Treatment of Ich with Salt and Neon Tetras

neons are fine with short term salt dosing.
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39759

Dave

First thing u want to check what ur tempature is at. Ick is a parasite present in all water but fish have a natural slime coat to help protect against ick. When ur tempature isnt kept constant ur fish stress causing them to lose their slime coat allowing the ick to attack them. Try turning ur heat up a few degrees for a few days. U should notice the ick decreasing or at least stop spreading then start decreasing. After a few days turn ur heat down 1 degree a day until its back to ur present tempature. Your tank may be getting cold spots which is common go and buy a powerhead and angle it toward the heater to help circulate the heated water throughout the entire tank.

I have to disagree...
1) ich is not present in all water
2) fish under stress produce more slime

Your temp was fine (there is a cutoff temp where ich cannot survive, but merely increasing the temp a few degrees if you're at 75 already won't do it.).

Did you dose the formalin/malachite green at half dose? These chemicals need to be introduced to the fish gradually as salt dose, but ime, 1/2 dose dose not work. Instead, dose the first day 1/2 dose, then 3/4 dose the next, and full dose the third and consecutive days.
But since you're switching to salt, once you read the link Dave provided, you'll be all set. It's a GOOD article FishWorker hint hint

No ich in my water. Anyway I do agree and highly suggest readign through Dave's Ich Article. Good old salt.

Short term as I meant it is non-continual use. I do not know how long it would take for salt to actually harm the tetra's, but it would be well beyond (Probably by months or even years) anything needed for disease treatment. The negative effects of Salt are all very slow. Tetra's are a soft water fish that prefer low TDS (total dissolved solids) Levels. since salt adds to the TDS level of a tank, it is generally reccomneded that you don't use it in a tetra tank, by the same folks who would reccomend it for other types of fish (i.e. mollies) The truth of the matter is there is no logical reason for long term Salt use in a freshwater tank, so to me tetra's and mollies fall under the same rules with salt use.

I have never seen a fish react adversely to Salt in the levels and time frames used to kill ich. Some signs of stress and discomfort may occur with sensative fish, but not at the levels seen with meds on the same fish. In either case the reason I prefer and adhere to the salt treatment is that it is the only way (IMHO) to properly treat ich with sensative fish, and enjoy a decent success rate. 1/2 dosage meds aren't highly effective, full dosage meds will kill sensative fish, ich will kill your fish, full salt dosages will kill ich and not kill your fish. The bottom line is Salt is your best bet in this battle.
Dave

Certainly, organics will reduce the effectivness of formalin/m.green, more the reason to work up to full strength. Again, if introduced to it gradually, they'll handle it.
Dave is correct about the salt, 2 weeks is definitley short term. The only plant I've had adversley affected by salt was Stargrass. I didn't die, just slowed growth and some leaf edges turned mushy. After the treatment, it came back.

Hi..I am trying to click on the link for the salt treatments but it is not working.. My tank is full of ich.. I have two tetras and a catfish, forgive me I do not remember the exact kind, but when we got them we were told they were great starter fish, so I assume they are heartier than other tetras. I went to a different petstore and he gave me melafix to treat the ich. and now i am learning that it only works by making the fish stronger and more resilient. IMO not fast enough. my poor catfish has his head totally covered with white and the tetras fins are quickly dissapearing..HELP please

barnettcb said:

I have been reviewing these forums as well other other websites and I have a question regarding treating ich with salt (NaCl). I have an ongoing case of ich in a planted tank and I have already treated for 14 days with malachite green/formalin (temp maintained at about 85-86 degrees f). I treated for about 3-4 days after the last visible ich spot but now I see a new spot on one of my platies (I have already put new carbon filter in to start clean up of left over chemicals and have slowly lowered temp back to 81 at this point). I would prefer to not have to take the carbon filter out and it appears that salt is a safer treatment. That having been said, I have 6 neon tetras in my tank and I have read that using salt with neons can cause problems such as salt burn (man, Neons and Ich just dont mix). Any thoughts on how I can safely use salt to cure a repeat infection?
Thanks in advance for any help!

Click to expand...

Wondering if plants surivived MG/Form treatment? If they are fine and treatment was successful, why dont you stick to first method?

Depending on plants, salt/heat treatment can pose problem.

Hope all goes well!