Salt Dip/Salt Bath

[Barracuda]

Could you please explain how to conduct each - how much salt to how much water, time etc.

What exactly does a salt treatment achieve? Is it safe? (if not conducted on scaleless fish)

I am planning on medicating my angel who hasnt been eating for a while - maybe something internal? I thought a salt dip might help it. Also my dwarf gourami who has developed a mysterious red ulcer that no one is quite sure what it is.

What do you guys think?

Thanks

[mcloughlin2]

Salt dips are predominately used for the treatment of external parasites and fungus. They can be very dangerous if you do not know what your treating for as there are different recommended dosages for different things and also the time in the solution varies. Buy a good aquarium disease manual and diagnose the problems properly and then from there we can come up with some solutions.

[akroyd]

Also my dwarf gourami who has developed a mysterious red ulcer that no one is quite sure what it is.

What do you guys think?

The ulcers are probably going to be piscine tuberculosis IME. ie a Mycobacterium marinum infection.

Traditionally there is no treatment. The fish will die, and if you add them to your tank you will never be able to get rid of the bacteria, and susceptible fish will die.

There is some research that sugggests that maintaining the temperature at 37 degrees for some time will kill the bacteria. Dwarf gouramies can probably tolerate this temp IMO.

Here's a reference that you might want to read; http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerende...amp;pageindex=3

HTH

BTW You can catch a Mycobacterium infection from your fish. Google would be a good idea for some quick research.