Hey guys. I hear all the time people saying "oh, you have catfish? You can't use salt. Use (enter formaldehyde and malachite green medication that is so potent they aren't to be used with fish you ever intend to eat here) instead"
Just a few experiences in regards to salt treatment.
There has never been a time in this hobby where I have not owned catfish. I got into this hobby for catfish. I love catfish.
I've had my fair share of ich outbreaks, to be honest. Typically when it comes to adding new fish. Most of the time, I've used salt to cure it. Either aquarium salt or, get this, table salt. I've cured ich with a lot of that. The caking and whatnot people think will kill your fish is in such a trivial amount, they won't even notice the difference. My findings on that have been confirmed on many different ich research pages.
Anyways. I've also used a few liquid medications to cure it, all of them are pretty much the same thing with different brand names. Malachite green and formalin or formaldehyde. I've tried natural remedies which made my tank smell like flowers and tea too, but they didn't do anything.
In my experience, salt has been the safest way to cure this. All I do is up three temp to 84 to 86, add 1 tbsp per 5 gallons of water, and wait it out.
I've treated with salt:
Cichlids
Tetras
Barbs
Cories
Kuhli loaches
Plecos
Raphaels
Synodontis sp. Nigriventris and eupterus (which had it in a bad way)
Pictus catfish
Gouramis
How many of them died or showed signs of stress from the salt? None. Not one loss of salt. When I tried my first salt treatment many moons ago, in fact, I was all the way up to 1 tbsp per gallon of table salt, due to my misreading of 1 tbsp per 5 gallons, which is what I do now. None of the fish at the time were even breathing rapidly during treatment. (please don't try this at home though. Not necessary.)
Now, I've treated the same species as above with liquid medications of formation/formaldehyde and malachite green minus the cories and synodontis nigriventris, and here are my results.
I've found the medications more deadly at temperatures higher than 80 degrees, as well as in tanks with higher lights due to the chemicals in the medications. I've also noticed a bit more stressed behavior from the fish, cichlids getting the stress bars, schooling fish staying tight together rather than loosing up, rapid breathing and listless behavior from catfish.
And what have a lost from said medications?
3 Raphael catfish, 1 being a trooper which was with me for quite some time, lost his whiskers from a previous treatment of ich as well as gaining a case of fin rot which he beat with a touch of salt and clean water, 1 pictus catfish, a good sum of tetras over time, and a few barbs.
Its pretty clear to me that some of you guys are over reacting about salt's effect on catfish.
Just a few experiences in regards to salt treatment.
There has never been a time in this hobby where I have not owned catfish. I got into this hobby for catfish. I love catfish.
I've had my fair share of ich outbreaks, to be honest. Typically when it comes to adding new fish. Most of the time, I've used salt to cure it. Either aquarium salt or, get this, table salt. I've cured ich with a lot of that. The caking and whatnot people think will kill your fish is in such a trivial amount, they won't even notice the difference. My findings on that have been confirmed on many different ich research pages.
Anyways. I've also used a few liquid medications to cure it, all of them are pretty much the same thing with different brand names. Malachite green and formalin or formaldehyde. I've tried natural remedies which made my tank smell like flowers and tea too, but they didn't do anything.
In my experience, salt has been the safest way to cure this. All I do is up three temp to 84 to 86, add 1 tbsp per 5 gallons of water, and wait it out.
I've treated with salt:
Cichlids
Tetras
Barbs
Cories
Kuhli loaches
Plecos
Raphaels
Synodontis sp. Nigriventris and eupterus (which had it in a bad way)
Pictus catfish
Gouramis
How many of them died or showed signs of stress from the salt? None. Not one loss of salt. When I tried my first salt treatment many moons ago, in fact, I was all the way up to 1 tbsp per gallon of table salt, due to my misreading of 1 tbsp per 5 gallons, which is what I do now. None of the fish at the time were even breathing rapidly during treatment. (please don't try this at home though. Not necessary.)
Now, I've treated the same species as above with liquid medications of formation/formaldehyde and malachite green minus the cories and synodontis nigriventris, and here are my results.
I've found the medications more deadly at temperatures higher than 80 degrees, as well as in tanks with higher lights due to the chemicals in the medications. I've also noticed a bit more stressed behavior from the fish, cichlids getting the stress bars, schooling fish staying tight together rather than loosing up, rapid breathing and listless behavior from catfish.
And what have a lost from said medications?
3 Raphael catfish, 1 being a trooper which was with me for quite some time, lost his whiskers from a previous treatment of ich as well as gaining a case of fin rot which he beat with a touch of salt and clean water, 1 pictus catfish, a good sum of tetras over time, and a few barbs.
Its pretty clear to me that some of you guys are over reacting about salt's effect on catfish.
sama:
