Aquarium Salt Or Not?

[Brindles]

Hi im informed this evening I have a seriously overstocked tank The tank has been running since December and we have added fish slowly. All has been great until 3 weeks ago and I have lost a fish nearly every other day.

At present the tank (75 litres) consists of:

5 Rummy Nose tetras
7 Cardinal Tetras
2 Female Dwarf Gourami
1 male Dwarf Gourami
2 small male Honey Gourami
3 marble Hatchets
1 male Guppy

None of my fish are bigger than 1 inch except the male dwarf gourami who may be 1.5 inch.
We have done a weekly water change of around 25% since set-up.
My levels are:

PH 6.8
Ammonia 0 (which im informed tonight test kit must be wrong)
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

Tank Temp 77 Degrees.

So my Male Dwarf Gourami is sick, lifeless and struggling. My two new female gouramis I think have ICH? as does one male honey gourami who is jerking and has fuzzy patch...

Gutted doesnt even go there. Would putting aquarium salt in the tank tonight help or do I wait and see? I just cant bear it

 

[tropicalfish16]

Hi im informed this evening I have a seriously overstocked tank The tank has been running since December and we have added fish slowly. All has been great until 3 weeks ago and I have lost a fish nearly every other day.

At present the tank (75 litres) consists of:

5 Rummy Nose tetras
7 Cardinal Tetras
2 Female Dwarf Gourami
1 male Dwarf Gourami
2 small male Honey Gourami
3 marble Hatchets
1 male Guppy

None of my fish are bigger than 1 inch except the male dwarf gourami who may be 1.5 inch.
We have done a weekly water change of around 25% since set-up.
My levels are:

PH 6.8
Ammonia 0 (which im informed tonight test kit must be wrong)
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

Tank Temp 77 Degrees.

So my Male Dwarf Gourami is sick, lifeless and struggling. My two new female gouramis I think have ICH? as does one male honey gourami who is jerking and has fuzzy patch...

Gutted doesnt even go there. Would putting aquarium salt in the tank tonight help or do I wait and see? I just cant bear it

Yeah your tank is way overcrowded. You should have 1 fish per gallon. Although going over that limit by a few fish is usually okay, but if you have too many your fish will become stressed. The aquarium salt would not help, but if your fish has ICH, you should get ich medicine from the pet store. For the male, sometimes towards the ends of the fish's life that happens. It's happened to my fish before. I don't think there's anything you can do at that point besides keep an eye on it. Hope this helps!

 

[matuk]

Aquarium Salt, providing it is dosed correctly is not harmful to fresh water fish, in fact it can be beneficial to sick fish by aiding their osmotic function

 

[matuk]

dp

 

[This Old Spouse]

dwarf gouramis seem to come with a fatal disease. I lost 5 with no other explanation, but hours of research led me to the conclusion. My tank was never overcrowded and the stats were always good. I'm still looking for a fish that's as beautiful but doesn't come with a kill switch.

 

[Tolak]

Yeah your tank is way overcrowded. You should have 1 fish per gallon.

The 1" per gallon guideline, which is for beginning aquarists, is designed to keep them out of trouble while enjoying their aquarium & getting a handle on the learning curve associated with keeping fish. Everyone misinterprets this guideline, which reads;

"One inch of slim bodied fish, which grows to no larger than three inches, per gallon of water."

With experience, this beginning guideline can easily be doubled, if not more. One fish per gallon will not work with many species.

Aquarium Salt, providing it is dosed correctly is not harmful to fresh water fish, in fact it can be beneficial to sick fish by aiding their osmotic function

This was discussed some time back in this topic. I wouldn't add salt, what I would do is a 50% or better water change now, get us a picture of the ailing fish, this will help with any further diagnosis.

 

[Unknown10101]

If you do the 50% water change, be sure that you put water that is the same temperature as the water already in the tank. Colder water slows the process of Ich. In fact, you may want to raise the temperature a bit, to speed the process up a bit.