Melting Catfish (obviously this is bad...)

[pablo111]

hey!

I've got 2 L-132 (banded peckoltia) and 3 Corydoras Panda in a tank that currently contains in excess of 1TBSP Nhcl (sodium chloride) or aquarium salt for those who are unfamiliar per 5Gal of water. I'm not insane. I have an unidentified encysting protozoic parasite that nobody I know has been able to identify and the only thing I have had modest luck with is salt and heat.

Unfortunately, the salt seems to be melting my mailed catfish faster than the protozoan. No epidermal holes yet- but the mailing has begun to raise and severely irritate on the corries, and the mailing surrounding my pleco's dorsal fin has begun to errode. This is bad.

Any ideas? I considered adding some stresscoat but this would probably cause more probems than good, and likely be quickly erroded by the salt

FOOTNOTE:

I say NHCL not because I'm a smartass, but because there are dozens of salts usable in the aquarium and I wanted to be clear on which one it was- for those who are familiar with elemental notation

AANY help would be masssssssively appreciated


*celebrate *celebrate CHEERS

 

[ecotank]

Originally posted by pablo111
I say NHCL not because I'm a smartass, but because there are dozens of salts usable in the aquarium and I wanted to be clear on which one it was- for those who are familiar with elemental notation

Well the elemental notation for sodium chloride is NaCl not NHCL.

NHCL is the National Hockey Champions League.

I think I'm going to suggest what everyone else will and that is water changes and/or remove the catfish to a hospital tank. I would stop your salt treatment if it is damaging your fish, it appears your treatment is doing more damage that the parasite from what you have said. No one knows what this parasite is? There must be some info available as I doubt it's something totally new, have you completely researched what you have discovered?

 

[Lotus]

I did a little search on www.planetcatfish.com about salt and plecos. Obviously your pleco is adversely affected by the salt, and you should probably try to reduce it. One thing I read there is that when reducing the salt, you should do it slowly, as they need to reajust to a different level of osmosis. This is something particular to plecos, by the way.

 

[pablo111]

Ecotank- maybe I had hockey salt in my tank? Hmm?



Nope. Not removing the catfish. If I take them out, they will still have the parasite when they go back in. They will either have to get better or die trying. Sounds stupid but I see no other choice. I've been trying to kill this thing for 2 months.

Some people seem to think it could be Costia- but I have used malachite green and boosted the temp to 92!!!!!!!!!!!! neither of which killed it. Costia is supposed to die at said parameters.

So, nobody knows what it is for sure.

Thanks for the osmosis tip I didn't know

 

[pablo111]

OH! And I heard Salt actually reduces available oxygen?

This didn't make sense to me because otherwise you'd need ten filters and five airpumps to run a nano reef right?

 

[catfishmike]

the salt reducing oxygen is more like this:when salt is added to the water it increases osmotic pressure on the catfish and to cope with the change in water chemistry the organs to work harder to maintain the balance of ion in the fishes body and one of the signs of this is rapid gill movement.,i.e. increased resperation.that and often salt is associated with high temps.warmer water reduces waters capacity to hold oxygen.
so when treating fish at high temps you need to add an external source of oxygenation to maintain the o2 levels in the tank.and also if i rembemer correctly sodium chloride is still basicly salt when iodine is added,so what i'm saying is as far as it goes salt is salt.i have never realy heard of anyone using a diffrent salt in the aquarium outside of specific purpose based use .i.e sodium thiosulfate,sulfa salts,epsom salts for cichlid ect...
so eseentialy when refering to salt for use in the aquarium it's assumed that salt is sodium chloride,or else specified.although the simple word chloride,which is the Cl in NaCl is also chlorine.so salt is soudium of chlorine? chlorine is responsible for burning the gills when introduced into an aqarium,or an other body of water for that matter.so i suppose that it is possible that salt could could make it harder to breath on a fish not accustomed to a high salinity enviroment.but i'm no chemist so don't mind me. heres a link about salt even http://www.saltinstitute.org/4.html and no i'm not trying to be a jerk.

 

[clothahump]

Seems someone has an attitude problem.
What exactly are the symptoms of the illness?
I would immediately move the fish to a hospital tank filled with slighty acidic soft water and leave them to recover from their hell.
Clean everything that has been used in the current set up including all nets, heaters air stones etc, then leave to dry thoroughly for at least a week before using any of it.
Salt will not help with this problem and the high temps will only agrivate your fish.
Why would you rather they die?

 

[clothahump]

Garlic does work, I have used it for years, a couple of my Albino Aeneus started to develop the blood streaks under the skin that is the first sign of septicemea a couple of weeks ago and after one dose it had gone.
Garlic is actually a better Gram Negative anti-biotic than Penicillin.
I use it on a regular basis, try and get Garlic Granules for horses, 100% organic if possible, extremely cheap to buy and will last for ages, we use the same in some of our own meals.
Melafix will definately help with regeneration of the fins, so use this as well.
Garlic dose 1/2 TSP for 15 gallons, if brave enogh you can use pure garlic oil but you will not be popular with the rest of your household.
Good Luck and let us know how you get on.