Is aquarium salt nessisary to treat ich with heat treatment?

[greenmaji]

Thats the jest of my question... I dont think that salt is nessisary and recently in chat Ive been told that Im wrong.. I have read and belive that salt is its own treatment for ick.. and that temperates over 86 degrees kill ick so my question is why put your fish though redundant stresses to kill ick.. why not use the heat alone?.... salt could be used alone but it wouldnt speed up the life cycle of ick like the heat will and I think that this is a desired effect..
TIA..

 

[whitetiger_CJ]

salt is often used to ease the stress on the fish. raising the temp will no doubt stress the fish. I don't think it is necessary, but I always have. hth ~corey

 

[greenmaji]

Is there a link to a reliable source that says that salt relives stress on freshwater fish?

 

[Toirtis]

It is not neccessary, but it does help. Just remember to provide additional aeration when you turn up the heat.

 

[Menagerie]

When using both, you have a more affective treatment. The heat speeds up the life cycle and the salt increases the osmolarity just enough to kill the ich parasite. With both heat and salt, the treatment time is shorter and I have noticed no ill effects on my fish from salt or heat.

 

[BrianNY]

Good points. Although it isn't necessary to use salt, just shortening the life cycle of the ich reduces the stress to the fish.

 

[Jchillin]

I recall this debate... it was interesting to monitor it. If you recall, prior to my exiting, I mentioned that the heat came first and that salt could have adverse affects on bottom dwellers such as cories, botias and plecos.

I have personally used both methods...the first one did my albino cories in due to the salt.. if I had only known then what I know now.

Quite the spirited debate IMO...

 

[Zagz]

I am currently treating with heat only, and added aeration. I have too many sensitive fish and ADF's to risk salt. I'm learning from other's experiences. So far the heat seems to be working well, it's only been a week mind you.

 

[rubysoho]

I treated with heat only and my fish never looked bad for a single day (okay, accept the female betta who brought the ich to my tank but she cleared up very quickly).

 

[Zagz]

Is there a link to a reliable source that says that salt relives stress on freshwater fish?

I did a google search and came up with lots of results regarding this, reliable links, I'm not so sure but links all the same. For myself, it doesn't matter, too many sensitive fish and plants.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=salt+relieves+stress+on+tropical+fish?&spell=1

 

[mentallylost]

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/treatment_tips.php

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php

Both of these articles talk of ich and salt. On another note, I have been maintaining salt in my Cichlid tanks for over a year since my last battle with ich and have only had 3 (not counting the edible fry) fish deaths since. None of which have been due to disease.

 

[greenmaji]

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/treatment_tips.php

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php

Both of these articles talk of ich and salt. On another note, I have been maintaining salt in my Cichlid tanks for over a year since my last battle with ich and have only had 3 (not counting the edible fry) fish deaths since. None of which have been due to disease.

It seems the cichlid-forum artical is just reiterating whats on the back of AP's box of aquarium salt.... I see no sorces... If I had a book on biology it would help me.. I dont remember anything about fw fish needing salt in bio class.. I understand the need for eletolites but it just sounds like one of those things that needs close monitoring and I really dont think we are...
Did you purchase a hydrometer that can read low levels of salt content?
Do you know what the specific gravity of your water is?

I would think keeping the specific gravity as constant as possible would be a nessisity of keeping the fish from getting stressed with salt treatment

 

[mentallylost]

Is the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences extension a reliable enough source?

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/VM007

"It seems the cichlid-forum artical is just reiterating whats on the back of AP's box of aquarium salt...."

Maybe there is a reason for that???

 

[greenmaji]

osmoregulatory stress is relived apparently.. it helps them breath....
stll a little hokey to me but I buy it..

you still didnt answer my quetions though? :?

Did you purchase a hydrometer that can read low levels of salt content?
Do you know what the specific gravity of your water is?

and my reasoning for those quetions was..
I would think keeping the specific gravity as constant as possible would be a nessisity of keeping the fish from getting stressed with salt treatment..
is this wrong?

 

[mentallylost]

No, I do not use a hydrometer or refractometer to measure salinity.

Did you read the article? It is recommended against using these.

"...a test to measure chloride concentration (ppm) should be used rather than a test that uses a hydrometer or refractometer to measure salinity."

 

[greenmaji]

No, I do not use a hydrometer or refractometer to measure salinity.

Did you read the article? It is recommended against using these.

"...a test to measure chloride concentration (ppm) should be used rather than a test that uses a hydrometer or refractometer to measure salinity."

I read the article, it pertained to raising food fish... not aquarium fish.. and do you test for parts per million for salinity in your aquarium? If so were did you get this or these tests? Do you use a triple beam balance scale to measure your salt in grams?

I have about 3-4 more questions and there just getting at this..
This seems like a risky treatment if its not kept stable and measured.. its just like anything else.. temperature fluctuations are bad.. PH fluctuations are bad...
So... salinity fluctuations are bad as well... I know it isnt talked about anywhere but its a given in my mind.. you cant do anything to your fish without keeping things constant and long term treatment of salt would need to be measured for stability in my mind or your asking for trouble... Am I way off base here?

 

[Devilishturtles]

and my reasoning for those quetions was..
I would think keeping the specific gravity as constant as possible would be a nessisity of keeping the fish from getting stressed with salt treatment..
is this wrong?

The specific gravity of sea water and most used in SW/ Reef tanks is 1.023. Brackish water tanks have a SG of usually around 1.005 to 1.008, give or take for higher or lower level brackish fish. Adding the recommended treatment dosage of Aquarium salt raises the SG to only 1.002 - 1.003. So...how can this effect a fish too much? I know some fish are not tolerable to salt levels, but besides those. Treating in a community tank with hardy fish, I added salt to my fish when I treated to ich once, and they all lived happily ever after. The raise of salinity is so minute, it's barely even noticeable. I even add it after most water changes. The salt effects the ich particle mostly, and not the fish. That is my main point.

My two cents. 8)

 

[Menagerie]

Devilish is right. The salt added does not affect the fish. Only the parasites are affected. This is why those that add salt all the time do not notice a problem with their fish. Personally, I never measure the salinity when I treat for ich and I rarely check the salinity in my brackish tank. Fish did not evolve in a static environment and tiny change in salinity will not affect the fish. However, if you bring home a brackish fish from the LFS that was kept in FW (aren't they all??), you need to acclimate the BW fish slowly while it's in QT. As an aside, the salt used to treat ich is aquarium salt and not marine salt. Aquarium salt does not have all the minerals and fairly dust needed by brackish and SW fish and is perfectly safe to put in during the treatment of ich.

 

[Skyrmir]

I'm still just a newbie around here, but I am nearing the end of an ich treatment right now using salt on my Danio's, swordtails, Pleco and Snail. Seeing as the wife gives me dirty looks every time I go to spend money on the fihs tanks, I haven't been using a heater at all. (Tanks stay solid at 25C/78F)

Using 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons of water, my Anachris is healthy and growing, the danio's actually spawned one morning in the quarentine tank. And the rest of the fish/snail are all eating good and looking better. At this point there are only a few spots left on two of them, and they've been in the salt for 8 days now.

All together, just using salt it's going to take about 2 weeks to be clear of the Ich. I'm assuming if I'd had a heater then it would have been a bit quicker. But as I'm learning with fish keeping, quicker isn't always better.

 

[krazymom]

I had success treating ich through the month of June with heat only. My dojo loaches and pleco had it the worst and the white tetras got it pretty bad too. When I turned up the heat they looked better within two to three days and all my fish were fine the rest of the treatment. I just left the heat up till the end of June to make sure it was gone. So It has been 11 days now and all my fish are still looking great! I didn't want to use salt with the loaches and pleco, I was advised that scaleless fish don't so well with salt.