Treating Ich

[molly girl]

my black molly was showing signs of ich 2 days ago, and i immediately took him out of the comm. tank and into quarantine. i used ich meds on him and there is salt in the water, and the spots are clearing up pretty quickly. my question is when can i re-introdufe him into the community tank?

 

[ICEEGRL]

I would finish the meds. Do the full treatment for what the medication directions say. Then do a good water change and watch it for a couple of days to make sure that nothing is going to show back up when there are no meds in the water.
Do you normally keep it in brackish water or are you doing it just while it is sick? When it gets well if you put it back in fresh water it may get sick again. If you are going to lower the salt levels or raise them remember to do it slowly. What kind of salt do you use?

 

[molly girl]

both tanks are brackish. i use aquarium salt made by API.

 

[Puffdaddy]

I'm feel I must inform you of this but if your using the API aquarium salt in your tanks they not brackish. To obtain proper (real) brackish water you must use marine salt such as Instant Ocean. What other kind of fish do you have in the tanks. The salt that you are using is best used as a medical application to help with stress and disease. What this kind of salt does is strip or re-stimulate the fish's slime coat depending on the amount used, to help make other meds more effective.
As for your question iceegrl's response is right on.

 

[molly girl]

ohh wow i didn't know that! thanks for the info. i'll have to go out and get marine salt. i have all mollies, so they should all be just fine in brackish water. haha well at least salt is inexpensive! i didn't waste any money.

the med i'm using says it's a month long water treatment. should i just put it in the comm. tank as well, and put him back? before i switched to the month-long med, i used some that was supposed to work immediately, and i did notice a change for the better after 2 days of treatment. i really want to put him back in the comm tank- he looks so forlorn!! is it safe to put him back now, along with the month-long med in the water?