salt bath for fish

[Lady G]

Hello all,
I was wondering if anyone has heard of giving your fish a salt bath? I believe my columbian shark have velvet disease, and was told to either turn up the heat to around 98 degrees and add a whole bunch of different things to the tank with the light off for 24 hours or to give the fishies a salt bath, does this sound right to anyone and if so how the heck do I do this? :huh: I would add a picture of them but I can't figure out how to add a pictures to this.

Thank you

 

[wataugachicken]

86, maybe, not 98. unless of course you're going to add some zataran's crab boil to the water. hey, it has salt in it!
the heat/salt treatment is generally used for treating ich, and is quite effective. i don't know much about velvet, though i believe it's a fungus. the salt/heat may well work for that.
how long have you had your shark? what size tank, is it freshwater? colombians are a brackish water species, and if you've had it a long time, it may be having health problems due to living in FW.

 

[Lady G]

Ok I no I HAVE to get a bigger tank and soon, I am working on it right now but I have,
30gallon tank with
2 bala shark
2 irrodesent shark
2 columbian shark
1 red fin did have 2 but 1 killed the other
1 alge eater(don't know the name)
2 gwambie (not sure how to spell it)
3 ghost shrimp (had 6)

See son got this tank from my Aunt and my Mom took him to pick out fish, that is what he came home with. He and my Mom did not do any research and just went by what the fish store told them would be fine together (they must not of told them the size of our tank), they are all small right now about 2" I would say, now I have all these fish that are going to get pretty big. Anyway I did add the aquarium salt to it (3 tsp). All the other fish are doing fine and I do love all of them they are all beautiful. Oh yeah I've had them for about 3 months now.

 

[daveedka]

Velvet is actually a parasite like Ich (not necessarily closely related just similar critters in the world of tiny animals). It Does not (from what I've read) respond to salt treatment as well as ICH. Most of what I've learned says that a Combination of Malechite and formalin (many ich medications) is the way to go. Salt dosage similar to ich treatment will help (1-3 teaspoons per gallon) but should not be relied upon to do the job by itself.
complete blackout of the tank will help a lot as well (velvet can photosynthesize)

Raising the temperature increases the parasites life cycle and thus shortens the treatment period. I wsould not reccomend this unless other treatment is in place. I do not know the maximum temp at which velvet can survive. with ich it's about 86* F but don't know if that is high enough to actually kill off your critters. If you speed up the life cycle and thuis increase reproduction there needs to be something else in the tank to kill oyur parasites otherwise the fish are in worse shape.

The "Salt Bath" as opposed to salt treatment is the act of dipping you fish in saltwater (true saltwater levels) for a short period. This is an effective treatment for external un-protected parasites. As a rule there aren't many external unprotected parasites in our hobby. ich and velvet are both extremely well protected while on your fish so the saltwater bath does nothing but add stress to an already bad situation.

Daveedka

 

[Lady G]

Ok thank you soooo much, I just really like these guys and I don't want them to die, they are so funny to watch! The person I talked to must not of known as much as they pretended to eh? He said the salt bath would be the BEST way to go. I bought this stuff called "quick cure" that is what the girl at the fish store recomended and it does have Malachite (Green) & Formaline in it, now I'm not sure am I suppose to put it directly on the fish? It say's to put 1 drop per gallon on all fish except those of the Tetra group. So do I put 3 drops on both fish? It also says to take the carbon out before I use it, is this stuff going to bother the other fish? I have noticed that it seems to be going away, it was all over the fish they looked like they were shedding their skin now there is just a few "skin type" things on them. I cleaned the tank out the other day and I did add 1/2 tsp more salt than normal and I have been turning the light off alot could this be helping it to go away?

 

[daveedka]

Velvet (oodinium) generally attacks pretty quickly, and in high (visible ) numbers will kill off most fish in a short period. I almost suspect that you are not actually dealing with velvet. Velvet will appear as gold dust on your fish, The best way to spot it and identify it is with a flashlight when the lights are out. your last post sounds (vaugely) like a bacteria or fungal infection which quick cure won't help with. Bacterial and fingal nasties are usually in some way related to stress injury or poor water conditions. There are several products available to help fight them off, and salt is often reccomended as an aid with this as well. I have no experience with these infections, so really can't make great reccomendations.
A picture would be worht a thousand words on this post for sure. can you post a pic???

As far as the quick cure, if you do use it, add it to the tank water in an area that will circulate it well, not directly to the fish. Definately remove your carbon, and I would reccomend a good water change and vaccum before adding it in order to reduce organics as much as possible in the tank. I do not know how sensative Columbian sharks are to meds, but if they are scaleless fish be very careful with dosages, scaleless fish are generally sensative to medication.
dave

 

[Lady G]

found how to load pictures

Ok I think I got how to load the pictures, I didn't notice the thing at the bottom I was trying to do it with the little square button that says picture, I hope you can see ok on these but here is my fish (hopefully) This was him before I will try to get a new picture now to show the difference in him (I say him but I'm not sure if it is a him or her really) :dive:

 

[Lady G]

another picture

here is another view, I know it is hard to see, he kept moving (imagine that a fish that keeps moving), and with the flash it was hard to get one you could see at all, if I can I will attach the one I got of him now that he is looking a little better, if not I'll post it on another. I did decide to hold off on the quick clean. Thank you soooooo much!

 

[Lady G]

here is what he looks like now

I was able to get a couple of him now, by the way thank you so much for your time and insight! :fairy:

 

[Lady G]

Well I guess I was wrong about them getting better, I have lost one of them, I am wondering what happened though, they both were doing fine this morning when I fed them, both were swimming around as usual and both ate just like always I even noted to my husband how almost all the stuff was gone just two small spots on one and the other is all cleared up. Went to the store came home and looked in on them and the one was in one of my plants dead? The other still seems to be doing fine and none of my other fish still do not have anything on them either.