OMFG help!

[P@UL]

ok i'll try it i guess but how would salt make breathing easier?

thanks for the advice

[Shayesmommy]

Salt

http://www.bestfish.com/fwsalt.html

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/treatmen...altiinfresh.htm

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=AP1423

Loach profiles-

http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/637.htm

Some reading material. I hope that helps and your fish get better. Goodluck

Edited March 9, 2007 by Shayesmommy

[Terrie Lee]

Paul, please do note that table salt will not do. It has addtives in it that will kill your fish. Kosher or pickling salt is what you are looking for.

Do NOT put table salt in your tank.

[k9outfit]

Just want to add that you don't need to stress over the salt with your clown loaches. I always add 1 TBS pickling salt (Sifto coarse grain salt from Safeway) & 1 TBS Epsom salt to every 5 gallons of water for all my Africans. I had 6 clown loaches in one of my tanks for well over a year, 'til I got rid of them, with absolutely no issues - including never any ich.

[nyb440]

Paul,

Would you happen to have a small tank, say 5 gallons, that you could use to treat the molly in? If the ich has only affected the molly, this may be your best route, although I would still keep your main tank at an elevated temperature for a while. If you do end up treating your main tank, you might consider going with Maracide at a 1/2 dose. Maracide tends to better tolerated by sensitive fish, such as clown loaches, than malachite green based meds.

And, Paul is right, clown loaches do have scales. We just tend to refer to them as being "scaleless" as these scales are very small making the fish look smooth.

[NatureNut]

what does charcoal do is it carbon?

I didn't notice an answer to this (but only had time for a quick scan). Carbon filter (black) is also known as the charcoal filter.

[Sam Chicklets]

what does charcoal do is it carbon?

Carbon or charcoal will remove the medication from the water.

[P@UL]

ok

[midgetwaiter]

Paul, please do note that table salt will not do. It has addtives in it that will kill your fish. Kosher or pickling salt is what you are looking for.

Do NOT put table salt in your tank.

This is a myth, regular old table salt is just fine.

[Krystle]

Paul, please do note that table salt will not do. It has addtives in it that will kill your fish. Kosher or pickling salt is what you are looking for.

Do NOT put table salt in your tank.

This is a myth, regular old table salt is just fine.

Can you go into further detail about this? I have always read that the anti-caking agents used to keep table salt free-running (like Yellow Prussiate of Soda or whatev) were harmful to the fishies in large doses?

[BooUrns!]

Paul, please do note that table salt will not do. It has addtives in it that will kill your fish. Kosher or pickling salt is what you are looking for.

Do NOT put table salt in your tank.

This is a myth, regular old table salt is just fine.

Can you go into further detail about this? I have always read that the anti-caking agents used to keep table salt free-running (like Yellow Prussiate of Soda or whatev) were harmful to the fishies in large doses?

I beleive that is a matter of debate. There is an arguement that the trace amounts of anti-caking agent and iodine are in regular table salt are in such small quantities that they would have no impact on an aquarium population. I tend to err on the side of caution and use the kosher/pickling salt. It's cheaper and I know there is no inherent risk to my fish.

I have tried both the salt/heat method and malachite green method for treating ich. I found the salt method to be less destructive to the biofilter but it took more time. Two of my long tailed comets had their tails pruned while waiting for the ich cycle to be halted (both tails eventually recovered). I have used malachite green to treat ich (and aeromonas on one of my koi) and found it to be fast and effective. On the downside, the biofilter takes a heavy blow from all the copper (malachite green is copper solution) and the hospital tank gets stained green.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

[nyb440]

I wouldn't worry about adding table salt to an aquarium. As BooUrns noted, any additives are in small proportions. The anti-caking agent that you speak of, yellow prussiate of soda, is sodium ferrocyanide. I know some people can get their knickers all knotted up after hearing the "cyanide" part of that (at least a few of my undergrad students did), but the Fe-CN bond is really strong, so you won't have to worry about the release of CN-, unless your tank has a pH of around 1.

For the record, malachite green isn't actually a Cu compound, it is an organic dye. Although, that doesn't mean that Cu might not be in the ich-medicine formulation.

[P@UL]

good news my molly is back to normal thancks for your help and yes i got a wonderful deal on a brand new filter but do i neeed to add filter floss?

[Osprey]

Which treatment did you end up using, Paul?

You're not out of the woods yet. Ich has a dormant stage; it can hibernate as cysts in the gravel. It will probably come back for another cycle. Raising the temperature forces the ich to speed up it's life cycle, giving the ich parasites less time to find a host (so they starve to death). I have actually cured ich with heat alone in the past. Keep the temperature raised; when you don't see any signs of ich for three weeks, you'll know you're in the clear.

[P@UL]

i added a spoon of pickle salt but not a lot