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Ich Problem-Overwhelming Number Of Recommended Salt Dosages


candi
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Hi guys,

I have been reading through endless threads and webpages about the proper dosing of aquarium salt for ICH, as I would prefer a natural remedy as opposed to chemicals. I notices my black skirt tetra had 3 cysts on it 2 days ago. I researched all my inhabitants again to determine the effects of salt on them and their temperature ranges. It seems they can all handle the heat as well as the salt so I slowly starting ramping the temperature that day, and yesterday it was holding at 83.3F. I have cories, plecos SAEs, tetras, rams, hatchetfish and amano shrimp in a 55 planted tank running an Rena XP3 as well as an Eheim Pro3 with weekly water changes. The problem is I have seen everything from 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons to 1 tablespoon per 1 gallon and I am surely confused. So, to be on the safe side, I had added 0.5 tablespoons per 10 gallons thus far over 6 hours premixed with aquarium water. Should I be bumping up the dose to 1 tbsp. per 5 gal, as this seems to be in the mid-range for all I have read?

Thanks so much!

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I have used 1 tsp per gallon and temp up to 92 with rainbows and others. The best success however has been a product for marine tanks -don't remember the name- but you can get it at aquarium illusions about $40 per jug, highly effective and 1 jug will be 2x what you need.

HTH

John

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I've done 90f+ for 2 weeks on 2 occasions with great success. Once with heavy, heavy salt, perhaps about 5 tbs per 10g. All the stock survived (blackskirt, cardinals, bloodfins tetras, ottos, even the snails lived). Plants got blown away but did make a come back. The second time with very little salt (2 tbs in a 35g) and just dosed Seachem Paraguard for 2 weeks.

You would be surprised how much salt fw fish can handle. Lesson learned, always use a QT lol.

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Last time I treated for ich, I started w. 1tbs per 10gal and gradully got up to 5tbs/10gal over 4 days. After 10days, I did 25%WCs every couple of days for a week, then back to my normal routine.

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This is another post I made----》

If you fully understand how ich lives, then it is easy to understand how to kill it. Ich is a parasite, which requires a host to live. Fish are the host.

Ich has three life stages. The first stage is the trophont stage, this is the feeding and growth stage of ich. It embeds on your fish, and essentially breaks down the cells around it and absorbs them. The fish's natural immune defenses will protect the trophont by encasing it with thickened skin and slime coat. It will grow until it reaches roughly the size and appearance of a grain of salt. At which time it sheds it's cilia, drops off of the fish, finds a home in the substrate and develops an outer shell. This shell is virtually impenetrable, and therefore ich is still protected through the second stage of life.

The second stage is the Tomont stage in which it lays in the substrate and begins multiplying. It will divide as much as 2000 times inside it's protective shell, but does not feed during this stage. After it has divided the hundreds of new ich parasites essentially "hatch" and sprout cilia. The free swimmers are called theronts. They swim around trying to find a host (fish). If they find one they attach and begin the trophont stage all over again. During this free swimming stage, ich is vulnerable to medication and other treatments. Furthermore it will die quickly if it does not find a host.

Time frames for each stage are extremely dependant on temperature. Higher temperatures speed up the life cycle dramatically. It may take ich several weeks to go through all three stages in a cool pond, while at 80*f + it will go through all stages in a matter of a few days to a week.

One of the reasons so many myths, surround this parasite is that treatment is mis-understood by many people.

Treatment must be maintained, for whatever time it takes to catch all parasites in the free swimming stage. It is vitally important to understand how ich lives in order to treat it properly and completely irradicate it.

Many recommended treatments are either not maintained for long enough time, or not a surefire treatment. There are many methods that might kill it, but can't be guaranteed. A method that isn't completely sure may be a big helper in the battle, but should not be used as a complete treatment IMO. Treatment must be maintained long enough to ensure that all ich is dead, it only takes one free swimmer to find a host and completely infect a tank again. Above 82* F, 3 days is actually enough time after the last trophont falls off of your fish. I always recommend, as do many people, extending treatment a minimum of one week after all signs of ich are gone. That way if you happened to miss seeing one on the fish, you still get the job done. 2 weeks would be extreme overkill, but then some people are happier with extreme overkill.

At the first sign of ich in a tank, you should begin treatment. Mark your calendar, if you don?t want to go through treatment repeatedly. ICH is fully protected while on your fish, and while in the substrate. It is vulnerable to treatment only during the few hours of it?s free swimming stage while it locates a host. With this in mind, when the ich spots are gone from your fish, it needs to be understood that you have not yet begun to eliminate ich. Treatment should begin immediately to prevent further infestation on the fish, But It will do nothing to the parasites already on your fish. Furthermore if you stop treatment after the fish look better, you are shooting yourself in the foot, and inevitably will need to treat again at some future point. Do it right the first time and put this little bug behind you.

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Hi Guys,

Thanks for the input! I have added another dose of salt last night and increased to 84F. As far as I could tell, with the lights off, The tetra has lost it's cysts. I haven't added any fish for about 3 weeks, and the last order I got was from a man on this forum, and his imports are quarantined so I don't think I picked it up from them. Just a weird freak attack I guess, I may have stresses them when I did a water change and forgot to plug the heater back in? I had previously read your post Jayba, thanks for the descriptive read! :) So, that being said, if the cysts fell off yesterday, I will maintain the heat with another dose of salt, for another week just to be safe.

Thanks!

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I'm glad this turned out well for you. It does appear that salt is both safe and effective. There are other treatments available that may be helpful if you run into a more resistant strain or have a fragile species that doesn't tolerate salt well. A range of 1-5 ppt is recommended in our Fish Diseases text. This can be measured with your refractometer as 1.001-1.004.

If you have a heavily affected fish, it may succumb to infection after treatment as it's skin is traumatized and injured after all the trophonts have left. Antibiotics may be indicated.

Ian Kanda AHT

Park Veterinary Centre

(780) 417 1119

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