Will hyposalinity help cure Black Ich?

[FishFisher]

Hello everybody, I have a yellow tang with black ich. He is in my 100 gallon fish-only display tank. I plan to give him some formalin baths, but I do not know how to kill the black ich parasites that are living in the substrate and free-swimming in the water. Will hyposalinity help?

 

[Hattie B]

Welcome Fish,

you can start here with an article By Steven Pro. It has a lot of info about Formalin.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

 

[Hattie B]

Heres some more info;

Living in the substrate until mature, an adult worm seeks out a host fish.

It hosts on the fish for about 6 days-then falls off

~5 days later the worm's body ruptures and releases a new population of young worms, and the cycle starts again, but in larger numbers.

If I were you, I would probably start with a freshwater dip followed by formalin.

You need to also consider on how to rid your tank, by keeping the tank fallow, allowing the life cycle to be broken so there is not constant reinfection of your fish.

 

[FishFisher]

Thanks Hattie. I read Steven Pro's article, which was very informative, but I think that it only applies to normal ich, which is in the genus Cryptocaryon. I believe that black ich is actually a fluke classified in the Paravortex genus. I have heard that it can live without a host for months and can live in a fishless tank off of waste. Does anyone know if this is true? I will do a few formalin dips, but I'm not sure how to rid my tank of the parasite. How have other people on this forum eradicated black ich in a tank?

 

[Hattie B]

Black ich you are right is a type a worm its a tubellarian.

I have not heard that it can live for months. But maybe they can. Excessive organic buildup needs to be controlled and I do know that siphioning the sand to help rid/ control the population is a must.

I will look to see if I can find any thread with a successful eradication.