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Hi all,

Yesterday I noticed white patches on some of my catfish's fins. On the catfish that has it the worst, it looks like a piece of solar salt. On the others, it is still very small and is almost like a pimple. I tried to get a picture, but no luck. I looked into this and it could be ich or collumnaris and it seemed the only thing to do with catfish is to raise the salinity. I added 1 lb of solar salt to 500g of water (just under 3ppt). Does anyone have any other suggestions as to what this could be and treatment for it? I appreciate your help!!

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Sorry I don't have any feedback for what it could be. You may want to check your calculations for salt though. 1lb for 500g should be around 0.25ppt

http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/group/aquaponicsforbeginner...

http://www.aquaponiclynx.com/salt-for-fish-health

Good luck. I am sure someone will reply with some more advice but checkout that first link.

fin rot, salting the water is what I always do in my koi pond ans it gets rid of it right away and isn't toxic if you don't overdo it. 1 # salt per 100 gallons of H20 using  "plain" morton water softener salt from home depot (make sure it doesn't have anticaking agents in it). Comes in a 40# bag.

Chris, you are right. I used another chart found online and miscalculated the salt. I have added 4 lbs of salt to 500 gallons, to slowly increase the salinity. 

Michael, it doesn't look like fin rot from the pictures I find online. That is the salt I used, do you know how long it takes to notice a difference? 

The fish are still eating and willing to eat more than I am willing to give and are quite active. The goldfish that live in a separate tank, connected to the system, don't seem to be displaying the same symptoms but I haven't gotten as good of a look at them. 

Still not sure what this is...

If it is Ick, you need to get the salt up to definitely at least 3 ppt and keep it up as well as making sure the temperatures remain warm for several weeks.

And the description of "pimples" making me think of white heads definitely makes me think Ick.

If it's columnaris, the salt will probably help there too.  Make sure to keep water quality as good as possible and minimize stress to let them recover.

If any fish get lethargic to the point that you can easily net them without disturbing the others much, then remove that fish and put it out of it's misery to improve the chances for the others.


When I had the white spots on my koi recently they were gone within 4-5 days of adding the salt. I've had to do this several time over the last 10 years in my 5,000 gal koi pond Michael in seattle
Adam Klieg said:

Chris, you are right. I used another chart found online and miscalculated the salt. I have added 4 lbs of salt to 500 gallons, to slowly increase the salinity. 

Michael, it doesn't look like fin rot from the pictures I find online. That is the salt I used, do you know how long it takes to notice a difference? 

The fish are still eating and willing to eat more than I am willing to give and are quite active. The goldfish that live in a separate tank, connected to the system, don't seem to be displaying the same symptoms but I haven't gotten as good of a look at them. 

Still not sure what this is...

The speed at which the Ick parasite is dealt with is directly related to temperature.  The parasite is only killed by the salt during certain phases of it's life cycle and that life cycle is far faster when the water is warm than when it is cool.  It is far quicker to treat Ick with water temperatures in the mid 80's F than if the water is below 70 F.  The difference can mean weeks of treatment rather than several days.

Thank you so much TC and Michael. I brought the salt up to 3ppt today (added 8 more lbs) - 12 lbs total to 500 gallons. The water temp is always 74-78. As water evaporates and as I top off with water, how can I calculate how much salt is still in there and how much to add? Should I just add the salt proportionally to the amount of top off water? Should I be doing water changes daily as this is a new system? I am also feeding very light, should I be feeding at all during treatment? 

salt stays behind in the remaining water when water evaporates so you do not need to add salt when you simply top up.

If you are doing water changes then you would need to salt the water you would be adding appropriately but I would say only do water changes if your water test results say your ammonia levels are getting dangerous for the fish.  The salt should help mitigate nitrite toxicity to a point but keep feeding minimal if water quality is an issue.  Feed only if the fish are eating and both ammonia and nitrite are near 0.

Great, thank you. Will let you know how it is coming along. 

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