LauraFrog
Fish Gatherer
Hi guys... wondering if anybody can help me.
My LFS has separate tanks for plants and fish, but they like to keep fish in the plant tanks to keep them cycled in case they have a blowout and need the tanks to accomodate fish suddenly. If they aren't on display the plants can cop a few days in a bucket under a lamp. They also add magnesium sulfate/epsom salts and marine salt to keep the plants healthy. I don't know how much of each, and I don't have a hydrometer because I only keep freshwater fish.
I've been selectively breeding a particular platy strain (copperblack). A few months ago, I found the best fish I've seen. I hadn't seen such a perfect example again - but guess what showed up today? She was in the plant tank but I talked them into selling her anyway. So as always they bagged her with water out of the tank she came from. I got home and did the standard procedure. Float the bag in the tank for fifteen minutes, tip out half the water, fill with a bit of tank water, float for five minutes, repeat twice more. Release fish. This hasn't given me any acclimation disasters so far. I share a water supply with the LFS, so the pH, hardness etc are essentially the same, my tanks are cycled and treated with the same water treater they use. So usually there's not that much to get used to.
But I forgot that the fish had come out of brackish water. I would not normally make such a major change in salinity in less than a week. I'm not so much worried about the shock to the fish's system, because I know from experience (treating fungus with seawater dips) that they can cop changes more sudden than that. I'm terrified about fungus though. I've heard about mollies being kept in brackish water and suddenly moved to fresh - they all got fungus and died. I can't bear to lose this fish. She is amazing. No problems yet but she's only been in the new tank for a few hours.
Am I being a worry wart? If not is there anything I can do? I don't want to dose the whole tank with salt because there's a bristlenose, a shrimp and a pile of snails in there and I doubt they would appreciate it.
My LFS has separate tanks for plants and fish, but they like to keep fish in the plant tanks to keep them cycled in case they have a blowout and need the tanks to accomodate fish suddenly. If they aren't on display the plants can cop a few days in a bucket under a lamp. They also add magnesium sulfate/epsom salts and marine salt to keep the plants healthy. I don't know how much of each, and I don't have a hydrometer because I only keep freshwater fish.
I've been selectively breeding a particular platy strain (copperblack). A few months ago, I found the best fish I've seen. I hadn't seen such a perfect example again - but guess what showed up today? She was in the plant tank but I talked them into selling her anyway. So as always they bagged her with water out of the tank she came from. I got home and did the standard procedure. Float the bag in the tank for fifteen minutes, tip out half the water, fill with a bit of tank water, float for five minutes, repeat twice more. Release fish. This hasn't given me any acclimation disasters so far. I share a water supply with the LFS, so the pH, hardness etc are essentially the same, my tanks are cycled and treated with the same water treater they use. So usually there's not that much to get used to.
But I forgot that the fish had come out of brackish water. I would not normally make such a major change in salinity in less than a week. I'm not so much worried about the shock to the fish's system, because I know from experience (treating fungus with seawater dips) that they can cop changes more sudden than that. I'm terrified about fungus though. I've heard about mollies being kept in brackish water and suddenly moved to fresh - they all got fungus and died. I can't bear to lose this fish. She is amazing. No problems yet but she's only been in the new tank for a few hours.
Am I being a worry wart? If not is there anything I can do? I don't want to dose the whole tank with salt because there's a bristlenose, a shrimp and a pile of snails in there and I doubt they would appreciate it.
