2 Questions

[tom130691]

my fish are in my sig (getting a few tetras tonight)

1. is it ok/safe to add salt to the community aquarium to prevent disease as ive had to separate my betta as its coming up in white spot
2. just got some frozen food and have no idea how to feed it tbh one block looks too much for my betta on his own and in the community tank the rainbows wont eat from the floor so what is my best option

defrost first the use it in smaller bits?

 

[fishyfeet]

yes i think you would have to defrost it and add a bit at a time, i cant see your signature, and salt is fine with most fish apart from catfish or scaleless fish like loaches,or snails, otherwise dose as per instructions.

 

[tom130691]

yes i think you would have to defrost it and add a bit at a time, i cant see your signature, and salt is fine with most fish apart from catfish or scaleless fish like loaches,or snails, otherwise dose as per instructions.

ok mate well
its says
4 x preacox rainbows
1 x male betta
1 x baby bn plec
and later will have 6 x serpae tetra

 

[Gilli]

Your rainbow fish wont let the frozen food get as far as the floor - trust me!! OK If you think one block is too much for all of your fish just pop it out of the plastic wrapping, cut it in half with a knife and put the half you dont want back in the freezer.

Let the food defrost (only takes about 10 mins) then add a little at a time with a teaspoon - they will scoff the lot! If you are using blood worms I usually just snip them up with a pair of scissors as sometimes the worms are a little too long for the smaller fish.

 

[raptorrex]

my fish are in my sig (getting a few tetras tonight)

1. is it ok/safe to add salt to the community aquarium to prevent disease as ive had to separate my betta as its coming up in white spot
2. just got some frozen food and have no idea how to feed it tbh one block looks too much for my betta on his own and in the community tank the rainbows wont eat from the floor so what is my best option

defrost first the use it in smaller bits?

unfortunately salt will not prevent disease. its use in Freshwater tanks is of little worth. however as a "treatment" it does work. but, proper medication, is to be advised for white spot.
your BN will not fair well in salt.

meaning no offence. but Freshwater is just that. fish and water that have salt as a need. are/is called brackish.

salt is not a tonic. though LFS would like to convince us it is. "fish Keepers Snake Oil" as one member put it.

 

[fishyfeet]

If you suspect ich you should do the following

clean the tank
clean the gravel
change some water (20%)
add ich med (protozan) or similiar
add salt (but not with catfish)
turn up temp to 82

leave for 3 - 4 days

make sure you have no carbon or charcoal filters in.

replace carbon filters, change another 20% of water and retreat if necessary.

 

[tom130691]

i know the difference between salt water and fresh mate
but when reading about betta illness the was a bit saying if you add salt to ur aquarium it is unlikely your betta will get this few different ones


as for treatment i have removes the sick fish in to its own tank and added salt and upped the temp to 30 and a 4" airstone with a foam filter

i have not seen any signs on the other fish so i was wondering weather to put the salt in to help prevent them getting it but i wont bother now becuase of the plec


and the froozen food i have 4 packs of blood worm and one of something beginning with D lol
ill try feeding them this tommorrow then

 

[snowflake311]

Oh my fish go crazy for frozzen blood worms it's fun. I put the cube in a shot glass then fill the shot glass with aquarium water stire it up a little till it all is loss. Then I drain the yuky water and then put the food in the tank.

Salt is will do you no good unless you are useing 1 tsp every 5 gal to cure ich. If you just have a little salt in your tank the ich can build up a resistance to it. Salt effect osmoregulation Witch is how the body keeps it's body fluids all at a healthy levels and not lettig the body become too diluted or too dehydrated. Because when you add salt to water it atracts the h2o and there for draws it out of the fish and out of other organisum like parasites. So it basicly dehydrated them in a way. It's pretty confusing.

It's best to only use salt if you want to use it as a short term treatment . it is not a prevention. Clean water and good maintaince is your best prevention.

 

[tom130691]

thanks alot mate and i have done one tea spoon for the tank which is just under 5gal 4.83 iirc
this was the doesing it said on the box (api aquarium salt)

 

[raptorrex]

thanks alot mate and i have done one tea spoon for the tank which is just under 5gal 4.83 iirc
this was the doesing it said on the box (api aquarium salt)

As i said.

however as a "treatment" it does work

. but, as others have said

salt is not a tonic.

the only fish who benefit from salt (regularly) are marine and brackish.

dosing healthy freshwater fish in salt only results in. no effect, or deleterious effect.

 

[OldMan47]

Reading through this thread I can see at least two misunderstandings. The first, which others have noted, is the mistaken idea that salt is somehow a disease preventive, it is not. Salt can be an effective ich treatment if your fish are ones that will tolerate the needed levels. Another misunderstanding is represented by two actions. Moving fish to a separate location for treatment of ich is worse than useless because ich is a parasite that cannot be treated when it is on the fish. It is treated in the free swimming phase of its life cycle. The ich parasites regularly leave the fish to continue their life cycle and shortly after are vulnerable to treatments. Unfortunately there will be no signs of ich on the fish for several days before the treatment can be stopped. Otherwise, the parasites will again find a host and the tank will look like it is having a new outbreak. For this reason, you always treat the whole tank where the outbreak has happened and you continue for at least 3 days after the last sign of ich is gone from the last fish in the tank.
Where you have placed yourself so far is with an effective treatment started in a separate tank but nothing to stop the rest of the fish in the original tank becoming infested. The salt levels you are using in that tank are not high enough to prevent a new infestation of the remaining fish from the free swimming stage that is likely present in that tank right now. You need to do at least that 3 day treatment on your tank and may find that you are too late anyway and see spots appear in your remaining fish. For details on the ich life cycle and the disease treatment, use the link in my signature area called Ich Info. I have merely summarized a few key points here in this thread.

 

[tom130691]

Reading through this thread I can see at least two misunderstandings. The first, which others have noted, is the mistaken idea that salt is somehow a disease preventive, it is not. Salt can be an effective ich treatment if your fish are ones that will tolerate the needed levels. Another misunderstanding is represented by two actions. Moving fish to a separate location for treatment of ich is worse than useless because ich is a parasite that cannot be treated when it is on the fish. It is treated in the free swimming phase of its life cycle. The ich parasites regularly leave the fish to continue their life cycle and shortly after are vulnerable to treatments. Unfortunately there will be no signs of ich on the fish for several days before the treatment can be stopped. Otherwise, the parasites will again find a host and the tank will look like it is having a new outbreak. For this reason, you always treat the whole tank where the outbreak has happened and you continue for at least 3 days after the last sign of ich is gone from the last fish in the tank.
Where you have placed yourself so far is with an effective treatment started in a separate tank but nothing to stop the rest of the fish in the original tank becoming infested. The salt levels you are using in that tank are not high enough to prevent a new infestation of the remaining fish from the free swimming stage that is likely present in that tank right now. You need to do at least that 3 day treatment on your tank and may find that you are too late anyway and see spots appear in your remaining fish. For details on the ich life cycle and the disease treatment, use the link in my signature area called Ich Info. I have merely summarized a few key points here in this thread.

i removed the fish before this free swimming phase i think as it wasn't eating or very active so i removed i had no idea of the ick for a few days

so far i am dosing the betta with a tea spoon of salt as the tank is just below 5gal
i have also today started a course of melafix (good or bad?) and have orderd some actualy ick treatment
i have not put any salt in the main tank due to a plec being in there although i did put the melafix in there today aswell as i just got a few new fish (bottle says treat for 3 days when adding new fish)