sodium chloride, NaCl
- Thread starter justin
- Start date
I really like the first parts where they break down the different kinds of salt and also debunk the myths about anti-caking agents and iodine.
I'm not sure if I agree with their conclusions about using it to treat ich:
"Stoskopf, lists no other treatment uses, and to use salt in place of reliable and safe treatments like Rid-Ich+ for treating diseases, like ich, is simply not justified."
I didn't see anywhere that it mentioned 'Ick and other such parasites can adapt to the concentrations used in freshwater aquaria'.
It makes sense to me that salt could be used to osmotically kill off freshwater ich at concentrations that could be tolerated by fish for short periods of time (i.e. long enough last through the ich life-cycle). I believe that you can kill a lot of other parasites with this concentration of salt too.
Yet, the one and only source ARG cites for using salt on ich uses no numerical data to back up their claim. Sorry, but I remain skeptical on the ich part.
windsurfer
I'm not sure if I agree with their conclusions about using it to treat ich:
"Stoskopf, lists no other treatment uses, and to use salt in place of reliable and safe treatments like Rid-Ich+ for treating diseases, like ich, is simply not justified."
I didn't see anywhere that it mentioned 'Ick and other such parasites can adapt to the concentrations used in freshwater aquaria'.
It makes sense to me that salt could be used to osmotically kill off freshwater ich at concentrations that could be tolerated by fish for short periods of time (i.e. long enough last through the ich life-cycle). I believe that you can kill a lot of other parasites with this concentration of salt too.
Yet, the one and only source ARG cites for using salt on ich uses no numerical data to back up their claim. Sorry, but I remain skeptical on the ich part.
windsurfer
ummm i dont get it!. i have used salt to treat both finrot and ich with amazing results... ive used with fish from neons to catfish with no problems..... so to me this is B.S.! i dont care how u slice it, if it works, it works!!!!!
P.S. as far as cichlids in saltwater i think the rio grande cichlid was successfully introduced to the salton sea....
P.S. as far as cichlids in saltwater i think the rio grande cichlid was successfully introduced to the salton sea....
They might be wrong and they might not. It is all experimental and everyone who owns fish tanks are biologist in their own right. Maybe salt does kill parasites and the cichlids mentioned in the end enter saltwater to rid themselves of parasites before returning to freshwater. I do know that it works in high concentrations as a dip, however to add it to an aquarium on a regular basis will probably not keep your fish from getting parasites and such. It is the higher levels that kill that stuff. Is it really the salt? That is also a question I am working on. Everyone says add salt and turn up temp. Does anyone ever do one or the other and not both? I have a tank with 4 severums in it with clown loaches and they all had ich and one severum had a bacterial or fungal infection on its fins. I added salt and turned up temp like everyone says. The infection and ich disappeared. After that I lowered the temp back to 80 and had same concentration of salt. A little while later both the infection and ich came back. I still had the same high concentration of salt in my tank. I decided to push it and added alot more salt to my tank. Not near as high concentration as a dip would be. They would have died then, but alot higher then suggested. Nothing. Ich and infection holding strong. I did a 50% water change to rid some salt. After a day I turned temp. up to 85 F and proceeded to do 20% daily water changes for 5 days. After that I held the 85 f and did 20% waterchange every other day for another week. In the end the infection and ich dissappeared without the salt but with just high temp and waterchanges. After that I hold my severum loach tank at 84 f and they all love it. I have had no ich or infection since and the only salt I add is about 20% of the recommended dosage for a aquarium with fish and plants. So in my experience salt did nothing for my infections or ich. I believe there is no right and wrong, but only what works for you or someone else. Like I said it is all science and that it is never consistent for all of the people everywhere all of the time.
ya, i want discrediting it or nething... just voicing my confusion at the results ive got contradicting those of this website. next tine i have an ich outbreak or infection ill try just the heat.
The U of Fl department of veterinary medicine (they do a ton of work with fish) says that salt works fine in treating ich either at higher concentrations as a dip, or lower as a long-term treatment.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FA006
My own experience is that heat really helps the most against ich, but salt helps things along as well.
Another thing to think about when comparing experiences is that there are different strains of freshwater ich, some of them more heat and salt resistant than others.
windsurfer
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FA006
My own experience is that heat really helps the most against ich, but salt helps things along as well.
Another thing to think about when comparing experiences is that there are different strains of freshwater ich, some of them more heat and salt resistant than others.
windsurfer
windsurfer;598172; said:
Correct me if I am wrong, but the heat is to help the fish recover faster.
