# Blackworms and salt: how long to test?



## NatalieT (Mar 20, 2007)

I need to treat fish and a tank for ich, and I'm trying to find out if the blackworms can stand it without dying. My test-group has salt at the rate of 3 teaspoons per gallon, and has lived that way for 2 hours so far. Does anyone know how long I need to watch them, to know whether it's safe? I'm thinking 24 hours might be a good length of test?

I'm really worried about the possibility of killing the worms, because there's so many in the substrate: if they all die, it will be an AWFUL mess! The fish are already being treated in salty water in a hospital tank, except the fry I couldn't catch. Since there's no way to catch every little baby fish, I can't count on the ich dying by itself in a "fishless" tank: thus the need to treat the tank itself too. The plants are mostly dwarf sag and java fern, which I find are also recommended for brackish tanks, so I'm not worried about them.

I'm not sure if this question belongs in "shrimp and other invertebrates" (because blackworms are invertebrates), or if it should be in El Natural (which is where I'm sticking it--I think most blackworm-raisers have El Natural tanks, so they'll be more likely to see it here.) If a mod thinks it should be moved, then please do so.

Thank you!


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

you can raise the temp to 84F and use a UV sterilizer to wipe out the ich. Run it for a few weeks; no salt or meds necessary.


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## Rtifs (Nov 6, 2009)

I’ve never had to deal with ich, but I think it takes a few weeks for the parasite to get through its life cycle. So you may need the salt in the water for several weeks. It might be better to use a proprietary med, or as mistergreen recommended, a UV sterilizer.


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## NatalieT (Mar 20, 2007)

mistergreen said:


> you can raise the temp to 84F and use a UV sterilizer to wipe out the ich. Run it for a few weeks; no salt or meds necessary.


I don't have an aquarium heater or a UV sterilizer. I could possibly buy a heater, but UV sterilizers aren't cheap-- and I'm just not going to buy one. (Why no heater? My house has central heating, and the fish/plants/shrimp/etc. have done fine at that temperature for the last 2 years.)



Rtifs said:


> I've never had to deal with ich, but I think it takes a few weeks for the parasite to get through its life cycle. So you may need the salt in the water for several weeks. It might be better to use a proprietary med, or as mistergreen recommended, a UV sterilizer.


I'm aware of the life cycle, and yes I'll be leaving the salt in for a while. I think this is my first time actually dealing with ich, but I've read up on it several times. A proprietary med would need to be used for just as long as the salt, and would still require me to go out and buy something. I doubt it would be any safer for the plants or blackworms, either.

The blackworms have been fine for almost 24 hours in salted water, so I'll try putting the salt in the tank and see how it goes. I'll probably post a follow-up in a week or two, telling what lives and dies: maybe it'll help anyone else with the same problem.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Sorry to hear about your problems with Ich. This is a common but very nasty disease.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

ich is very easy to treat only if you treat it correctly. Salt will only affect the ich initially and only when they're at the free swimming phase. You will not completely get rid of them if you don't use heat, medication or UV.


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

Heat, medication or UV are not required to kill Ich. Ich does not have a dormant phase, though it will grow more slowly in a cold pond than in a room temperature tank. It will go through its life cycle no matter what. At the right phase of its life salt will kill it. 

Good luck with keeping the Blackworms alive. I have no idea how tolerant of salt they are. 

I think it would be a good idea to keep trying to remove the fry. When there really are no more fish in the tank Ich will die off without a host and you can remove the salt from the tank.


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## NatalieT (Mar 20, 2007)

Diana K said:


> Heat, medication or UV are not required to kill Ich. Ich does not have a dormant phase, though it will grow more slowly in a cold pond than in a room temperature tank. It will go through its life cycle no matter what. At the right phase of its life salt will kill it.
> 
> Good luck with keeping the Blackworms alive. I have no idea how tolerant of salt they are.


Well, they put up with 3 teaspoons of salt per gallon for 24 hours in my test, so I salted the whole tank. Also, I found something on the internet yesterday about someone with an accidental blackworm population in a brackish tank, so that's quite encouraging: http://www.actwin.com/pipermail/killietalk/2004-October/001998.html



Diana K said:


> I think it would be a good idea to keep trying to remove the fry. When there really are no more fish in the tank Ich will die off without a host and you can remove the salt from the tank.


That is hopeless. I've seen one fry at a time, 2 times. Since I can't even see them most of the time, and the one time I tried to catch one I failed, then there's no way I'd ever know if I got all of them. Of course, they could all die of ich and then the ich would die out, but I have no way to tell when or if that happens. I don't even care that much about whether the fry survive--if the parents bred once, they probably will again. I just don't want them to keep carrying/passing on the ich.

So the whole tank now has between 2 and 3 teaspoons of salt per gallon of water. The fish already LOOK free of ich, but I'll leave the salt in for at least an entire week, and probably for two weeks. That should be more than long enough for all of the ich to pass through the free-swimming stage and get killed by the salt. (The tank is at 68-70 degrees Farenheit, which I know means the ich will have a slower life cycle than it would in a warmer tank.) Then, of course, I'll have to get all the salt back out--lots of big water changes are in order for that. (Ugh, I hate water changes!)

Thank you all for the advice and support!


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

To reduce the salt go slowly. Do regular water changes with perhaps half the salt, then several more with perhaps a quarter the salt. 
Over a month or so the salt will go away. 

Fish have a harder time adapting to lower total dissolved solids than adapting to higher TDS.


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## NatalieT (Mar 20, 2007)

Diana K said:


> To reduce the salt go slowly. Do regular water changes with perhaps half the salt, then several more with perhaps a quarter the salt.
> Over a month or so the salt will go away.
> 
> Fish have a harder time adapting to lower total dissolved solids than adapting to higher TDS.


I was planning something like that, although I hadn't realized that there was a reason to reduce it more slowly than the 2 days it took me to add it. Thanks for mentioning that.


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