Hyposalinity treatment question

[bkhd]

I am currently a few days into hyposalinity treatment on a Koran angelfish that I purchased which after three days in my QT tank showed signs of ich. I brought the salinity down from 1.025 to 1.009 in my QT over about a 24 hour period and the fish seems to be doing MUCH better. It now appears that my Blue Hippo tang in my DT is showing signs of Ich so I am wondering how I can get him over into the QT which is already at 1.009 without setting up yet another tank.

I had read that lowering salinity is much easier on the fish than when raising it, so I guess my question is what is the minumum amount of time you should take a fish from 1.025 salinity to hyposalinity of 1.009 without causing more stress to the fish. I understand once the 4 weeks of hyposalinity treatment is over, I need to very slowly bring the salinity in the QT tank back up to 1.025 (as in 3-5 days?).

Any info would be appreciated.

 

[kevin2000]

My 02

Probably something you should normally avoid but I have read a number of threads over the yrs where people do so without a problem.

Also note ... if you want an ich free show tank then you need to qt and treat all the fish whether they show signs of ich or not. You also need to leave the ST without fish for about 5 weeks.

 

[bkhd]

Right, that makes sense. The blue hippo tang is the only fish left in my DT but I am just curious how quickly I can take him from 1.025 salinity to 1.009? Can I just put him in a bucket with an air stone with about 5 gallons of water from my DT and then just slowly remove water and add RO/DI (with matching PH & Temp) to the bucket until I get it to 1.009 over a 4-6 hour period? Or is this not enough time to drop that much salinity?

 

[bkhd]

My tang still has spots on him in my DT, can anyone answer this question:

How quickly can I acclimate him from my 1.025 salinity DT to my hyposalinity 1.009 QT tank?

 

[Mark NJ]

Tagging along. I would like to know the answer to that too. I would like to get my QT to 1.009 asap.

 

[stingythingy45]

Dropping SG for fish is really not that stressful.
Raising SG is what really needs an extended peroid of time.It takes fish a lot longer to get used to higher SG than lower.
I'm not an expert but I went through hypo for 7 weeks with my fish.I would take the tang out of the tank and put him in a 5 gallon bucket with DT water.Then slowly add a cup full of QT water every 15-10 minutes for an hour.If you have a way to airate the bucket,that would be great.Then go right into the QT with him.

 

[bkhd]

Sounds good, thats what I was thinking, maybe if I drop it .005 an hour, it should take about 3 hours. I will drop an airstone in the bucket with him. The problem now is catching the little sucker. I think I may perform a short freshwater dip on him as well before starting this process once I get him out. ARGH!

 

[stingythingy45]

I would probably wait til he is used to the lower SG before doing the dip.That way it's not much of a shock before going into the QT.

 

[bkhd]

Yeah, I actually figured I would just go without the dip since everything I read said based on the speed I am going to drop him down to Hypo (over 3 hours) should cause the Ich to all die off and since I am going to leave him in the Hypo tank for 4 weeks, I am sure that should solve it. No sense in stressing him by putting him in a small bowl with straight freshwater.

 

[stingythingy45]

Did you do this yet?
I would probably go longer than 4 weeks.
"Should"cause the ich to die off?That's not quite true,once it's under the skin it's pretty much impossible to kill till it's on the move or encysting.

 

[bkhd]

I haven't tried it yet, I have a Koran Angel currently in the QT that has been there for almost a week but I am having trouble catching the Blue Hippo Tang. Once I do catch it, I am going to do about a 3 hour acclimation to the Hypo and then toss him in the Hypo QT for 4 weeks.