Hypo salinity treatment for ich, does it work?

[salt creepette]

I read an article on about.com about various ways to treat ich (its in my 20 gallon) and I chose to use the Osmotic Shock Therapy method. You reduce the sg to 1.015 slowly, as the ich is supposed to not be able to live but the fish tolerate it.

There is live rock and crushed coral and macro in the 20g. the inverts have been moved to a seperate QT. There is a maroon clown, dottyback, scooter dragonet (which eats vitamin soaked brine and pods from a refugium) and a 2.5 inch sailfin tang (remember, I am upgrading to a 120 soon) in the tank now. The other fish have resisted the ich pretty well, but the tang is covered despite one fwd 2 days ago (and one this afternoon). I only just got the sg down to 1.015 yesterday night, but yet the tang still has lots of white dots, more I think than last night. Like I said, I dipped the sailfin this afternoon but it doesnt really look like there are fewer dots, but more.

I use a swing arm seatest hydrometer and also have a glass hydrometer. the glass reads 1.012 and the swing arm 1.015.

has anyone had any experience with hypo, and can you give me any recommendations?

my clown is currently being treated in a 10g tank with cupramine for what I think is oodinium. I dont want to combine the fish from the 20g with her. I would like to just treat using hypo if I can.

[ruhspolostar]

I have a friend who tried, she said it worked for her fish but her hermits and snails died, not sure if it was related

[salt creepette]

yeah thats why i moved the inverts to a diff. tank.

btw, i am feeding garlic so hopefully that will help. tang is eating like a horse so thats a good thing...

[Python73]

To get rid of the cysts that are showing on the tang, freshwater dip him. They will fall right off. Then go with a few weeks of hyposalinity. It will kill the remaining ich.

S !

[TerryB10]

1.012 is not low enough. You need an accurate lab grade hydrometer or refractometer to measure the salinity. The glass one is probably accurate IF you know how to properly read the neck of the hydrometer. Hypo should NOT be used with inverts, love rock or live sand. The specific gravity should be at 1.009 or a salinity of about 14ppt.
Terry B

[salt creepette]

REEEEALLY...that low, huh?? well my 2 pieces of live rock are in the tank still, i guess i should move them to the invert qt tank. I dont have 'live sand,' i have 'semi-living crushed coral' but not really

you read the top of the meniscus on the glass hydrometer, (or is it the bottom...??), in a temp range of around 78? that is what my tank is at temp-wise.

[Toadfish]

IMO if you are unsure of the proper requirements and measurement of hyposalinity don't do it. Check the water params, make sure the are optimal, leave one piece of rock, and pull the fish out daily to dip them. Ich will usually go away in a low stress environment, dipping the fish would help speed up the process a bit.

[salt creepette]

thanks toadfish. I dont know if its an issue of me not being sure on the requirements; there are just differing opinions/experiences on how to do it apparently. I was operating off of the article, but I like to hear people's experience and opinions on how theyve had success with it.

This morning the tang had fewer white dots so i will continue the same SG I have right now and continue to fwd him daily. the other fish are resisting it well with no apparent white dots, so im sure the tang will do the same with time. he still eats and I think the garlic is working. So I will just continue doing what I am doing. Thanks once again

[beach bum]

yikes. If you do not have a refractometer - you NEED one to do hypo - and, yes, it needs to be down to 14ppt for an extended period of time, the point is killing the parasites (i.e. invertebrates, just like your snails, and hermits, etc...)

If you have Live rock, then you have Live sand, critters comingle so will lose some life in your main tank regardless.

Remember there is a life cycle for these critters, and it might take a few days to show results - a dip will not show it's effectiveness immediately.


best of luck,
bb

[salt creepette]

forgive me, I am very frustrated, but what IS the point of dipping if it does not show immediate signs/relief for the fish etc?

im so frustrated right now!

Im trying to understand how to treat this and it just seems impossible. I dont have a refractometer and I cant afford one. there must be SOMETHING I can do for my fish! I dont have an extra tank to quarantine the fish, its already in use to treat my clownfish which has oodinium.

I am trying to prepare fresh water for a fwd and adjusting the ph is THE BIGGEST PITA ever. I am going to post in a new thread to try to get some help there.

Like I said earlier, the only fish that has ich on it is the tang, so what I have been doing is (must be??) helping the other fish. (sigh)

[Python73]

Adjusting PH in fresh water? Unless those are discus, or your water burns your hands out of the tap, forget it. I kept assorted fresh water fish for years with tap water. PH conditioning is not necessary.

S !

[Alice]

Python,

The object is to match the pH of the FW with the pH of the SW so as not to send the fish into pH shock.

Erin, have you tried using baking soda to adjust the pH?

Also Erin, TerryB10 (Terry Bartleme) has written numerous articles that are available online regarding ich and hypo salinity treatment. Have you looked in our fish disease archives here on TRT yet? Quite a few threads there dealing with ich.

One of the things that really helped me when I had to deal with a big outbreak of ich was doing a google search on the life cyle of *cryptocaryon irritans* so that I could understand what I was dealing with.

Alice

[Python73]

Oops, I missed that. FWD as in "fresh water dip." DUH. For some reason I though he was setting up a FW tank.

My tap water PH is 8 or so, so I can skip that step. Sorry.

S !

[Rick O]

Originally posted by Alice
Also Erin, TerryB10 (Terry Bartleme) has written numerous articles that are available online regarding ich and hypo salinity treatment. Have you looked in our fish disease archives here on TRT yet? Quite a few threads there dealing with ich.

I agree Erin. Do a search on hyposalinity. There is a very detailed post by TerryB10 that describes the correct method for using this treatment.

[salt creepette]

thanks alice. ive read and read about ich every day for the last several days. Im just frustrated with the ph problem in preparing fwd's. you mention using baking soda, but can you give me a general idea for how much to use for a gallon of dipping water? I have searched this forum and read several threads but havent found anyone mentioning exactly how to adjust the ph with baking soda, they just mention doing it. I searched on google extensively last night to no avail as well. I would kiss your feet if you could help me adjust fresh RO water with a PH of 7.4 to 8.0 in one (or even two!) easy steps!!!