Salt or medication?

[Guyb93]

Iv purchased a treatment for my tank as I’m pretty sure I have flukes in the tank but the more I look at the ingredients the more I hesitate , malachite green being one of the ingredients and I know very little about it , not wanting to risk damaging by biological filtration as if I do have flukes it’s not bad and there’s no visual evidence others than the odd scratching in the substrate but I know there’s something that needs treating . So iv got the salt out and following the rule of 1 table spoon per 15l but after measuring out the recommendation for 500l it looks a lot like 200 grams of salt , regardless the salt has been added and to my surprise the water didn’t even taste brackish , but my question now is should I just use the medication? Will salt even kill flukes ?

 

[GaryE]

Salt is a medication, and for many fish it's a harsh one.

If it is flukes, a med containing praziquantel is the way to go. Flashing, rubbing on objects in the tank, can be the results of a bunch of different parasites, and malachite green would handle most of them. Salt will act as a skin irritant, and the fish will secrete body slime to protect itself from the slight burn involved. The slime will deal with the parasites, in many (not nearly all) cases. If it's on the surface of the fish, salt or malachite green are good, although salt is a devil to get out after. If it's in the gills, prazi is your friend.

I've had fish flash a bit and then stop. Make sure you are regular on your water changes (it can be from ammonia), with a basic 25-30% weekly. I've also had flashing on new arrivals be Ich, so vigilance is called for. You've already used one medications, so you have to stay the course now.

 

[Guyb93]

Salt is a medication, and for many fish it's a harsh one.

If it is flukes, a med containing praziquantel is the way to go. Flashing, rubbing on objects in the tank, can be the results of a bunch of different parasites, and malachite green would handle most of them. Salt will act as a skin irritant, and the fish will secrete body slime to protect itself from the slight burn involved. The slime will deal with the parasites, in many (not nearly all) cases. If it's on the surface of the fish, salt or malachite green are good, although salt is a devil to get out after. If it's in the gills, prazi is your friend.

I've had fish flash a bit and then stop. Make sure you are regular on your water changes (it can be from ammonia), with a basic 25-30% weekly. I've also had flashing on new arrivals be Ich, so vigilance is called for. You've already used one medications, so you have to stay the course now.

From a bit more research I haven’t doses enough salt by far iv used 200g for 500l and it’s saying 2-5gram per 1 litre that seems excessive to me , water quality is as good as I can want , I do 50% plus w/c per week and have noticed this flashing for a few months , even to the point where after a few days new fish start doing it , but it’s an issue only the tank owner would pick up on as flashing is rare but still there , I’m obviously a bit cautious using salts so the question is now will malachite green destroy my beneficiary bacteria

 

[GaryE]

I'm a dinosaur who stopped testing tanks 25 years ago. I can say that I have never had a problem after using malachite green in a tank, although I have solved a few. I only would use it if I had to, but there is always a bottle on my shelf here.
My tanks aren't overstocked in the least, and are planted. So I have more leeway.

What are the active ingredients in the med you are considering? These concoctions vary from country to country and maker to maker, and malachite green is often a secondary ingredient.

 

[Guyb93]

I'm a dinosaur who stopped testing tanks 25 years ago. I can say that I have never had a problem after using malachite green in a tank, although I have solved a few. I only would use it if I had to, but there is always a bottle on my shelf here.
My tanks aren't overstocked in the least, and are planted. So I have more leeway.

What are the active ingredients in the med you are considering? These concoctions vary from country to country and maker to maker, and malachite green is often a secondary ingredient.

The composition is simply 5000mg formaldehyde 50mg malachite green , to me it just seems like your ment to slowly kill your fish to kill a parasite

 

[Colin_T]

Malachite Green (aka Victoria Green) does not affect bacteria, and this includes filter bacteria.

For gill flukes you need 2 heaped tablespoons of salt for every 20 litres of water.

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SALT

Using Salt to Treat Fish Health Issues.

For some fish diseases you can use salt (sodium chloride) to treat the ailment rather than using a chemical based medication. Salt is relatively safe and is regularly used in the aquaculture industry to treat food fish for diseases. Salt has been successfully used to treat minor fungal and bacterial infections, as well as a number of external protozoan infections. Salt alone will not treat whitespot (Ichthyophthirius) or Velvet (Oodinium) but will treat most other types of protozoan infections in freshwater fishes.

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

 

[GaryE]

The composition is simply 5000mg formaldehyde 50mg malachite green , to me it just seems like your ment to slowly kill your fish to kill a parasite

Not at all. Malachite green breaks down quickly, and formalin, while scary sounding, is in there to eliminate Oodinium. I've had to use a similar mix for Ich on newly arrived cardinal tetras, for example, and still had them 7 years later. Let the parasite run, and that would have been more like 7 days.

You want to follow instructions and not overdo it, but these are safe and effective meds. And frankly, most of our rainforest species of fish are just as likely to encounter medicinal dyes in nature as they are to encounter salt - it is completely unnatural to their environment. So is the parasite load that can develop in the confines of the glass walls of a tank.