Salt for Ich

[DaisyTattoo]

I was posting on another site about ich and this is the response I got.

Salt does absalutly nothing to cure ICH, People use the Heat and Salt treatment to cure it, But The heat is what takes care of ICH, at temps of 85-86, the ICH cannot reproduce. Thus far killing all the ICH in the tank, the salt is more less a myth that supposidly helps the fish recover, But many including my self, Feel that salt does Greater harm than good! As Joe said, I would treat with a ICH med. Quick cure by Aquarium products is one of the best and is available at most petstores or wal-marts.

Any Comments on this?

[nursie]

I have used salt and heat and found it most effective. I would use the least noxious med as possible to treat a condition. WHat the salt does , IMO is to stimulate the slime coat production and get it off your fish sooner, which is a good thing. Daveedka had a great article about treating ICH here in the article archives. I followed it to a T...had no reoccurence since, lost no fish, and was very pleased.
I do watch my fish a lot, and I jumped right on it when I saw it and figured out what it was, so it was only visible on a couple of fish. I removed the obviously infected victims to a Q-tank, and treated them there and in addition treated my main tank.

[jason2894]

well i just used the heat and salt method for treating my quarentine tank and so far so good no more ich and its been 2 weeks.

[DaisyTattoo]

Well, lets say you cant get heat. Then will the salt method work? Lets say the tank is at 76* max.

[nursie]

As I recall, it's the heat that kills it. What do you have that you are concerned about keeping warmer or with salt? It's temporary...not permanent, list and maybe we can help

here is Dave's article. I had questions and pmed him, and he was a great help :D and a nice guy :bowing:

[Pufferpoison]

the heat is used to speed up the cycle, thus taking less time for it to stay on fish and then become freeswimming, which is the only time you can kill it. You can treat just with salt and achieve the same thing, just takes longer.

[DaisyTattoo]

I have been posting about a betta that has ich. This is the thread link...

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72248

So basically if the heat is what kills the ich, I have been wasting my time and need to use the meds. Should I take all the salt out of the tank before I use the Quick Cure aka malachite green?

[ele]

I treated my Pictus with heat and salt (actually...only salt did the job). At first I raised the temperature (slowly), but the fish were gaspering for air (I have an air pump), then I lower the temp. to the initial number and used only salt.

[DaisyTattoo]

I treated my Pictus with heat and salt (actually...only salt did the job). At first I raised the temperature (slowly), but the fish were gaspering for air (I have an air pump), then I lower the temp. to the initial number and used only salt.
What was the temp of the tank? Was it higher than 75*?

[Galaxie]

I was posting on another site about ich and this is the response I got.

Salt does absalutly nothing to cure ICH, People use the Heat and Salt treatment to cure it, But The heat is what takes care of ICH, at temps of 85-86, the ICH cannot reproduce. Thus far killing all the ICH in the tank, the salt is more less a myth that supposidly helps the fish recover, But many including my self, Feel that salt does Greater harm than good! As Joe said, I would treat with a ICH med. Quick cure by Aquarium products is one of the best and is available at most petstores or wal-marts.

Any Comments on this?

This is pretty much the opposite of Daveedka's article.

ICH Article (http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39759)

One of the key points here is that heat does nothing more than speed up the life cycle of the ich. Once the cycle is sped up, the parasite doesn't spend much time in its virtually indestructible state and moves into states where the salt can kill it. Keep in mind, its a pretty general statement to claim that heat kills ich, since heat at some level will kill any living organism. For ich, I don't think there is a safe heat level to kill it that won't kill your fish too. I consider 86 too hot for my fish & some strains of ich can survive to 90.

I recommend sticking to the precise instructions of this article. I've used it also and no ich has returned. In my case, I raised the temp to 84 degrees and used 2 tsp/gallon salt for a few months.

Jodi, I'd suggest giving the salt treatment more time, as eventually it will kill the ich parasite. Since you can't heat the water, you're going to have to be more patient as there is no way to speed up the ich life cycle.

I don't think I'd subject my fish to malachite green when such a passive cure as salt exists. Be sure to read this article about the bad points of medications.

Here's the link again (http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39759)

btw, send a link to the other site who claimed salt has no effect plz. Thx.

[DaisyTattoo]

Thanks alot Galaxie. I have been waiting for an answer like yours. I will keep up with the salt treatment. It would be much easier if it were my betta b/c then I would simply buy a larger tank with a heater, but this is not the case. I have read the article, but with all the contridictions I was starting to get confused. I do appreciate the answer and you have given me much more confidence in my method of treatment, so thank you! :)

[DaisyTattoo]

Galaxie, I did post the link on that site. I hope they do look at it although it is doubtful since they will have to get a username and password to see it, but I did warn them of that fact. I tried to copy and paste, but the site wouldnt allow that large of a post. Thanks for the help again.

[ele]

it was 79

[IceH2O]

I'm treating a tank with salt right now and the temp has been at 78 degrees. I haven't seen a reoccurence of ick in 2 weeks. If the salt wasn't killing them I'd be seeing more cysts as the 2nd cycle of ich would attach to the fish.

My other tank is at 84/85 degrees with salt with no sign of ich. It did disappear faster in this tank. About a week versus 2 weeks in the other tank.

Saturday I'll start doing water changes to remove the salt.

[daveedka]

Just a couple of Quick notes:
Don't be suprised at the rumors, mis-information and confusion. The reason the article was written is that there is more incorrect information than correct information out there. If you really want to get deep into ich studies and accurate information, research the fish farm industry. People who make a living keeping fish alive pay for good scientific research and are far less prone to mythology. Bottom line is results are what matter in buisiness, so myths get people fired, and accurate information gets people paid.

Aside from my own experiences and the experiences of other I did a lot of reading before I wrote the article. I am not an expert on osmoregulation, but I do know that salt interferes with ich ability to take in and release fluids (Osmoregulation as I understand it) This effect keep necessary electrolytes from being replaced and essentially dehydrates (for lack of a better term) the ich. I am sure this process can be explained more clearly by one of our resident biologists.

Suffice it to say that salt will kill ich regardless of temperature. Since ich is not vulnerable when on the fish (this is the same for meds as well) we increase temps to get the ich off the fish faster. If we do not increase temps then we simply have to treat for longer periods, and more importantly our fish have ich on them for longer. IME Ich causes far more stress to fish than salt or high temps so I elevate the temp to get the ich off the fish.

At temperatures above 86*F ich cannot survive. So if we can get temps that high without harming fish, and ensure that all of the tank is at or above that temp, ich will die off without any other treatment. I personally am not comfortable with raising temps quite that high and leaving them there. Many folks do it and are successful, I worry about cold spots (And my tanks are more evenly heated than most) and I worry about the stress that high temps cause many fish. So I rely on Salt and use heat to help the cause as much as I can. IME Heat causes more stress than salt, and the real key is to apply the treatment and maintain it 100% until ich is dead. you let the tank cool for even a few minutes the chance of a new outbreak exists.

Anyone who claims that salt won't kill ich has not done their research. I challenge them to show me one piece of scientific evidence where Freshwater ich has survived NaCL at 5 ppt or above. I have only found one study that shows ich surviving as much as 5 ppt. Most strains of freshwater ich die even at very low dosages, and the exceptions will always die at 5 ppt which equates to roughly 2.5 teaspoons of table salt per gallon of water.

I always say research the subject as much as you can. I can tell you there is a lot of information and study data on ich. There are also great articles citing good studies, and plenty of articles with no research or good information behind them. I have done the research and am very confident in the information I put to paper. I have cured ich with salt at temperature ranging from 74* up to 82*. I do not take my fish above 82* in most cases because I don't like to do so. I have heard from enough people and read enough information about ich to know that 86* is the limit for ich, but do not trust it as a treatment alone because it is too difficult to maintain temperature perfectly in a fish tank.
Dave

[bettabrat]

Why can't I read the article? I think it would help me out right now and it keeps telling me I don't have permission? Can someone PM it to me?

[Reframer]

I also treated a tank that I could only get up to 79 with salt and it seemed to work well, but I caught it before it go too bad.
Now with my Betta, I should have stuck with just the salt and heat I'm afraid he won't make it now because I used too much meds.

[UKRANINSKY]

I just star having this ICH problem! I will follow your recommentations!!
Thanks!!

[CalBears07]

Why can't I read the article? I think it would help me out right now and it keeps telling me I don't have permission? Can someone PM it to me?


I cannot read it, either.

[DrgRcr]

I also had a mild Ich outbreak in my new setup. I researched remedies right away, being a newb. After alot of reading and searching, I settled on the heat/salt method also. Almost everywhere I looked, the majority of people used that way. I used the 2 tsp/gal measure and SLOWLY(over 3-4 days) raised the heat to ~85. It was gone in about 2 weeks with no losses, and no outbreak since. I felt this was less of a risk to my community tank than the meds out there.

[IceH2O]

I cannot read it, either.


Why can't I read the article? I think it would help me out right now and it keeps telling me I don't have permission? Can someone PM it to me?


There was a big fall out a couple of years ago and a lot of people left to another site. Dave asked all his articles to be removed from this site. Sad thing is that site is no longer working and all the articles have been lost.

[unlimitedx]

what sort of fallout?

[Blueiz]

Here is a link to an aritcle that is currently on AC. Please start a new thread if you have any questions, am going to close this one.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88601