Hyposalinity - success/failure

[CapitolsRock]

Interesting stickies on hyposalinity, good news and good info.

Question

If the instructions are followed to the letter, does it kill ich 100% of the time or is it a high percentage game? In other words are there hyposalinity resistant ich strains?


Thanks...

 

[Andrew]

Some people have recored that they have the resistant strains but I haven't seen any data or anything proven it within a hobbist. Could be a case where they did wait long enough or keep their salt stable enough. I've always used hypo and always have good luck with it. I bring my salt down to 1.008 and have never had a problem with it. Hypo for 5-6 weeks at least though for it to be effective.

 

[CapitolsRock]

Thanks for the info Andrew...


I remember hypo being talked about years ago in an old SeaScope pamphlet (remember those?), must have been in the 90's. Anyway I thought I remembered them saying they had "good success" with hypo which isn't saying something more definate like - works every time.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Unfortunately, there seems to be no such thing as "100%'" when it comes to killing ich. However, you can come very, very close. IMO, most (not all) failures with any ich killing method are due to small mistakes during the procedure. With hypo, a perfectly calibrated hydrometer is a must and an ATO is almost a must. When water evaporates, just a few minutes at a SG above 1.009 could be enough to allow a free-swimming parasite to emerge and find a host---starting the clock all over again. Just my opinion; but there seem to be more & more reports of hypo failing on this forum. "Resistant" strains of ich seem to be suspected with all ich treatments; but I've never seen anything, other than anecdotal accounts. But, ich that doesn't follow the conventional life-cycle timeline are well documented. Hypo would not be my first choice for killing ich.

 

[b0bab0ey]

Some people have recored that they have the resistant strains but I haven't seen any data or anything proven it within a hobbist. Could be a case where they did wait long enough or keep their salt stable enough. I've always used hypo and always have good luck with it. I bring my salt down to 1.008 and have never had a problem with it. Hypo for 5-6 weeks at least though for it to be effective.

Taken from the link below:

More recently, studies have demonstrated different salinity tolerances among strains of Cryptocaryon. Yambot (2003) described one Taiwanese outbreak occurring in sea bream Sparus sarba at a salinity of 5 g/L, and another outbreak in sea perch Lates calcarifer occurring at a salinity of 10 g/L. These two strains were successfully propagated in the laboratory at 7 and 10 g/L, respectively, and are well below previously documented preferred salinities.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa164

 

[CapitolsRock]

SG above 1.009 could be enough to allow a free-swimming parasite to emerge and find a host

I wondered that too. How much of the failure rate was due to incorrect application.

Sparus sarba at a salinity of 5 g/L, and another outbreak in sea perch

I'll have to look up what 5 and 10 grams a liter is in SG.......interesting


Great information just the same, sounds like hypos risk may be worth the cure in sensitive species -as has been said before.

Things are evolving all the time in the hobby and one never knows when a new fact about a certain procedure or thing will change....


thanks everybody

 

[EddieJ]

g/L = ppt.

I have read about the lower salinity strain of Cryptocaryon irritans in regards to lagoons which are fed by freshwater rivers thus the low salinity. So the question is would this strain be able to survive in 35 ppt? Would our reef fish ever be exposed to this strain to begin with? These are simple organisms and I doubt they could adjust to the higher salinity just as the more common Cryptocaryon irritans can't adjust to lower salinity.