Treating Ich with salt?????

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waterlilly

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jan 24, 2005
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170
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Well in our 40 gal it looks like we have Ich and it may also be popping up in our 15 gal, my husband read today on some site that you can treat it with salt. Is this true if so have any of you done it? The fish that are infected do they die from it or not? Also how is the best way to set up a QT, can we use live plants or should we use plastic? Any advice would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance
 
Salt can be used, but you also need the tank temperature above 86F for a couple of weeks, this will kill the ich, the salt helps them breath at the higher temp/lower oxygen levels.

QT will not work with ich, you must treat the entire tank since it reproduces using the substrate.

make sure you increase the temp gradually, 2-3F per day... otherwise the fish may get stressed and be susceptible to more serious problems..


Perhaps moving the shrimp to QT will help them, since they seem to enjoy cooler temps.. (and they don't seem to get ich)

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=42702

There are many more posts in the first couple of pages which detail killing ich. :D
 
Thanks for the quick reply another Q do you know if the salt can hurt the shrimps we have?? And to reply about raising the temperature we have done that but when we brought them home i saw a few white spots but thought they where just part of the fish now the whole tank ir running around like my 2 year old had painted them with white out or some thing :|, so i think salt would be the best treatment. I know that a QT is not good for now but would like to know just for future when we set one up.
 
Salt is generally good for shrimp in appropriate doses (I know Brine shrimp require heavy amounts to hatch).. I'm not too sure about the temperature effect on them tho..

Sounds like it's pretty bad, But keep the temp up and you will see the white spots fall off.. If the temp is at or above 87F the life cycle will end there, (no more white spots appearing, just falling off)

Yes, QT is a good idea, esp. if the LFS you have is selling fish that are visibly infected. I generally inspect all the fish in the tank before I buy 1, if there are other fish with white spots, or sores, then you know the fish you are getting has probably got it.. but even then, QT for 4 weeks is generally a good idea..

Temperature is the treatment, salt is there to help the fish out, also adding an airstone or 2 to the tanks could help with lower oxygen levels (if not, and you have hob filters, then you can drop the water line a bit to make a splash, this will aggitate the surface and allow better airation.
 
QT at this point isn't an option. You're going to have to treat the entire tank because the eggs of the parasite need to hatch to be killed by the salt/heat treatment. This should take about 3 weeks.
 
Thanks today i'am going to get some salt to put in the tank, we have raised the temp but its a gradual raise in temp cause the tank is so big, let ya know how things work out thanks again for all your replys.
 
I hope you know to use aquarium salt, right?

No we did not use aquarium salt but we also did not use normal table salt we bought a salt with no addities in it what so ever he read about this prolem in his german boards and he found a name for a salt that can be used with no problems. I added it yesterday after noon and so far no problems and i did not add it all at once i added the first every two hours and then the last 3 every hour. We are thinking to maybe add just a little after every water change help keep it at bay is that advisable??
 
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