sure all parasites are gone). So I have to say thank you for everything! I went to my second local pond supply store today, Pondscapes, to tell them my experience and they were immediately interested in carrying MinnFinn. As I left they were on the phone with Craig at Tranquil Gardens to find out more about your products. I will certainly be on the pond forums to back your products and share my results. Thank you so much for all of your help and suggestions, there are very few people out there that are willing to take the time to help and I am grateful.”

For more independent product reviews… … go to http://www.pondproductreviews.com/Parasitic-Koi-Medications/MinnFinn-p-1005.html.

The AquaFinn Product Lineup • MinnFinn Max: Treats 8000 gallons (large ponds) of water and is good for most all

external issues on fish • MinnFinn Regular: Treats 2240 gallons (small ponds) of water and is good for most all

external issues on fish • MinnFinn Mini: Treats 220 gallons tropical fish and 110 pond fish of water and is good

for most all external issues on fish. An excellent QUICK QUARANTINE prior to new fish entering the tank or pond

• MedFinn 1 lb: Romet based medicated feed and treats gram negative bacterial infections in and on fish. Will treat 6.8 lbs of fish for 10 days

• MedFinn 5 lb: Romet based medicated feed and treats gram negative bacterial infections in and on fish. Will treat 34 lbs of fish for 10 days

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For Availability Contact Your Local Retailer or Distributor

For Technical Information, Please call 760-518-8170 or visit our website at www.aquafinn.com