Hello! At my job some of the new fish we got have Ich. We have various medicines but none of the treatment Ich. We do have Epsom salt however. Can that be used and in what quantity should I use it? Any help will be appreciated!
Epsom Salt for Ich??
- Thread starter jossswonk
- Start date
Epsom salt (magnesium salt) may make the fish poop, but it won't bother ich in the least.
You have a choice of risks. Untreated ich will kill the fish. Raising the heat to 85 may kill the fish (depending on the species and the stocking), but over a week or so should kill the ich. It's a drastic treatment I avoid, but when you have no meds and a dangerous parasite, you don't have much choice.
You have a choice of risks. Untreated ich will kill the fish. Raising the heat to 85 may kill the fish (depending on the species and the stocking), but over a week or so should kill the ich. It's a drastic treatment I avoid, but when you have no meds and a dangerous parasite, you don't have much choice.
One source I have claims that the ich organism cannot withstand more than one teaspoonful full of salt per gallon or 1 gram of salt per liter . The higher temperature recommended by Gary hastens the lifecycle of the organism and ensures that it is eliminated during the treatment period .
FranciscoB
Fish Crazy
And I agree that epson salt will not help at all.
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
UM- the science I find does not agree with the statement above re 85F killing ich. Have a read here and look at the section on
Special Considerations for Treatment of Pet Fish.
Floyd, R.F. and Reed, P., 2009. Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (White Spot) infections in fish. Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, CIR, 920.
What you will read (it wont copy paste, so I typed it by hand) is from a section of the paper for "pet fish."
It then suggests that cleaning the tank every other day will remove cysts before they rupture and this will prevent the uch life from completing. And then it gives this warning:
The above paper is from https://journals.flvc.org/edis/article/download/136567/version/73133/141224/263507
I have always been wary of using heat solely to eradicate Ich. Raising the temp can be used to speed the life cycle which makes it easier and quicker to kill Ich when using in combunation with other means. But I am not sure how many fish we might keep which can handle both 90ºF and 70ºF. I know my zebra plecos can handle temps in the low 90sºF, but when I had a box of them delayed by a day the heat pack ran out and they arrived at 70F. 2 were dead and two more died about 36 hours after the buyer put them into his tank inthe mid 80ºsF.
I am one of those folks who prefers to use meds/chrmicals to attack Ich. I also remember reading a paper on the dscovery of a heat resistant strain of Ich but I cannot find it again.
Special Considerations for Treatment of Pet Fish.
Floyd, R.F. and Reed, P., 2009. Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (White Spot) infections in fish. Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, CIR, 920.
What you will read (it wont copy paste, so I typed it by hand) is from a section of the paper for "pet fish."
It then suggests that cleaning the tank every other day will remove cysts before they rupture and this will prevent the uch life from completing. And then it gives this warning:
The above paper is from https://journals.flvc.org/edis/article/download/136567/version/73133/141224/263507
I have always been wary of using heat solely to eradicate Ich. Raising the temp can be used to speed the life cycle which makes it easier and quicker to kill Ich when using in combunation with other means. But I am not sure how many fish we might keep which can handle both 90ºF and 70ºF. I know my zebra plecos can handle temps in the low 90sºF, but when I had a box of them delayed by a day the heat pack ran out and they arrived at 70F. 2 were dead and two more died about 36 hours after the buyer put them into his tank inthe mid 80ºsF.
I am one of those folks who prefers to use meds/chrmicals to attack Ich. I also remember reading a paper on the dscovery of a heat resistant strain of Ich but I cannot find it again.
Last edited:
Technically speaking.
Epsom salt will disrupt osmosis of small organism and dehydrate Ich as much as any other. But the concentration required is not worth the risk.
Without invertebrates, I always use malachite green in a one dose operation...
Epsom salt will disrupt osmosis of small organism and dehydrate Ich as much as any other. But the concentration required is not worth the risk.
Without invertebrates, I always use malachite green in a one dose operation...
JohnnyReb
Fish Fanatic
Some say that raising the temperature of an aquarium to 82–86°F (28–30°C) can help kill ich, a parasite that causes white spots on fish. This is because higher temperatures speed up the parasite's life cycle. However, other studies have shown that raising the temperature is not effective.
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
The temo needed to kill ich is too high for most tanks. ANd the method I posted us likely fo dangerous for most fish.
Speeding up the life cycle makes it easier to kill the ich unless you use a chemical that kills it in more stages of it life cycle.
The heat must be combined with something else unless you can follow the method I posted about. I have bokmarked an Ich paper published in 2011:
S U MM A RY
Infection by the ciliate protozoan Ichthyophthirius multifiliis Fouquet, 1876 causes significant economic losses in freshwater
aquaculture worldwide. Following the ban on the use of malachite green for treating food fish, there has been extensive
research aimed at identifying suitable replacements. In this paper we critically assess drug and non-drug interventions,
which have been tested for use or have been employed against this parasite and evaluate possibilities for their application in
farm systems. Current treatments include the administration of formaldehyde, sodium chloride (salt), copper sulphate and
potassium permanganate. However, purportedly more environmentally friendly drugs such as humic acid, potassium
ferrate (VI), bronopol and the peracetic acid-based products have recently been tested and represent promising alternatives.
Further investigation, is required to optimize the treatments and to establish precise protocols in order to minimize the
quantity of drug employed whilst ensuring the most efficacious performance. At the same time, there needs to be a greater
emphasis placed on the non-drug aspects of management strategies, including the use of non-chemical interventions
focusing on the removal of free-swimming stages and tomocysts of I. multifiliis from farm culture systems. Use of such
strategies provides the hope of more environmentally friendly alternatives for the control of I. multifiliis infections.
Tou can read the paper here http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/...macho et al Parasitology Ich chemo review.pdf
If I remember correctly they report on over 70 treatments. Many do not work well or at all.
Table 1. Chemical treatments tested against infections of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis Fouquet, 1876
(A compound is regarded as being partially effective if it kills 50–80%, and effective if it kills >80% of the stages under test. Mortality refers to the parasite stages unless otherwise stated.)
The above table occupies 31 pages. That's a lot of tried and faileds. But a bunch are effective
Speeding up the life cycle makes it easier to kill the ich unless you use a chemical that kills it in more stages of it life cycle.
The heat must be combined with something else unless you can follow the method I posted about. I have bokmarked an Ich paper published in 2011:
|
|---|
S U MM A RY
Infection by the ciliate protozoan Ichthyophthirius multifiliis Fouquet, 1876 causes significant economic losses in freshwater
aquaculture worldwide. Following the ban on the use of malachite green for treating food fish, there has been extensive
research aimed at identifying suitable replacements. In this paper we critically assess drug and non-drug interventions,
which have been tested for use or have been employed against this parasite and evaluate possibilities for their application in
farm systems. Current treatments include the administration of formaldehyde, sodium chloride (salt), copper sulphate and
potassium permanganate. However, purportedly more environmentally friendly drugs such as humic acid, potassium
ferrate (VI), bronopol and the peracetic acid-based products have recently been tested and represent promising alternatives.
Further investigation, is required to optimize the treatments and to establish precise protocols in order to minimize the
quantity of drug employed whilst ensuring the most efficacious performance. At the same time, there needs to be a greater
emphasis placed on the non-drug aspects of management strategies, including the use of non-chemical interventions
focusing on the removal of free-swimming stages and tomocysts of I. multifiliis from farm culture systems. Use of such
strategies provides the hope of more environmentally friendly alternatives for the control of I. multifiliis infections.
Tou can read the paper here http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/...macho et al Parasitology Ich chemo review.pdf
If I remember correctly they report on over 70 treatments. Many do not work well or at all.
Table 1. Chemical treatments tested against infections of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis Fouquet, 1876
(A compound is regarded as being partially effective if it kills 50–80%, and effective if it kills >80% of the stages under test. Mortality refers to the parasite stages unless otherwise stated.)
The above table occupies 31 pages. That's a lot of tried and faileds. But a bunch are effective
I haven’t seen ich in years . Where it comes from I don’t know but poorly maintained dealer aquariums with fish that come in from who knows where is most likely . Keep up with your weekly maintenance and water changes . Don’t over feed and rinse your frozen foods before feeding . I’ll get some flack for this but I keep my fish warm . All my aquariums run 80 degrees .
I didn't recommend heat except as a last resort since the OP only had epsom salt. I assume that if regular salt had been at hand, it would have been used.
I won't use salt or heat, except as a desperate measure. It's friday, the tank is at work, and the OP didn't have anything. I have cleared ich with heat, but it was an unnecessarily stressful and damaging process to fish that don't like those temperatures. It's not quick. It's not a great approach.
Ideally, I use malachite green, and the problem is rapidly and effectively solved. The fish live long lives and breed. But even if I go years without Ich here, I always have an unexpired bottle at hand.
I won't use salt or heat, except as a desperate measure. It's friday, the tank is at work, and the OP didn't have anything. I have cleared ich with heat, but it was an unnecessarily stressful and damaging process to fish that don't like those temperatures. It's not quick. It's not a great approach.
Ideally, I use malachite green, and the problem is rapidly and effectively solved. The fish live long lives and breed. But even if I go years without Ich here, I always have an unexpired bottle at hand.
What sort of fish do you have?
Salt (sodium chloride) and Epsom Salts (magnesium sulphate) do nothing to white spot (Ichthyophthirius). The parasites are found in fresh, brackish and seawater.
You can treat white spot with Malachite green or copper. Malachite green is a carcinogen (causes cancer) and copper kills invertebrates and fish if you overdose the tank.
You can also treat white spot with heat. The water temperature needs to be 30C (86F) and kept there for 2 weeks or at least 1 week after all the spots have gone.
Heat treatment should only be used on tropical fishes and if the water temperature is less than 24C (75F) the temperature should be raised to 30C over a couple of days. Sometimes a strain of white spot can tolerate 30C temperatures but they are uncommon and heat is normally the safest option for most tropical fish.
Goldfish and other coldwater fishes should be treated with Malachite Green.
You need to increase aeration/ surface turbulence when using heat or chemicals in the aquarium.
If you use chemicals to treat the fish, remove carbon from the filter so it doesn't remove the medication.
You should do a massive (80-90%) water change and complete gravel clean before treating, and do it every day until you have started treatment. This will dilute the number of parasites in the gravel and water and reduce the number that infect the fish. It can buy you time to get chemical medication or raise the temperature. You should also clean the filter each day until you get treatment started.
More information about white spot can be found at the following link. Post #1 and #16 are worth a read.
www.fishforums.net
---------------------
To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.
When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.
If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these before measuring the height of the water level so you get a more accurate water volume.
You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.
There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the top right of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it. I added the link below.
Salt (sodium chloride) and Epsom Salts (magnesium sulphate) do nothing to white spot (Ichthyophthirius). The parasites are found in fresh, brackish and seawater.
You can treat white spot with Malachite green or copper. Malachite green is a carcinogen (causes cancer) and copper kills invertebrates and fish if you overdose the tank.
You can also treat white spot with heat. The water temperature needs to be 30C (86F) and kept there for 2 weeks or at least 1 week after all the spots have gone.
Heat treatment should only be used on tropical fishes and if the water temperature is less than 24C (75F) the temperature should be raised to 30C over a couple of days. Sometimes a strain of white spot can tolerate 30C temperatures but they are uncommon and heat is normally the safest option for most tropical fish.
Goldfish and other coldwater fishes should be treated with Malachite Green.
You need to increase aeration/ surface turbulence when using heat or chemicals in the aquarium.
If you use chemicals to treat the fish, remove carbon from the filter so it doesn't remove the medication.
You should do a massive (80-90%) water change and complete gravel clean before treating, and do it every day until you have started treatment. This will dilute the number of parasites in the gravel and water and reduce the number that infect the fish. It can buy you time to get chemical medication or raise the temperature. You should also clean the filter each day until you get treatment started.
More information about white spot can be found at the following link. Post #1 and #16 are worth a read.
What is ICH?
This is a common question that is often asked, what is ich and how is it recognisable and what causes it? The real term is ICHTHYOPHTHIRIASIS. OR commonly known as white spot. It is an extremely comon parasite that affects aquarium fish. It is highly infectious and potentially lethal and...
www.fishforums.net
---------------------
To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.
When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.
If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these before measuring the height of the water level so you get a more accurate water volume.
You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.
There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the top right of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it. I added the link below.
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