Larvae in need of salt bath!

[heather]

after recent inspection of all my larvae it looks like a few of my babies have a fungal problem with their gills.
What is a <u> safe</u> salt bath solution? (The measurements i mean)in teaspoons per liter would be nice.

no need to worry! its very minor!

 

[anne-marie]

I believe that its 2 teaspoons per litre, making sure that its fully dissolved. I guess this is safe for larvae,

but I've never used it. Sorry.

 

[heather]

the area I live in has soft water, I think this could be the cause, I will add salt to try to make the water a bit harder when I do my water changes...

I dont want to use anything too strong. I kinda figured a larval axolotl's skin and gills would be more delicate...

I will wait to see what others think just to be on the safe side.

 

[pin-pin]

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/salt.shtml

In case you didn't catch it, here's the section:

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

Concentrations of salt used vary from 4-6 grams/Liter to 10-25 grams per liter with exposure times of up to 72 hours for the low concentration and 10-30 minutes for the high concentration. The salt used is always non-iodized salt. Table salt has a compound added to prevent it from caking up, and it should not be used. Preferred types of salt are: sea salt, freshwater aquarium salt, or Kosher salt.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

 

[heather]

okay, since my question isnt exactly being answered i will reword my quesstion:

Is it safe to give larvae salt baths?
If so should i use a low concentration of salt or a normal one?

 

[cynthia]

Heather - I would think it would be safe for them. But I might cut the solution strength down a little and I would test soak half a dozen larvae and then make sure they are alive the next day before I soaked them all.

 

[charlie]

I'm not sure about safety heather - but with larvae i haven't found salt baths to be very effective. One of my tanks (and i'm thankful i took the advice not to raise all my eggs in the one basket - as it were!)had a fungal infection, and although i tried to save the affected young 'uns with salt baths, none of them recovered. Sadly i lost around 2/3 of the larvae in that tank..........hope you have more luck - but I'd concentrate on isolating the affected ones if I were you, and keeping a close eye on the rest