how long for hyposalinity in QT?

JJK · Jun 25, 2009

I bought a flame angel yesterday and gradually acclimated him to my QT, whose salinity is 1.021. My plan is to use hyposalinity to rid him of whatever pests he may (or may not) be carrying before introducing him to the DT. Today I added a bit of RO water and lowered the salinity to 1.020. I will eventually get it to 1.010. My question is how long to leave it at 1.010 before upping it again?

Da_Gopherboy · Jun 25, 2009

Six weeks is the common timeline passed along. Eight Weeks if you want to be certain nothings riding on your new angel.

Gresham · Jun 25, 2009

Steven wrote a good article years back that still holds water. take a look

Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part I by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com

Treatment Option 4 - Hyposalinity:

Low salinity has been demonstrated to be an effective treatment against Cryptocaryon irritans (Noga, 2000). A salt level of 16 ppt or approximately 1.009-1.010 specific gravity at 78-80*F for 14 days was reported to kill the parasite. I have never experienced problems when placing fish into a hyposalinity treatment, but have routinely witnessed fish showing obvious signs of distress when brought back to normal salinity levels too quickly. For that reason, I try to limit the specific gravity increase 0.001-0.002 points per day.

One of the alleged benefits of this treatment is the resulting conservation of energy for the affected fish. Reef fish have to constantly drink saltwater and excrete the salt to maintain the proper osmotic balance. Lowering the salinity of the surrounding environment eases this energy demand on the sick fish, thereby allowing them to expend more energy towards fighting the infection (Kollman, 1998 and Bartelme, 2001). On the contrary, keeping fish in low salinity means that they don't "flush" their kidneys sufficiently. After long-term exposure, this can cause kidney failure and kill the fish (Shimek, pers. comm..)

The drawbacks to this treatment are the same as for many of the treatment options discussed above. Invertebrates and certain fish will not be able to tolerate it, so you should not apply a hyposalinity treatment in a display tank. Sharks and rays are two fish groups that do not tolerate this procedure. I would also not recommend this approach in the presence of live rock or live sand. The hyposalinity treatment will likely kill the worms, crustaceans, mollusks, and other life in and on the substrate, causing a severe drop in overall water quality.

I have another word of caution when using this treatment. I would strongly suggest the use of a refractometer or perhaps a salinity monitor. Swing arm style box hydrometers are notoriously inaccurate. The glass, floating style hydrometers are better, but easily broken. An accurate measure of the salinity could mean the difference between being inside the effective treatment range or being too high and ineffective or too low and jeopardizing your fish.

Even given its few drawbacks, hyposalinity is a great method of curing infected fish of ich in a proper hospital tank. Of the treatment options discussed this far, in my opinion, it is by far the safest. While none of these options is appropriate for use in a display tank, and all have their drawbacks, weighing the pros and cons of each leads me to recommend hyposalinity above the others.
Click to expand...

Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part II by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com

Dr.Fragenstein · Jun 25, 2009

I honestly would give him a Freshwater dip, for maybe 4-5mins if you are daring, MATCH pH AND TEMP EXACTLY!!!
Then put him back in the QT, and SLOWLY add ionic copper until you reach .15-.2ppm, BUT go SLOW as angels esp FLAMES are VERY SENSITIVE to abrubt additions of copper...

Copper is probably still the most effective parasite treatment, well unless you couple it with formalin which makes it even more powerful!!

Good luck!

JJK · Jun 25, 2009

I am reluctant to dose a healthy (seeming) fish with copper - especially a flame angel, which is reportedly sensitive to it. I want to use hyposalinity as the safest way of killing any undetected parasite.

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