What treatment should I use??

[Amelia]

After a solid hour of reading internet articles, I am now even more confused than when I started. A couple of fish in my 45g tank have started to display white dots like grains of salt on their fins. There is never any more than one dot at a time (so far), and not on the body as far as I can see but I want to nip this in the bud. Currently it is affecting 3-4 fish, including 2 harlequin rasbora, a dwarf chain loach and a three-spot gourami. Other tank inhabitants are peppered cories.

After all my research I still have no idea whether this is Ich or Velvet, or even the beginning of Lymphocystitis. I'm guessing it's a result of stress from moving all the fish into a new tank a few days ago. Is there a treatment which would knock out all three, since I'm not sure which I have?

I am at all loss to whether I should treat with heat + salt, as I hear cories are intolerant of salt and as are loaches, or with either methylene blue or malachite green, which again loaches are sensitive too.

My first instinct is to go with the heat + salt method and treat with meds if it proves unsuccessful. Could anyone tell me how much salt I should add? I was thinking 2-3tsp per gallon and temp up to around 85F.

Thanks, guys.

[pjaldave]

I wouldn't put salt in just yet, although the "normal" dosage for treatment is 1Tbsp (or 3 tsp) per 5 gallons, i believe.

If you're up to using meds, i will recommend seachem's paraguard, it is really mild on fish but very effective.

[Amelia]

I don't think that's available here. We don't have all the products that you guys have available, it's pretty much either malachite green or methylene blue. Also does anyone know if these will stain white silica sand?

Why shouldn't I put salt in yet? I saw one of my loaches flashing this morning.

[Indian Woods Angels]

The metallic dyes will stain the white sand. This I do know.

[Orion5]

Does your fish store not have any sort of ich treatments that you could get?

There is another way you can beat this by adjusting the water temperature and observing the lifecycle of the ich, but it's complex. Maybe someone here with more experience could assist you with that, or you can always google "ich treatments".

Good luck!

[Amelia]

They only have the aforementioned malachite and methylene. I've just been there.

I really don't wanna use it if it's gunna wreck the sand, I just paid hundreds for it.

[steeler58]

I use quick clear but unfortunetly it can stain as well.

I've never used the salt treatment myself. Just from reading and you probably know to, you'll need to raise the tempature also.

[Amelia]

Yeah I'm leaning towards salt but will it hurt my cories?

[steeler58]

Not in the long run because of the water changes you will do after the treatment.

To be on the safe side you might want to mix it in a seperate container and pour it in slowly.

[Amelia]

I put a handful of sand in a glass of water and added a drop of malachite/methylene. It went grey.

Thanks Steeler. I'm going with salt, 1tbsp every 5gal and increasing the temp to about 85.