Ich Hypo Salinity Treatment

[Kunal Patel]

Hi

I am going through a case of Ich and it seems pretty bad at times. I lost 3 fish so far, and a couple are fighting it.
I have been trying a few things that did not work, so this is my last hope. My tank is a fish only system, I am going to
directly treat my display tank with hypo salinity. From my research I did not see anything against doing this for my current fish
I have a Bamboo Shark, Snowflake Eel, Yellow Tang, Niger Trigger, Red Grouper & a Maroon Clown. Has anyone heard any adverse affect on
these fish or has it worked for anyone, any opinions. Also I was thinking about changing my substrate to try and eliminate any
ich living there, what do you think.

Thank you
Kunal Patel

 

[jay0705]

It will kill everything in your tank besides fish. Inverts,bristle worms,ect. If you have a deep sand bed its not a good idea either

 

[beth]

If your tank has no live rock, you can do hyposalinity in the display tank. In your situation, unless you have a separate container for all those fish, you don't have much choice. Hypo is safe and very effective for treatment of ich but you must precisely do the procedure correctly. I will link the procedure below. I highly suggest that you use a refractometer for testing water. That is the best all round choice for water testing of salinity anyway and you can certainly benefit from using one for water testing if you don't already use on.

Inverts will take an impact if you have them. You should remove snails, crabs, etc. to a separate container. Some inverts will fair ok under hypo, meaning not completely die off, such as bristle worms. You will need to ready with hypo water to do water changes to address any die-off.

No need to change substrate. If you do hypo correctly, the ich will die off. Consider setting up a quarantine tank in the future to use for new fish.

https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/c/index.php/articles/content/hyposalinity.100

 

[Kunal Patel]

It will kill everything in your tank besides fish. Inverts,bristle worms,ect. If you have a deep sand bed its not a good idea either

Thank You
I was planing on moving my inverts to my quarantine tank, I have not seen any bristle worms. Other than that my Copepods might be affect. My qt tank isnt big enough for all my fish and plus
I would like to reduce any potential outbreaks in the future so I plan on treating my display.

 

[Kunal Patel]

If your tank has no live rock, you can do hyposalinity in the display tank. In your situation, unless you have a separate container for all those fish, you don't have much choice. Hypo is safe and very effective for treatment of ich but you must precisely do the procedure correctly. I will link the procedure below. I highly suggest that you use a refractometer for testing water. That is the best all round choice for water testing of salinity anyway and you can certainly benefit from using one for water testing if you don't already use on.

Inverts will take an impact if you have them. You should remove snails, crabs, etc. to a separate container. Some inverts will fair ok under hypo, meaning not completely die off, such as bristle worms. You will need to ready with hypo water to do water changes to address any die-off.

No need to change substrate. If you do hypo correctly, the ich will die off. Consider setting up a quarantine tank in the future to use for new fish.

https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/c/index.php/articles/content/hyposalinity.100

Thank you
I do have live rock in my tank and in my sump, I can move the live rock over to my Qt tank and shut off my sump and only run a canister filter with chemipure blue and carbon. I also have 4 wave makers and an air pump for efficient air exchange. So this seems like a plan and will be using my refractormeter and watching the parameters very closely for the next 4 to 6 weeks or so. The only question is would I feed my fish normally?

 

[jay0705]

Feeding yes. Possibly more, under hypo there metabolism goes up

 

[beth]

Just FYI. Careful when describing things. You initially said you had a fish only system. That means no live rock, inverts....only fish. If I hadn't asked then we would not have had correct info and that could potentially have been a disaster. You will have to move out the live rock and as many inverts as you can.

 

[Kunal Patel]

Just FYI. Careful when describing things. You initially said you had a fish only system. That means no live rock, inverts....only fish. If I hadn't asked then we would not have had correct info and that could potentially have been a disaster. You will have to move out the live rock and as many inverts as you can.

Sorry, I guess I thought that fish only ment a no coral system, with the basic clean up crew and live rock. But I have moved all my live rock and inverts to a 10 gallon, and turned my sump off with live rock to my tank. Everything still has flow water. I also moved my tang, trigger and grouper to a 30 gallon with coppermine and left the salinity at 1.023, I used my display tank water in both the 10 and 30. My display tank is only housing my eel and shark at a salinity of 1.019 and using my wave maker and canister as filtration with chemipure and carbon. By sunday I should have the tank at 1.010. Please let me know if anyone has any input.
Thank you.

 

[beth]

No need to apologize at all. Its just a good idea to give specifics otherwise someone else may give you bad advise.

Sharks can't be hypoed nor do they tolerate copper! My fault for not catching that in your original post and I do apologize. It is also very unlikely that they can be contract ich. You will need to isolate the shark separately. Bring the salinity back up very slowly in the display tank for the shark's sake. He will need to stay in that tank by himself while the others are treated.

You seem to be trying to use 2 treatments? I don't know when you started hypo but if it was after my post above (today) then you dropping salinity too fast anyway. To return to normal salinity for the shark, you have to proceed slowly. You should take at least 2 days get it back to normal now.

 

[Kunal Patel]

No need to apologize at all. Its just a good idea to give specifics otherwise someone else may give you bad advise.

Sharks can't be hypoed nor do they tolerate copper! My fault for not catching that in your original post and I do apologize. It is also very unlikely that they can be contract ich. You will need to isolate the shark separately. Bring the salinity back up very slowly in the display tank for the shark's sake. He will need to stay in that tank by himself while the others are treated.

You seem to be trying to use 2 treatments? I don't know when you started hypo but if it was after my post above (today) then you dropping salinity too fast anyway. To return to normal salinity for the shark, you have to proceed slowly. You should take at least 2 days get it back to normal now.

Ok, according to some of the information I gathered I really haven't start hyposalinity. I have read it starts at 1.013 to 1.010 anything below is bad for fish but it could be wrong and accordingly it said a rapid decrease in salinity, fish will be fine but the parasite will not. With that I decide either way I will drop slowly to 1.013, so initially I started at 1.023 and while doing a water change I ment to drop it to 1.020 but slight miss calculation dropped it to 1.019. The shark seems fine since it took a couple hours to drop, and actually ate a couple of silver sides I just fed him but I can't find much on ich and bamboo sharks so over time I will bring it back to 1.023. I read they are resistant to it but can get it. Mine seems to scratch it's belly and side not all to much though like the other fish. Over the 24 hours I will bring it up to 1.020 and so forth. I did the decrease over a couple hours starting today. Basically for my fish that are extremely affected I have put them in the coppermine mix to help. I left that at 1.023 because I didn't want the copper and hypo salinity to shock the fish. So I planned to drop the salinity on that start tomorrow. For now I will hold off on dropping it until I guess see some improvement in the fish.

 

[lmforbis]

You need to go to 1.009 for hypo. More than that you need to keep it there constantly. I usually go to 1.008. Make sure you calibrate your refractometer before you start and regularly during the hypo period.

 

[beth]

"Hyposalinity" refers more to the procedure lowing salinity (usually for ich treatment) to a specific point. Any time you make changes to salinity you need to lower slow, but raise even more slowly. Hyposalinity for curing ich needs to be maintained at 1.009 and keep it there at all times for the duration of the procedure. Please read the info I linked on hyposalinity if you plan to use this procedure.

I have never owned or treated a shark for ich. However, if the shark does have ich it can be treated with chloroquine phosphate. It requires an RX from the vet. I would not trust any other source for obtaining it. It will also treat all the other fish. It's a one dose event. i would not put it into a tank with live rock and live sand. You can just leave the shark in the display by himself and very closely observe while you treat the other fish using hypo. If he does not have signs of infection, then you should be good.

Bamboos need at least a 200 gal tank, is yours at least that size? There is no wiggle room on this.

Also, a clownfish is totally inappropriate for an aggressive tank with a shark! Will likely become midnight snack soon.

 

[Kunal Patel]

"Hyposalinity" refers more to the procedure lowing salinity (usually for ich treatment) to a specific point. Any time you make changes to salinity you need to lower slow, but raise even more slowly. Hyposalinity for curing ich needs to be maintained at 1.009 and keep it there at all times for the duration of the procedure. Please read the info I linked on hyposalinity if you plan to use this procedure.

I have never owned or treated a shark for ich. However, if the shark does have ich it can be treated with chloroquine phosphate. It requires an RX from the vet. I would not trust any other source for obtaining it. It will also treat all the other fish. It's a one dose event. i would not put it into a tank with live rock and live sand. You can just leave the shark in the display by himself and very closely observe while you treat the other fish using hypo. If he does not have signs of infection, then you should be good.

Bamboos need at least a 200 gal tank, is yours at least that size? There is no wiggle room on this.

Also, a clownfish is totally inappropriate for an aggressive tank with a shark! Will likely become midnight snack soon.

I have my bamboo shark in a 250, currently he is only about 10 inches and my clown fish is 6 inches so he is big for the shark, in fact he becomes aggressive towards the shark. Ya it is an issue once he gets bigger, I have a 30 gallon reef aquarium where I originally planned to move him, but more than likely he will be moved there after I get rid of the ich.