GraceH Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 (edited) I’m new to keeping fish and have recently set up a 250L aquarium with cichlids, bristle nose plecos and a catfish. I’ve lost 2 fish over the last 2 days and have now noticed they’re covered in white spot, i’ve put treatment in the water and aquarium salt. But I’ve now seen people saying catfish and plecos are sensitive to aquarium salt & i’m worried it’s going to burn them or kill them?? Can anyone give a bit of insight on this? Thank you 🙂 Edited February 9 by GraceH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 On 2/9/2024 at 9:55 AM, GraceH said: But I’ve now seen people saying catfish and plecos are sensitive to aquarium salt & i’m worried it’s going to burn them or kill them Most pleco are armored catfish and to my experience not sensitive to salinity. My bristlenose also tolerate ich-x quite fine. What type of catfish you have will determine their sensitivity. If you share the species @Colu can most likely share on how sensitive they are to what meds. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 (edited) Welcome. My first question to you. Since this sounds like your first case of ich. How long did you have the aquarium before you added your fish. Have you seen anything about cycling a tank. If not, no worries. I didn’t either when I started. Ich is not immediately fatal, you have some time. It’s mostly a stress disease. Do you have a water testing kit or strips? Edited February 9 by Tony s 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennie Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 First makes sure it is ich, not epistylis. Treatment of ich with salt requires lots of salt actually. The usual treatment range is at least 2-3ppt, but I have read there have been cases the ich still remained alive 5ppt or so. I would not use salt as a treatment method for cories/plecos myself but just a lil bit of salt can still be a support. I would just add a lil bit of salt to support the treatment procedure but treat with Ich-X(or basically anything with malachite green-formaldehyde, we don’t have Ich-x here but I easily found a local brand with the same ingredients) I have a very experienced friend in the hobby says Seachem cupramine also works great for ich, and he has never heard of a case it failed to this day, but I have never tried it myself. I am hesitant to try copper based medicines due to keeping shrimp/snails, worrying about them potentislly remaining jn the tank, and their effectiveness is related to alkalinity(if I am not mistaken) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 On 2/9/2024 at 10:08 AM, Tony s said: Ich is not immediately fatal, you have some time. It’s mostly a stress disease. Ich is a ciliated parasitic protozoan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 Correct. That’s why they have some time. You don’t usually see ich unless the fish is under stress. As it is usually present in all aquarium water For first time keeper, it’s easier to think of it like a disease. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllFishNoBrakes Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 FWIW: I treated my female Bristlenose with a cyst on her face with salt and she handled it just fine. The only time I’ve personally dealt with ich was on my Hatchetfish. Treated with 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt per 2 gallons of water (so 5 tablespoons in a 10 gallon aquarium) and it took care of it. I realize Hatchetfish are not Bristlenose, but considering I have treated Bristlenose with salt before (although at a lower dose) that leads me to believe they could handle a higher dose to treat ich. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraceH Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 I can’t seem to reply to individual comments? But I believe my catfish is a pictus catfish. I cycled my tank for a week before adding any fish, let those settle for a week & then added more fish. I’m worried because they definitely seem bothered by the ich, they’re swimming against the gravel quite a lot and as i said, I’ve had 2 fish die:( Yes I do have test strips, they’re saying my nitrate levels are high but I did a 1/3 water change last night so wondering whether the ich treatment is affecting the nitrate levels now? I’ve added the best picture i could get of the white spots on my cichlid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 Highlight what you want to respond to then a quote tab pops up yeah 2 weeks means you’re not nearly cycled yet. How are your ammonia and nitrite levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 Having nitrates means you’re very close though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraceH Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 On 2/9/2024 at 3:44 PM, Tony s said: Highlight what you want to respond to then a quote tab pops up yeah 2 weeks means you’re not nearly cycled yet. How are your ammonia and nitrite levels. my tank has been running for about around 4-5 weeks now Ammonia is fine, nitrate is saying high Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 nitrates are good anyway from 50 on down. Especially for planted tanks. They need the higher nitrogen. If you’re higher than that and concerned, doing higher levels of water changes is ok. Or even multiple changes per day. As long as you’re dechlorinating every time. Nitrates are not technically poisonous. I’ve heard it described as being in a smoke filled room. It’s kind of irritating, but the higher you get, it becomes intolerable. Cichlid guys that can’t have plants, usually have very high levels with no ill effects Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraceH Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 On 2/9/2024 at 4:00 PM, Tony s said: nitrates are good anyway from 50 on down. Especially for planted tanks. They need the higher nitrogen. If you’re higher than that and concerned, doing higher levels of water changes is ok. Or even multiple changes per day. As long as you’re dechlorinating every time. Nitrates are not technically poisonous. I’ve heard it described as being in a smoke filled room. It’s kind of irritating, but the higher you get, it becomes intolerable. Cichlid guys that can’t have plants, usually have very high levels with no ill effects I’m going to leave any further water changes for now since I’ve put white spot treatment in the water and it’ll be pointless. I’ve just added a sponge filter into the tank to help get rid of excess food & fish poo so hopefully this will help bring the nitrate levels down. I’m going to let the treatment run its course and hopefully the fish will be okay now! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 To answer the original salt question. Florida is having troubles with released pleco harassing and sometimes killing manatees in the Gulf of Mexico. So plecos and salt are good 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 pictus and salt? not sure on, never had pictus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraceH Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 Thank you very much for everyone’s help 😊 On 2/9/2024 at 6:15 PM, Tony s said: pictus and salt? not sure on, never had pictus. so far he seems okay, very lively and swimming around so i can only hope he stays that way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 On 2/9/2024 at 6:55 AM, GraceH said: But I’ve now seen people saying catfish and plecos are sensitive to aquarium salt & i’m worried it’s going to burn them or kill them?? I've had mine on up to 1 tbsp of salt per 2 gallons. Briefly on 1 tbsp of salt per 1 gallon 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 I did 1 tbs/gallon on my discus tank which had two bristlenose plecos in it. The super red was fine, but the regular female started getting what looked like fin damage on the ends of her fins after about a week, so I pulled them. I did the discus for about 12 days. I've always heard that corys are very salt sensitive as in "any salt might kill them". But maybe that's not true? I've always been too scared to try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraceH Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 On 2/9/2024 at 7:46 PM, jwcarlson said: I did 1 tbs/gallon on my discus tank which had two bristlenose plecos in it. The super red was fine, but the regular female started getting what looked like fin damage on the ends of her fins after about a week, so I pulled them. I did the discus for about 12 days. I've always heard that corys are very salt sensitive as in "any salt might kill them". But maybe that's not true? I've always been too scared to try. I’ll keep my eye out for any damage on their fins. Since the salt is for helping get rid of ich, i’ll be doing a few water changes over the next week or so, so the salt will be reduced massively and hopefully they won’t get fin damage then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 On 2/9/2024 at 2:08 PM, GraceH said: I’ll keep my eye out for any damage on their fins. Since the salt is for helping get rid of ich, i’ll be doing a few water changes over the next week or so, so the salt will be reduced massively and hopefully they won’t get fin damage then. The fish looks fine now and it's been maybe 3-4 weeks since I took them out. I'm not sure how long you need to have salt in for ich, but if you're trying to keep a certain level of salt make sure that you add back what you take out with water changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 (edited) On 2/9/2024 at 2:55 PM, GraceH said: I’m new to keeping fish and have recently set up a 250L aquarium with cichlids, bristle nose plecos and a catfish. I’ve lost 2 fish over the last 2 days and have now noticed they’re covered in white spot, i’ve put treatment in the water and aquarium salt. But I’ve now seen people saying catfish and plecos are sensitive to aquarium salt & i’m worried it’s going to burn them or kill them?? Can anyone give a bit of insight on this? Thank you 🙂 I wouldn't go above one table spoon for 5 gallons with pictus catfish in the picture the spots looked raised if they are raised you could be dealing with epistylis that feeds off of gram negative bacteria on the slime coat of your fish and spreads more quickly at higher temperatures the most effective treatment is a combination of malachite green active ingredient in ick X and maracyn2 in food feeding a small amount twice a day for 7 days if there not raised keep treating with ick X and small amount of aquarium salt Edited February 9 by Colu 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 On 2/9/2024 at 3:36 PM, Colu said: could be dealing with epilepsy epistylis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 On 2/9/2024 at 9:57 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: epistylis Another case of stupid autocorrect 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 On 2/9/2024 at 6:00 PM, Colu said: Another case of stupid autocorrect I figured! Haha 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraceH Posted February 10 Author Share Posted February 10 Is anyone able to tell me what type of catfish he is? Finally been able to get a photo of him! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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