Curing ICH without meds

[skjl47]

The heat of the water does not kill ick, it just speeds there life cycle allowing the salt to work.

Hello; duanes has made several good posts on this subject. Some go into a good amount of detail about osmotic pressure and such. Might be worth a search.

I will add that the timeline is not set. The goal is to have water salt concentration at a high enough level so the salt will kill the parasite during the brief time right after it hatches from an egg. So for a while after the last parasite is visibly gone from the fish there can be unhatched eggs in the substrate. My take has been to continue treatment 7 to 10 days after the last visible parasite.

In at least one thread about ich the forum member turned out to not have dosed the water with enough salt. She explained that she loved her fish so much was why and was afraid of the suggested dose. Her approach made no sense in that a too low dose was pointless. The salt has to be at a concentration that will kill the parasite when it first hatches. Yes you can slowly sneak up on the salt dose but it does not start being effective until the killing concentration is reached (that is when the clock can start if you want to go for a strict ten days).
Good luck

 

[Nelsonthefishguy]

Hello; duanes has made several good posts on this subject. Some go into a good amount of detail about osmotic pressure and such. Might be worth a search.

I will add that the timeline is not set. The goal is to have water salt concentration at a high enough level so the salt will kill the parasite during the brief time right after it hatches from an egg. So for a while after the last parasite is visibly gone from the fish there can be unhatched eggs in the substrate. My take has been to continue treatment 7 to 10 days after the last visible parasite.

In at least one thread about ich the forum member turned out to not have dosed the water with enough salt. She explained that she loved her fish so much was why and was afraid of the suggested dose. Her approach made no sense in that a too low dose was pointless. The salt has to be at a concentration that will kill the parasite when it first hatches. Yes you can slowly sneak up on the salt dose but it does not start being effective until the killing concentration is reached (that is when the clock can start if you want to go for a strict ten days).
Good luck

As long as I slowly reach that killing concentration with the solidity of the water the fish should be okay correct?

 

[duanes]

You will need to reach a salinity of at least 3ppt (parts per thousand) to kill emerging ick, anything under 3, and they go on to reinfect.
Because I usually keep hard water species, I usually toss handfuls of rock, or water softener salt quickly throughout a day until @ 3.5 ppt is reached on my conductivity/salinity monitor.
I figure the longer you wait, the more ick hatch out, and embed in the fish skin, where they are immune to any treatment, because the fishes slime coat protects them.
In my 300 gals of tanks on a sump it often meant adding around 10 lbs of salt.
And Jeff makes a great point, just because you don't see the spots, doesn't mean ick is gone.
Dormant cysts can sit for days in the substrate
I also continue treatment around 10 days after the last spot is seen.