How Do You Treat Ich With Salt?

[-FighterFishh]

I think I may have one fish with ich in my 30L biOrb, and I was wondering what's the best way to treat it using only aquarium salt and water changes?
I've been dosing with salt to help heal my guppy's ripped tail, but I think that could have also been keeping the ich at bay, which is why the other fish aren't showing any symptoms and the fish that is doesn't actually have many spots.
Any help is much appreciated!
Thank you!

 

[Bignose]

you slowly raise the salt concentration, up to a level where it is deadly to the ich and not to the fish. You also will want to raise the temperature. The idea is to stress the microorganism to the point of death while hopefully that same stress does not affect the macroorganisms (fish).

That said, if the fish start showing undue stress from the salt and temp, you will need to turn to medication. There are strains of ich resistant to heat, and I suspect that not all strains respond to the ich. If sysmptoms don't start disappearing in 7-8 days, please have medication ready to kill the ich off.

 

[OldMan47]

The only sure medication that I use for ich is salt. As Bignose said, the idea is to treat with enough salt to be deadly to the ich parasites while not becoming lethal to the fish. The only time that ich parasites are vulnerable to any medication, including salt, is when they are in the free swimming form. That means that any treatment, be it simple salt or one of the fancy patent medicine treatments, relies on the medication being present during that stage.
At one time I relied on the post by the skeptical aquarist for the detailed advice on concentrations of salt but that site seems to be broken right now. That means we must fall back on using about 1.5 teaspoons of salt per gallon of water and high temperatures, around 85F. If you maintain that salt concentration for a few days after all signs of the disease are gone, you will not see your fish become re-infested with ich.

 

[nurglespuss]

I tend to find that the only reliable way of treating Ich is to raise temp. (28'C) until a week or two after symptoms disapear.

Remove heavily affected fish, and up the water change regime.

 

[Bignose]

nurglespuss, there are reports (again on skeptical aquarist's site that it broken now) of ich that survives high heat. It is prudent to be ready with another treatment if the heat method, or just the heat and salt methods are unable to do the job.

 

[drobbyb]

nurglespuss, there are reports (again on skeptical aquarist's site that it broken now) of ich that survives high heat. It is prudent to be ready with another treatment if the heat method, or just the heat and salt methods are unable to do the job.

Yes.
Benjamin Franklin once said,"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." It's always a good idea to be ready in case something doesn't work (or in my case with a carton of activated charcoal since I found bits of cheese in my planted project tank. My daughter is 3. I'm sure you understand

 

[nurglespuss]

LOL!

Oh yes definately agree there

I also keep a bottle of ich treatment on stand by (luckily not had a case in years and years)