[RayJordan]

Quote: Originally Posted by kingkong Do you think the irritant was the meds or the salt that put these fish in a situation which was beyond their tolerance level, depleting their ability to produce enough mucus or slime coat? Salt or irritants will cause koi to increase mucus but eventually can run slime production dry, resulting in sandpaper skin.

I have seen salt alone strip off the slime layer if used at high enough dose and for long periods. The slime coat will rebuild if the salt level is reduced. But if salt is maintained at high levels over a long period of time slime producion fails and eventually the fishes kidneys will fail also. Salt plus lots of meds is asking for trouble.

High levels of salt will actually prevent wound healing. I learned this years ago when I had tried everything to get a ulcer to heal on a koi that just would not. I was told to do water changes to reduce salt from 0.3% to less than 0.05% and without doing anything other treatments the ulcer healed quickly.