how to treat ick with salt and heat?
- Thread starter anark
- Start date
There are many people who mistakenly beleive that they should use salt at all times in their tanks, cories do not like this practice.
Salt for treating ich is short term, and will not have a huge adverse effect on your fish. Salt may cause some stress, but IME not nearly as much as meds. For the two to 3 weeks it takes to kill ich, it will be easier on them than ich meds would be.
dave
:soda: undefined
i give my fish a salt water dip to cure ick on the fish it work fast . put fish in salt water foe about 3 to 5 seconds then put back in tank
i give my fish a salt water dip to cure ick on the fish it work fast . put fish in salt water foe about 3 to 5 seconds then put back in tank
The only problem I see there (aside from having to net all the fish, which in some tanks is virtually impossible) is that this doesn't take care of the parasites in the gravel and the water. Glad it worked though 
I am curious as to how this works, do you have any more info? I know it is an effective method with many unprotected parasates, but I can't see it working with ich.
Aside from the tank and gravel issue pointed out by Blinky, Ich is highly protected and cannot normally be killed when on the fish. none of the ich meds can hurt it while it is still on your fish, and only a very few meds can kill it while it is in the substrate. As a general rule it is only vulnerable when it is in the free swimming stage. Does the salt water make it fall off the fish? Thus removing it from the tank?
There would still be an issue with needing to treat the tank, but 3-5 seconds in salt water if effective would seem less stressful than other methods. one could then put the fish in a seperate tank and treat the main tank if it worked.
dave
fresh water parasites cant live in the salt water and salt water parasites cant live in fresh water so it kills the parasites . i used meds before and they messed up my cycle and lost more fish someone that works for something fishy told me about the salt water dip they clean and take care of the fish tanks in office building and doctors office turn the light off for about and hour then net the fish
I realize this, but nothing kills ich while it is encysted (protected) otherwise meds would kill it while it is on the fish. Do the ich cysts fall off the fish?
The only way the salt water dip would be effective for ich would be if it fell off the fish when exposed. thus allowing it to be removed from the tank. salt water cannot penetrate th cysts unless there is something I am missing and that is why I'm asking.
Salt water dips work on a lot of parasites, but I still can't see it working for ICH. Do you have any souces of information for this method I would like to research it further.
dave
The embedded Ich parasite cannot be attacked by meds or physical agents while it is embedded - it is entirely too well protected, in exactly the same manner as somatic or gut parasites being unaffected by dips. The embedded parasite when it falls off as a cyst is still too well protected. Only the free-swimming stage can be hit by meds or physical agents.
True external parasites can be hit by dips, but Ich is not that.
True external parasites can be hit by dips, but Ich is not that.
salt dip?
I am interested in this salt dip method for ich.. what concentration of salt to water do you use?
I am interested in this salt dip method for ich.. what concentration of salt to water do you use?
What is being explained is that a salt dip, dipping the fish in a salt bath, is not effective at removing ICH from a tank. The parasite can only be killed while it's free floating/looking for a host. In order for any treatment to be effective against ich, the whole tank must be treated.
