Salt Mythbusters, I Need Help!

[Roan Art]

easily shocked........adding electrolytes to the water......ha you kill me RTR! Anybody else geeky enough to find that funny?

Only in a sad "sometimes I wish I wasn't weird" way

Roan

 

[kveeti]

It's kind of like putting ice melter on you sidewalks every night in summer. It will prevent ice from building up, but there wasn't any concern of ice in the first place because the temperature is above freezing.

I love analogies. Thank you.

 

[Tom.E]

<They are great articles but I'm looking for something that says that using salt long-term can make ich salt- resistant. ….Anyway, if that is true, I need help with some sources, pretty please>

Well…why just ICH?

ICH is a big osmotic wimp in the universe of aquatic parasitic protozoans. How about some gremlins where salt won’t work.

Here’s just a small list of some FW ectoparasitic protozoans that have been scraped from captured estuarine fish.

Ichthyobodo necator
Capriniana piscium
Chilodonella piscicola
Chilodonella cucullus
Trichodina cubanensis
Trichodina domerguei
Trichodina kupermani
Trichodinella epizootica

Many more for sure but it’s been awhile since I did any cross-checking. Needless to say, it’s hard to kill FW parasitic protozoans with salt if they survive into brackish environments. Many protozoans can change their ionic concentrations and composition to a degree to maintain osmotic pressure. The osmotic boundaries are very species specific.

You also have Wetman’s Skeptical Aquarist site that mentions the ‘Sporozoan” class of parasitic protozoans. This is a very large group of protozoans that selectively target the tissue and organs of fish. For example, Hoffman’s Parasitology book lists over 150 FW species of Myxobolus alone that were found in everything from gill structures and skin tissue to gall bladders and brains of FW fish. And as inner tissue parasites, salt isn’t a good therapy since fish basically osmoregulate for the protists by maintaining their own plasma ionic composition.

So when it comes to deciding to salt a tank or not, why just worry about ICH?

And did I mention ICH is just a big osmotic whimp? And who’s the wiseguy that put all those “ i ”s in Ichthyophthirius multifilis?


Tom

 

[DaisyTattoo]

So, Is it okay to treat ich with table salt? Or should you ONLY use aquarium salt?

 

[Roan Art]

Yer a hoot, Tom

That's some wicked information in your post. Wish WetmanNY was still around I've read his old posts and he's so "off the beaten path" of normal stringent thought that he can really make you take a look "outside of the tank".

Which reminds me of something I've been meaning to ask -- do brackish fish get FW ich or SW ich, or both?

Roan

 

[phises]

sea salt, rock salt

 

[RTR]

I don't know BW fish in general, but BW puffers are terribly sensitive to FW Ich and it is common among new stiock housed in FW at the LFS and likely at the distributor/wholesaler. But it responds quite nicely to salt/heat and since you are moving them up at least to 1.002 specific gravity ASAP, it is just part of QT, but in this case using marine mix rather than just salt. Turn the heat up a tad and you are home free.

I have not had SW White Spot since I kept SW long ago. I guess the BW puffers abuse in FW in distribution wipes that out, and they never got re-exposed in my tanks.

I do get shocked regularly on these forums. Not so much by novices, it would be unfair to expect them to be chemists and physiologists from the get-go. But I am shocked at folks with experience, and hobby/commercial scale breeders, who still have little concept of what water is and how fish function in it. I have been accused of living in an ivory tower, and that may be valid, but I have too much curiosity and need to know not to do some investigation on the basics of one of my main hobbies. I am sorry, but DI + NaCl has to be one of the more bizarre water formulations I have come across.

 

[Roan Art]

So, Is it okay to treat ich with table salt? Or should you ONLY use aquarium salt?

Table salt is fine.

Roan

 

[Roan Art]

I don't know BW fish in general, but BW puffers are terribly sensitive to FW Ich and it is common among new stiock housed in FW at the LFS and likely at the distributor/wholesaler. But it responds quite nicely to salt/heat and since you are moving them up at least to 1.002 specific gravity ASAP, it is just part of QT, but in this case using marine mix rather than just salt. Turn the heat up a tad and you are home free.

Bit of a bonus there.

I do get shocked regularly on these forums. Not so much by novices, it would be unfair to expect them to be chemists and physiologists from the get-go. But I am shocked at folks with experience, and hobby/commercial scale breeders, who still have little concept of what water is and how fish function in it. I have been accused of living in an ivory tower, and that may be valid, but I have too much curiosity and need to know not to do some investigation on the basics of one of my main hobbies.

The day I stop wanting to know why is the day I get out of the hobby.

I am sorry, but DI + NaCl has to be one of the more bizarre water formulations I have come across.

Maybe we should ship him some dill weed and he can sell canned Betta Pickles :joke:

Roan

 

[Larissa]

<

Well…why just ICH?

ICH is a big osmotic wimp in the universe of aquatic parasitic protozoans. How about some gremlins where salt won’t work.

Tom

Good question, Tom. The reason is because this betta keeper I was talking about uses salt in his water to prevent ich and to replace electrolytes in his R/O water. He was also really snobby and said that me not adding salt to "pet" betta's water was fine, but that he had "show" bettas. I'm not quite sure why he thinks that his bettas deserve better treatment than mine. Anyhow, my next question to the breeders is will be about using distilled water. Thanks everyone, this stuff is great. I love to be educated.