Goldfish with ich?

[ripvanrina]

Is salt harmful to fancy goldfish? I know they can't take high temperatures and salt sounds like the best method.
My friend got 3 goldfish on her birthday from another impulsive friend and now she's complaining of white spots on her fish, so I think i need to interfere and try and save her fishies.

 

[Menagerie]

I split this from Brian's sticky so you would get some detailed attention. I can never remember the rules when it comes to goldfish and ich.

 

[thatonegirl]

I've never known goldfish to be sensative to salt. You can increase the tank's temperature some, but I wouldn't go too high. Personally, I've never had to deal with ich in a goldfish tank, but I did use salt for something once with goldies with no adverse effects.

 

[SteveM]

Goldfish can handle salt treatment - some people even keep their GF in a little salt all the time as a preventative. They can also handle high temps as well as most any other fish, and without raising the temp it will take quite a while to actually get rid of the ich.

 

[ripvanrina]

ooh i didn't know that they could handle high temps
I'll have to run her my aquarium salt right away then, and see if she got a heater in her frantic fish purchases
thanks so much!

 

[dr_girlfriend]

Ad 1 tblsp per gallon and increase temp to at least 80. Goldfish are very salt and heat tolerant all the way up to 9% (but I wouldn't recommend that high of a concentration) and can withstand temps of 100F as long as adequate water agitation is oxygenating the water.
Slowly increase the salt level over a 36 hour period and leave it at that for 1-2 weeks. When you do a water change just measure how much you take out, so you can replace the salt. Be sure to increase the surface agitation as well. This is a surefire way to get rid of ich. Good luck!

 

[jsoong]

One other thing - this sounds like a cycling tank - what with the impulsive purchase, etc. Ich prob reared its ugly head becaused the fish are stressed from poor water parameters. Make sure to check the water for NH3 & NO2 and keep those levels under check with pwc's.

 

[ripvanrina]

will do
thanks!