Permanent Hyposalinity: Pros/Cons?

[kouma]

Hello,

I hate ich with passion, is it possible to have leave the fish in hyposalinity forever in DT? What are the pros/cons for this?

Pros:

- Never have to deal with ich and other parasites (i.e. flukes) again
- Its cheaper on salt

Cons:

- Maybe stressful for the fish?

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Studies have shown prolonged hypo is detrimental to saltwater fish.

 

[kouma]

Do you know what type of harm/damage it could cause the fish? do you have a reference to that study

 

[SDguy]

Con: It ONLY works on ich, and that can be questionable. So many other disease out there, it's not worth the stress on the fish, IMO.

 

[kouma]

I found this:

"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..)"
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/

 

[MrTuskfish]

Fish-only tanks used to be commonly kept at about 1.017---far above hypo conditions. Some still are. I'm convinced the fish are more active at 1.17 because the water is "lighter" and offer less resistance. I stopped this practice when studies, like the one above started showing up.

But back to the hypo/ich stuff. Whats so hard about religiously using a QT; that eliminates ich and other parasites that hypo won't touch. If I had my way, which I won't, hypo would never be used for anything. It used to work well with ich; but I believe there are now strains of ich that can survive the low SG of hypo. Lots of errors with hypo too.