Is aquarium salt nessisary to treat ich with heat treatment?

[ripvanrina]

The article on this website says

most scaleless fish CAN handle these levels of salt

when referring to ich treatment. Just yesterday I added salt to my 25g for ich treatment and today all my fish are active and happy. In fact my 2 botia sidthimunki have been out playing all day, when they usually spend the day under rocks. Loaches are usually hardy enough to handle these levels of salt

 

[greenmaji]

the fact that it says that some fish cant handle it makes me think it has the possibility of causing minor stress to all FW fish.. but that is a theory that is just isnt panning out with other peoples experience.. its a very old medical treatment for FW fish but I always used salt dips not complete tank treatments.. I dont like using anything unless I find it nessisary... but I do have an open mind for change.. thanks for the input so far..

 

[Guest]

ok, ive tried keeping clown loaches twice, each time i had an ich treatement, treated with salt and heat, the clown loaches died 8O but my other fish did fine with the treatement. Ive read that the heat speeds up the life cycle of ich:
Life Cycle: "the first stages are called trophozoites and are highly resistant to drug therapy. Trophozoites mature into trophonts and leave the host, falling to the bottom of the aquarium or pond.These mature trophonts release from 200 to 1,000 tomites. These tomites move about looking for a host, which they must find within 2 to 3 days at 75° F (24° C) or they will die. Cooler temperatures will lengthen this time. It is this free swimming stage that is most vulnerable to treatment. It is important to note that these intermediate stages may also attach themselves to plants and be accidentally introduced into an aquaruim or pond along with the new plants. Once the tomite attaches to the host, it matures and the cycle begins anew."

 

[Guest]

i just found another article, from purdue University :
http://aquanic.org/publicat/state/il-in/as-459.pdf

"Probably the easiest treatment in indoor systems
for Warmwater species is to raise the water temperature
to 85°F for three weeks. Since Ich is a coolwatcr
protozoan, raising the temperature will kill the freeswimming
forms before they have a chance to
reinfect the fish."

Sorry, your question spurred me to do some more research. According to this article, the warmwater DOES kill the portozoan alone, without the salt. wich is really good and means i can keep clown loaches again, and if i get ich i will treat with heat alone, and i won't have to kill them with salt

 

[greenmaji]

By raising temps to above 86F one can kill all the parasites; generally, 4-5 days after the temps have been raised above 86F you will see a reduction in white spots on your fish. It is best to continue temps above 86F for at least 2 weeks to ensure all the parasites have been killed

I think the lack of carefull reading of this artical is why members have argued with me in chat.. I said that heat alone can kill ich and was told what you are telling me.. that the ich is only killed by the addition of salt.. It is true that the chloride ions kill the ich but ich can not survive the higher heat either...
And this is from experiance.. I have killed ich with heat long before the internet allowed me to read articals on the subjet..
In other words if heat does not kill freshwater ich.. post me a link to "actual reasearch and scientific facilities" published results of such reaserch findings..

 

[greenmaji]

Good Luck with your future clown loaches!

 

[rubysoho]

heat alone does kill ich, it just takes longer. They are saying the salt does not hurt/affect the fish (aside from scaleless fish). I don't see a problem with the company warning against use with specific fish. I also don't see a connection between those fish that can have salt, and others that don't. Scales are a pretty big variable between the two and just because it is bad for the scaleless doesn't mean it is bad for those fish with scales. If it were, then there wouldn't be such a huge amount of recommendation for the salt by all aquarist (most who can think for themselves and would no advocate it just because of a website or directions on a box).

Still, I go the saltless method.

Oh, one question... could the aquarium salt build up over time if you aren't careful? Since most people don't test for it, how would you know what is happening and what do you think would happen to the fish? Just curious.

 

[Guest]

i was saying that heat alone Does kill ich.. thats what that article said, it didn't even suggest using salt. And I would say it is a legitiment resource.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Do you mean does it build up during the process of the ich treatment or during the non-treatment time? During the treatment, you only add to the tank 1 dosage over a 2 or 3 day time period to avoid salt shock. Then you do water changes to slowly reduce the amount of salt in the tank. Eventually it will be removed from the tank due to your water changes.

 

[Guest]

well, from my research AND experience, the salt is not needed, it just helps, and it killed my clown loaches, so from now on im just going to use the heat treatement.

 

[greenmaji]

AshleyNicole... I was confused with your posts at first but you did retract the argument after doing more reaserch.. I think the confusion with the sientific articals is that most of them deal with outdoor treatment only and you happened to find one with indoor system treatment giving you the information you needed for heat treatment, Im glad that you found the artical actually Good Work! it helps clear up my origianal question.. I dont think that anyone should argue with you if they read your above post.. Just trying to point this out thats all

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I wasn't arguing. I was just responding to the question that she asked.