Can salt treantment cause this?

Scottish_Sara

Scottish_Sara

Idaho_Blue
Mar 21, 2005
91
0
0
Glasgow, Scotland.
Hi everyone :)

I'm a Newbie on this board but have been fishkeeping for a while now.
I'm in need of some help. I have my first case of Ich. I decided to use the Salt treatment method (Table salt dissolved in tank water at the rate of 2 T spoons per gallon, over the course of 4 hour's, and turned the temp up). I started the treatment 2 day's ago and all is going we'll, However this morning a few of my fish have swollen stomach's. First one of my Mollies and now some of my neon tetra's, my Albino Cory, 2 of my Gourami's and one of my guppy's.

I was reluctent to use any other treatment as i have a couple of Spotted pictus, that i love to bit's and now other treatment's can be very harsh.

I did the usual test's. My P.H is as usual, no change, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, and Nitrate @ 10ppm.
They all seem fine and are eating as normal.
Do any of you know if it could be the Salt that has caused this?
I know i didn't get any of the doses wrong.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank's in advance,

Sara.
 
well, im not an expert (at much of anything really, heh) but i dont think that salt would cause any bloating at all, nor would the heat. i agree this is the best possible treatment, as my pictus cats have all survived it twice now and look like hell after a med treatment that usually does not fix the problem anyways.

what have your fish been eating? how long have you had them all?
 
I've not ever seen or heard of salt causing bloating, I personally would just stop feeding for at least two days, and maybe then feed a couple of skinned peas and see how they respond. Trust me on this, your fish will not be hurt by two days without food. They won't even be hurt by 5 days without food usually.
dave
 
Scottish_Sara said:
Hi everyone :)

I'm a Newbie on this board but have been fishkeeping for a while now.
I'm in need of some help. I have my first case of Ich. I decided to use the Salt treatment method (Table salt dissolved in tank water at the rate of 2 T spoons per gallon, over the course of 4 hour's, and turned the temp up). I started the treatment 2 day's ago and all is going we'll, However this morning a few of my fish have swollen stomach's. First one of my Mollies and now some of my neon tetra's, my Albino Cory, 2 of my Gourami's and one of my guppy's.

I was reluctent to use any other treatment as i have a couple of Spotted pictus, that i love to bit's and now other treatment's can be very harsh.

I did the usual test's. My P.H is as usual, no change, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, and Nitrate @ 10ppm.
They all seem fine and are eating as normal.
Do any of you know if it could be the Salt that has caused this?
I know i didn't get any of the doses wrong.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank's in advance,

Sara.
Click to expand...

You state that you used table salt. Table salt (unless you have some gourmet brand) usually has iodine in it. This is not good for your fish and maybe what you are seeing is a reaction to the iodine. I looked on the net to dsee if I could see what the effect of iodine is on fish but have so far failed in finding anything. All I seem to find is articles that say it is bad for them and it effects the thyroid (I did not know fish had one).
 
I've had them all for between a year and a half (First in this tank), and 5 month's (The last one in).

I feed them tetra flakes and for a treat a couple of times a week they either have brine shrimp or Bloodworm.

I alway's quarentine fish before they go in any the tank's too.

I'm going to keep up with the salt and keep an eye on them.
 
Puffernewbee said:
You state that you used table salt. Table salt (unless you have some gourmet brand) usually has iodine in it. This is not good for your fish and maybe what you are seeing is a reaction to the iodine. I looked on the net to dsee if I could see what the effect of iodine is on fish but have so far failed in finding anything. All I seem to find is articles that say it is bad for them and it effects the thyroid (I did not know fish had one).
Click to expand...


Moreover, table salt contains potentially toxic anti-caking agents; I would immediately discontinue its use, especially with consideration of the "scaleless" nature of the fish in question.
 
The amount of iodine and anti-caking agents in salt do not harm fish over a short term treatment of Ich. I will state this again, as it bears repeating: The amount of iodine and anti-caking agents listed in table salt WILL NOT hurt fish over the short term useage as in cases of treating Ich. This includes scaleless fish and crustaceans as well. Many people that have shrimp even add iodine to their tanks in small doses to help their shrimp molt. The reports that iodine harms fish is for massive doses. Massive doses of iodine happen to be bad for human beings as well...
 
I read up on this in quite a few website's and forum's before i decided to go ahead with the salt treatment. Even one of the guy's at my lfs recommended it too me, if i've ever had any problems or just a question i usually question him about it first and so far his word is alway's good.

Thank's everyone for your help over this, it's much appreciated :D
 
Let's get something clear here. Table salt does not contain iodine. Table salt contains potassium iodide. Iodine and iodide are as different as chlorine and chloride. Chlorine is a toxic gas used during WW1, chloride is the relatively harmless ion present most famously in table salt as sodium chloride.

Iodine (I2) is an antiseptic often used to disinfect wounds, iodide is an ion necessary for proper growth of all vertibrates and required by inverts like shrimp for moulting.

Yes, there are sites that report that table salt contains some magical compounds that are bad for your fish. This would be forgivable if it could be passed off as ignorance, but coming from a site trying to sell you "aquarium salt" should be the first thing to tip you off, the deliberate spreading of misinformation by these sites is only less than infuriating.

But before we get worked up about all these evil compounds in table salt, let's have a closer look at what and how much is present, shall we?(http://sci-toys.com/ingredients/table_salt.html)

For one thing, jumping back to this horse manure about iodide toxicity, there's not nearly enough KI to be even remotely harmful to your fish, at the levels present it would probably even be beneficial to your tank.

As for the dextrose or other stabilizing agents, well, firstly, there is so little there that again it is negligible, and if you're getting nervous about sodium thiosulfate, do a DIY forums search on DIY dechlorinators.

The scale makes the difference, and it's huge. Table salt ranges from 95-99% pure NaCl, it's dirt cheap. Now some folks want to sell you on "pure" NaCl, package it up and call it "Aquarium Salt", it's 99.9% pure.

There is no difference between the two. period.
 
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