Is this Ich?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
duanes said:
I used rock salt, or water softener salt from any home improvement center (Home depot, Menards, or Lowes) salt is salt (Na Cl). The water softener salt, pure enough to be considered for potable use.
The fish with ick in my pics, are Saratherodon linnellii, a cichlid endemic to a small crater lake in Cameroon called Barumbi mbo, they area small Tilapine.
Here's a few pics of some healthy.


Another of my favorite fish from the lake is small predator called Stomatepia pindu, the white spots on the head are cephalic pits used to sense prey, in the substrate

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Those fish look great! Unfortunately I keep only SA fish. I don't think I'd be able to keep them.

Don't people say that you cannot use any old salt due to the way it is processed? If the Home Depot salt is fine I will be buying some today.

In regards to it's use, how much should I add to my filter? I don't want to overwhelm with too much salt. Also, will this salt affect my parameters?
 
duanes said:
For a 50 gallon tank, about 1.5 lbs.
A nice round number, so add or subtract according to your tank.
I always add gradually it throughout the day.
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I would add 1.5 pounds to the filters and that's it? Let it dissolve over time or do I need to keep adding more?
 
As far as I am aware, fungus dies at these high temperatures. If I remember correctly, above 82-84F, unlike bacterial infections like columnaris. Columnaris is only an issue if the fish came infected with columnaris. So are majority of bacterial infections. In a well maintained tank with large water changes a bacterial infection as a secondary is very unlikely. Bacterial infections are always because of bad water conditions, unless one brings in pathogenic/highly infectious ones that came with new fish, i.e columnaris but this kills faster than ick and manifests in erosion.

Ich can affect any part of the fish, eyes, gills, etc..so a damaged eye is not out of question, salt or no salt. However, the most likely cause for eye damage can be additional parasites like thrichodina. Trichodina is normally an opportunistic parasite that lives in most tanks but can affect severely compromised fish in bad water conditions, most likely starting the damage in the fish shop. Salt has no effect on it, just large water changes and let the fish's immune system deal with it, or antiparasitic meds . Prazi is effective against it. So best approach is always large water changes and in this case heat. Ich dies at 88F so the thermometer has to be accurate and any new water has to be the same or greater temperature.
 
Coryloach said:
As far as I am aware, fungus dies at these high temperatures. If I remember correctly, above 82-84F, unlike bacterial infections like columnaris. Columnaris is only an issue if the fish came infected with columnaris. So are majority of bacterial infections. In a well maintained tank with large water changes a bacterial infection as a secondary is very unlikely. Bacterial infections are always because of bad water conditions, unless one brings in pathogenic/highly infectious ones that came with new fish, i.e columnaris but this kills faster than ick and manifests in erosion.

Ich can affect any part of the fish, eyes, gills, etc..so a damaged eye is not out of question, salt or no salt. However, the most likely cause for eye damage can be additional parasites like thrichodina. Trichodina is normally an opportunistic parasite that lives in most tanks but can affect severely compromised fish in bad water conditions, most likely starting the damage in the fish shop. Salt has no effect on it, just large water changes and let the fish's immune system deal with it, or antiparasitic meds . Prazi is effective against it. So best approach is always large water changes and in this case heat. Ich dies at 88F so the thermometer has to be accurate and any new water has to be the same or greater temperature.
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Tank is currently at 88 degrees. I just checked my parameters this morning. 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. My nitrate typically runs around 40. Luckily my fishes eyes are not effected (right now).

I will be following the advice from duanes duanes and will be getting salt for my filters. I'm going to only put in alittle at a time. I do have a Pleco and want to monitor him closely with the salts.
 
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What type of pleco? I've dosed salt with a common pleco without any issues.
The problem with salt is that you need to maintain the exact same amount, once reached the desired dose over a couple of days, and still do large water changes. It raises the TDS through the roof and any large fluctuations will be hard on fish that are already in a weakened state. Change in TDS is what shocks fish, not ph or any other individual measure, so without a TDS meter I'd be weary if the fish are of the sensitive type. Other than that, salt and heat works.
 
Coryloach said:
What type of pleco? I've dosed salt with a common pleco without any issues.
The problem with salt is that you need to maintain the exact same amount, once reached the desired dose over a couple of days, and still do large water changes. It raises the TDS through the roof and any large fluctuations will be hard on fish that are already in a weakened state. Change in TDS is what shocks fish, not ph or any other individual measure, so without a TDS meter I'd be weary if the fish are of the sensitive type. Other than that, salt and heat works.
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I'm sorry for sounding like a noob, but this is my first time treating for ich and don't know anything about salt in water and I'm just learning about treating naturally.

I have a Royal Pleco. What is TDSs? What if I just put a small amount of salt in the filters and continue that for a full 10-14 days?
 
TDS means total dissolved solids. TDS meter is an electronic device and as there's no way of measuring total dissolved solids unless one lets all water evaporating from the tank, a TDS meter instead measures conductivity, i.e. all negatively/positively charged ions. When you add salt, you increase the conductivity/TDS of the water....think marine fish for example. That's how the parasite dies but the fish are more capable of coping. The change however, has to be gradual as you can shock the fish. And when you do a water change with fresh water, same applies, you need to maintain the target dose.

Adding salt to filters won't make a difference, just dissolve and add slowly the desired target dose in a matter of couple of days. Then every water change has to have the same concentration, hence a TDS meter is handy. Its cheap to buy and it is also ideal for monitoring water quality because in a polluted tank in time TDS also increases.
 
Just added about a cup's worth of salt to my filters. The heat alone has basically cleared up the ich. My Pike didn't have it at all, but now has it the worst. It's a Belly Crawler.

Hopefully the salt can help kill this off with the heat. I just did a big water change today and vacuumed the gravel.
 
In the future if you want a different way to treat ich kordon ich attack works well. It was the only option I had when I had an ich outbreak in my ornamental pond. I had plants and snails so salt wasn't an option. Nether was heat. It takes a month to be sure the ich is gone, but works great.
 
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