Saltwater baths for tetras loaches and otos

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mikedel

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Oct 27, 2003
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From what I have read tetras, loaches, and catfish are sensitive to salt. I have a case of ich I have been trying to get rid of for a couple of weeks now. Should I use a five minute salt bath to kind of help things along?


Thanks,
Mike
 
I believe that the Mardel product that deals with ich is Maracide. Maracyn and Maracyn II are antibiotics, not anti-parasitic.

Frequent gravel vacuuming during an outbreak will also reduce the severity of re-infestations (just make sure to re-dose with your medicine appropriately for the gallons of water you are replacing).

P.S. dethjam is correct. Probably wouldn't be a
good idea to use the salt method
with the fish you mentioned.
 
I have been using copper sulfate. The name of it is Aquari-Sol. I also have Mardels Maracide on hand. Should I do a water change and run charcoal in my filter for a day then switch to the Maracide, or should I stick with the Aquari-Sol? If I do switch to Maracide should I use half a dose or a full dose. The reason I choice the Aquari-Sol over the Maricide was because I heard Malachite Green was bad for Tetras.



Thanks,
Mike
 
If Aquari-sol says it's effective for ich, I would just keep using that and see how it goes. If you don't see results in a week, then run the carbon, do a major water change, and try again with something else.

If Maracide is really Malachite Green (don't have a bottle in front of me to say for sure), then you would definitely only want to use that at half strength in treating for ich. My personal "favorite" anti-ich medicine, however, is Ich Cure, which is a Malachite Green and Formalin combo and has been 100% effective with proper use in my experience. I don't have fish that get ich very often (in 20 tanks, once every other year is about it), but so far I have had zero fatalities and everything clears up in 2 weeks.

Good luck.

P.S. What is your tank temp? Doesn't
need to be too high, but high 70's (as opposed
to low 70's) would speed the process along.

speed the process along
 
Here's a method that worked wonders for me, maybe it can help you also.

Raise you temperature (slowly) to 85F. Don't raise as high if you have neons, 82F will have to do with neons.
Add 1 tblsp/10g of water to your tank, slowly also. About a tablespoon an hour should be good. IME, salt is moderate amounts has little effect on loaches and cories, (I actually used a higher salt content with 4 cories, 4 otos, and 2 kuhli loaches with no problems) especially if it's for short periods of time.
Water changes are also very helpful in the battle with ich.

With this treatment you can also still use the medication which will speed up the process even further, although the other treatment has worked for me on 2 occasions.
 
I once treated a tank with maricide and heat for Ich.

The cory was most unhappy and since he was not visibly infected I moved him out after a day of treatment. He went into a tank with raised temp only, for 21 days.
 
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