Loaches Online Forum

Just thought i would add this about the subject of ich !

I have been putting deiodized salt in my tank for a while now to the tune of two tablespoons per 5 gallons of water minus the displacement of the rocks i have in my 55. This treatment is working and i have no sign what so ever of the decreped parasites.

Sparky

FYI, that's a terrible thing to do for loaches if they don't have parasites. Salt can be used as a temporary treatment to eradicate parasites, but even that isn't recommended unless you absolutely know what you are doing. Long term use of salt can cause osmolarity and glandular problems to loaches. Short term use can cause osmotic shock if the water chemistry is changed too quickly.

To remove the salt, it needs to be done extremely slow. It should be done with small water changes, about 15% each day, over a few weeks of time. If large water changes are done you could possibly kill the fish or do irreversible damage.

The way salt works to control parasites is the CHANGE in TDS when you add salt to a tank that had no salt. The parasites cannot tolerate the change, and die. The change in TDS (rise) is easy enough for the fish, though too sudden a rise can be stressful.

After treatment bring the level of salt down slowly, over a period of about a month with small water changes. Fish have a harder time adjusting to lowering TDS levels.

TDS is Total Dissolved Solids. It includes all the minerals and salts that are dissolved in the water. It is best to keep your fish in water that is as much like their original water as possible. Their metabolism is geared to retaining a certain amount of minerals and salts from the water. When the water contains too high a level of these minerals and salts the fishes' body still tries to take in and hold onto the minerals that were scarce in their home waters. Net result is fish that are slowly killed as the levels rise too high. I think the most easily researched example is Cardinal Tetras that die when the GH (Calcium and Magnesium) is too high.