Using Salt As A Treatment

[oscar]

I've just noticed what looks like a bit of fungus on one of my cardinal tetras that in a community tank housing discus.

I'd like to try treating with salt (is this appropriate?) rather than turning my tank blue and removing carbon from filters (as opening my Aquis 2400 is likely to make it leak again/more.

Because this is a community tank i want to make sure everyone is OK with a bit of salt. I guess the easiest way to find that out would be for someone to tell me what fish can't deal with salt in the water.

Thanks for your help.

P.S. It probably couldn't hurt for someone to re-educate me on the appropriates dosage rate, especially if there is aare some species that can only handle small doses.

Cheers.

[Merrilyn]

Hi Oscar. Don't use salt in a planted tank. Your plants will hate it.

Yes, salt can be used for fungus, but only in mild cases. I'd rather see you remove the affected fish from the tank and treat it in a seperate tank.

Any of the fungus cures that you buy are better used in the hospital tank where you can control the dosage and more easily.

[Merrilyn]

Sorry, just realised you asked for the dose rate. It's one heap teaspoon per 40 litres of water. After 24 hours you can gradually increase the dose to double that over the next three days.

After the cure has been effected, gradually replace some of the salty water with fresh water over a couple of days, till it comes back to mostly fresh water.

Scaleless fish like bristlenose catfish and loaches cannot tolerate salt in the water, so don't use it with them.

[oscar]

Thanks LR,

I was aware of the scaleless fish not tolerating salt but i wasn't sure about the plants.

I've got a hospital tank up and running.

I've never used salt as a treatment before, and the idea of a nice natural solution really appeals to me. Just wanted to get my facts straight before i jump in with both feet.

Thanks for the help.

[foo]

G'day Guys and Gals,

I was wondering if you refer to fungus as ich or white spots too... coz this morning while feeding my community tank, I saw two small white spots on the tail of my Red Turq...

I added a handful of salt in the tank hoping that it would be enough to treat the fungus... temperature is at 28°C and i heard by raising the temperature, it stops the cycle of ich...

so my question is... is fungus the same as ich or white spots?

if so... If its not a severe case... is it enough just by adding salt (not too much) in the tank and raising the temperature to maybe 29 - 30°C to treat minor fungus??

Thanks and have a great day...

Pete

[Del]

One of my discus had a swolen eye so I did a salt bath at 1 tablespoon per 40 litres for 5 days.

I am about to do 20% daily waterchanges to get rid of the salt over the next 3 days.

I do have plants and they weren't effected, but the dose I did was rather small...

[sammigold]

Foo: Fungus is a different problem to Ich/white spot...They are very different...

Fungus is a cottony looking white substance that can occur as a secondary problem ie. if your fish had a wound that wasnt healing properly fungus may start growing on the wound.... it can also occur as a symptom of columnaris usually around the mouth area or as white furry patches on the body or fin areas...it normally attacks stressed or unhealthy fish and may only attack the one fish at one time...

Ich/whitespot is usually noticed as very tiny pin prick sized white spots that start as just a few but in really bad cases can cover your fishes body all over in these tiny spots....I believe it is highly contagious and will normally show up on other fish in the tank fairly quickly (raising the temp a couple of degrees and treating with salt at a rate of 1teaspoon per 40 litres can be effective treatment and there are also medications on the market that effectively deal with this ailment)

In your case I would just monitor your discus for a day or two before concluding that it has either of these problems... if you can post a photo I am sure that someone here will be able to identify the problem for you... it may be neither of the above... Hth

[foo]

Sammi,

Thanks mate... after reading your thread, I went back to check on 'camel' the red turq and found it had fungus...

It was starting to get better with the white cotton reducing in size and almost transparent... but i still added a broadband medication to the whole tank...

thanks guys and happy discusing... :)

Pete