Tilapia Topic: Disease Treatment: Salt (sodium chloride)

Types of salt used to treat fish.

1. Table or rock salt can be used.
2. Seawater.

Information about salt treatment.

Sea salts or salt (sodium chloride) has been used as a dip or bath treatment of freshwater fish for the control of external fungus infection, a few protozoan ectoparasites (e.g. Epistylis), fish lice and Argulus. When fish are transported salt has also been used to reduce stress by lessening the work fish have to do for osmoregulation. Salt or sodium chloride is considered as safe for the treatment of fish intended for human consumption.

For the treatment of ectoparasites, salt is usually administered as a dip. For dosage calculations, salt is considered as 100% active. Dosage level suggested are in the range of 25 to 30 grams per liter and exposure duration from three minutes to as long as one hour. During treatment fish must be carefully watched and removed from the salt solution if signs of stress arise.

To reduce osmotic stress the dosage of salt is 1 to 2 grams per liter as an indefinite bath.

There is no withdrawal time for sodium chloride treatment of fish before the fish can be marketed.

Equipment and supplies needed for salt treatment.

1. Source of table salt (sodium chloride) or prepared sea salts.
2. Gram scale

See also:

• http://www.greatlakestilapia.com/salt-treatment-for-tilapia.html Short baths in high salt water will dehydrate external parasites, stimulate mucous generation on the fish, and help retain internal salt levels. Non-iodized salt is better as iodine might be toxic to some fish (unproven). Also avoid anti-caking agents. Diamond Crystal brand 40 Lbs Solar Naturals Water Softener Salt is a good low cost option. Measure by weight to avoid errors caused by course salt rocks. Use water from the main pond to avoid any other differences in chemistry and to keep the same temperature. Never add salt directly; first dissolve the salt in a bucket to make a brine, then add it to the treatment tank / pool. Do not use salt treatments in conjunction with other medicines.

  Salt levels and treatment times

  Duration	Percentage	Salt Lb per 10Gal Water	Disease / Issue
  30-60 seconds	3%	2.5 lb	exterior parasites
  30-60 minutes	1.2%	1 lb	Thin mucous layer
  days	0.18%	0.25 lb (4oz)	Nitrite toxicity
  indefinent	0.18%	0.15 lb (2.4oz)	Ongoing issues

Comments:

• sureben@gmail.com

  We have one healthy dropsy survivor tilapia. Now thinking of him as a super-breeder w DNA to help survive. We suspect the cause was the small amount of dirt from plantings someone gave us and that we stuck in our gravel ebb and flow bed last Spring... Another factor and even worse, we knew it was not best practice, but we have not cleaned the large gravel bed in 2 years or so. Comments welcome. Although we used the salt treatment 3 times in 8 months or so, and it seemed to help at first, w/out knowing what was in the gravel bed causing the water to lower immune system of the fish, in the end the treatment did not save them.