After 10 years with fish, I realized that I have never used salt. Now, with a new tank - and of course - new ich, I've been wanting to tag team with salt and meds (Malachite Green Hydrochloride). I have raised the temperature and reduce the light as much as possible (there are plants)
With the salt, are we talkin a special aquarium salt or typical NaCl tablesalt.
What say those who know? :bowing:
Table salt is just fine for this application. You'll hear people say it must be kosher salt (no iodine), but this is a myth. The amount of iodine in table salt is not harmful to fish at treatment levels. IMO, Aquarium Salt is a fancy way of removing more money from your pocket--totally unneeded.
I wouldn't worry about reducing the light--I've successfully treated for ich with temp and salt, and never changed the lighting at all.
I will second OrionGirl's input on the light. Lowering thelight level is not harmful to Ich in any way, it's just to keep the fish less stressed, so isn't completely necessary, unless you just feel the fish are too stressed. Also, I wanted to say if you go with the salt treatment, the Malachite green is unnecessary. It will only be more chemicals in the tank that are unnatural and stress the fish. Also, it won't kill the Ich any faster than the salt. If you're worried about secondary infections or something, I would wait and see how things turn out before medicating for them. Just my opinion.
Yes, I just treated ich in my tank with salt and heat alone... everyone weathered the storm really well! A couple of my cories looked a little iffy for a couple days, but now they seem to be rebounding and I didn't lose anyone. It didn't even seem to slow the pictus cats down at all!
I am so glad for this forum and Daveedka's ich article... I have not had to treat ich for SO long, probably at least 10+ years, and when my fish would get it, I always felt that it was a death sentence... I'd treat with the store chemicals and still lose several fish. When I saw it in my big tank, I was very upset because I thought i'd lose so many fish, but I felt a TON better after reading Daveedka's article! He's my hero! :bowing:
I used both table salt and kosher salt because those are what I had on hand and raised my tank temp to 82 / 83 degrees for just over a week.
The debate about light and ich boils down to a couple of issues.
The facts are that ich does not have an eye spot, is not light sensative, and does not use visual stimuli to find a host.
Ich does seem to prefer darker substrates and surfaces, but my understanding is that it is a heat issue rather than a light issue, and of course darkening the tank will have little effect on where or how ich settles in.
Last issue and a biggie. Most meds react to organics, this is a process than can in some cases be augmented by light. So if using meds there may be some merit to turning down the lights, but as said the salt will do the job with the lights on or off it doesn't care.
So IMO turning off the lights is really unnecessary beyond the fact that it may make your fish more comfortable during a stressful period.
The debate about light and ich boils down to a couple of issues.
The facts are that ich does not have an eye spot, is not light sensative, and does not use visual stimuli to find a host.
My concern when it comes to the lighting (after reading your article which I did prior to my post) was just to ease the occupants stress levels. Not necessarily the ich directly, but since meds were used I was concerned about the stress levels of the fish.
With all this new additional info, are you recommending I stick the carbon back in the filters and add salt? (this would be day two of treatment, only have used the meds once)
Once meds have started it's kind of a mixed gamble, the treatment needs to stay in place for a couple of weeks or more, you can switch from one to the other, but try to do it without leaving the tank unprotected for any real time. in ther words if you do switch raise the salt simultaneously while you remove the meds. since the time period when ich is suucceptable to treatment is short, switching shouln't have negative effects as long as there isn't a period of no treatment while the ich happens to hatch.
whether or not you switch is a judgement call, if your fish are handling the stress well, it may be ok to contine as you are doing. It's hard to know from a distance.
Dave
So, after the wonderful ich attack on my poor poor fish, effectively killing over 80% of the tank, I have put the filters w/ carbon back in and am about to make the switch to salt to save the rest of my fish. It killed my beloved redtailed shark.
Any suggestions for the switch besides dilluting the salt and adding it slowly?
