TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
Flashing is also sometimes used to attract the attention of the other sex. It looks the same but there will be no symptoms that follow and usually the flashing is less frequent and more short term.
I am going to disagree with eagle here on water changes. I would not be reducing the salt any until you are convinced you have beaten back the ick. Usually this is about 10 days after the last spot has disappeared. When there is an ich outbreak in a tank not every single grain is on the same life cycle. This means to be safe one needs to kill those which are the last ones in the population still surviving.
Next, when using water changes to remove things from a tank, alway start with the biggest change first. Consider what happens when you reverse the order he suggested.
1. 75% leaves 1/4 of the salt.
2. 50% leaves 1/8 of the salt. (yes, I upped his 40 to 50)
3. 50% leaves 1/16 of the salt (yes, I upped his 24 to 50%)
The two at 50% are based on the idea that one normally does about 50% a week under normal conditions. The reason for this order is simple, The fish are not real happy in the salt nor are most plants. By removing more of it initially it quickly mitigates all the bad parts of having to use salt. Even doing all 50%s results in 50% of the salt, 25% and 12.5% in the space of 2 weeks. (change 1, 7 days later change 2 and 7 more days until change 3.)
There is a big difference with adding and removing salt in terms of gradual vs faster. When adding it we are raising the TDS and many fish can have difficulty with this, Unless its an emergency, we should add the salt over a day or two. But when removing it, we are returning the fish to its normal environment by lowering the tds. FW fish can handle this second stage better than they do the first. This same process also applies when adding Epsom salt to a tank in an attempt to treat constipation.
I am going to disagree with eagle here on water changes. I would not be reducing the salt any until you are convinced you have beaten back the ick. Usually this is about 10 days after the last spot has disappeared. When there is an ich outbreak in a tank not every single grain is on the same life cycle. This means to be safe one needs to kill those which are the last ones in the population still surviving.
Next, when using water changes to remove things from a tank, alway start with the biggest change first. Consider what happens when you reverse the order he suggested.
1. 75% leaves 1/4 of the salt.
2. 50% leaves 1/8 of the salt. (yes, I upped his 40 to 50)
3. 50% leaves 1/16 of the salt (yes, I upped his 24 to 50%)
The two at 50% are based on the idea that one normally does about 50% a week under normal conditions. The reason for this order is simple, The fish are not real happy in the salt nor are most plants. By removing more of it initially it quickly mitigates all the bad parts of having to use salt. Even doing all 50%s results in 50% of the salt, 25% and 12.5% in the space of 2 weeks. (change 1, 7 days later change 2 and 7 more days until change 3.)
There is a big difference with adding and removing salt in terms of gradual vs faster. When adding it we are raising the TDS and many fish can have difficulty with this, Unless its an emergency, we should add the salt over a day or two. But when removing it, we are returning the fish to its normal environment by lowering the tds. FW fish can handle this second stage better than they do the first. This same process also applies when adding Epsom salt to a tank in an attempt to treat constipation.
