Treating my betta for ick, have a few questions?

Question

Im treating my betta for ick. I have some ick stuff in the tank right now, i was wondering if i can put in aquarium salt in the tank right now. Also, the salt looks like sea salt, how much should i put in the tank is a betta starter kit... i have another tank but i put him in there untill he heals anyways thanks!! :)

Answer 1

aquarium salt is ok to add, remember ich is a freshwater parasite and cant handle salt in the water.

so you can add some, but not that much as you already have the ich medication in there.

Also increasing the water temp will help get rid of ich, as the heat makes the parasite go though its lifecycle faster.

Answer 2

To answer your question - you can use salt, as long as it's salt without iodine added. You want to add a tablespoon per 5 gallons of water (if what he's in is less than 5 gallons, add 1/2 teaspoon for each gallon).

It's not clear from your question if he was in another tank when he developed ich. If he was, and if there were other fish in that tank, that one will need to be treated as well. Ich has three satges in it's life, and only one appears on the fish - the rest are in the water. So if he was in the tank, you should treat it as well if other fish are present - otherwise they may become infected as well. If there were no other fish, you can clean it and everything in it well (meaning the tank will have to be cycled again, because this will destroy the beneficial bacteria) or keep it without any fish for about a month - without a fish present to act as a host, the ich will die.

Raising the temperature is a good thing to do - it speeds up the life cycle, so the parasites drop off the fish faster - they aren't affected by the medication when they're on the fish, only when they're in the water - just raise the temperature a few degrees every hour until it gets around 86-90o. Your betta can handle that easily.

Answer 3

First off, very nice photography! You have quite the skill at that. Very pretty crowntail! That looks like a fungus to me. It doesn't look like ich since its just too small of dots and localized just on the body. Got to the petstore and they have these little tablets you can drop into the tank (you might have to break them in half if your tank is small) They look like little pills. The nice thing about them is that they are REALLY cheap and show drawings of the conditions they cover. There are 3 or so "kinds" of these pills and they each cover 4 or so conditions so its likely that even misdiagnosed that it will cure it. I've used them with really good luck for small tanks.

Answer 4

Bettas are fresh water fish you don't need to put salt.