Hrm. :-/

[JollieMollie]

I have a 29 gallon tank, with aquarium salt 1 tbs/ 5 gallons. This was the recommended dosage on the container and I have seen that elsewhere so I thought it'd be a safe bet.


The reason I added salt was because I was given four mollies to add to my tank of two guppies, two cherry barbs, a frog, and a betta. I was given seven neons soon after. Some say those fish won't like salt, while others say in that amount it's no problem, so I thought it'd be alright. Well....


My fish died. (-: The neons went first, looking completely healthy, active, plump, everything, and just disappearing one by one. Same with the cherries later. The only fish that had symptoms was the betta, who was observed with buggy eyes and some sort of white around on eye, before dying later that day. (He didn't float, btw... isn't that odd? Or no?) I had treated the tank with an anti-ich jazz around the same time, because my female guppy was showing white spots. [another mystery: why did my water cease to be blue within 12 or less hours even when I repeated the treatment for three days as directed? My filtration system is a simple under gravel pump, no carbon anywhere in the tank. But the ich went away...]

I am a bit confused because I thought that if the fish didn't like salt, they would at least appear unhealthy, not just die off, and not so quickly. I have one neon remaining along with the frog, and other than that it's all livebearers. Is it really the salt that killed the others in a matter of days with no visible symptoms and they were perfectly active and eating? Or is something else amis that the livebearers are immune to?


The only other thing I can think of is that I have a piece of wood in the tank. It was used in the same tank many years ago, for several years running, and we had healthy fish. The tank has now been set up for a couple months is all, but I'm using the same wood and it's just been sitting in dry desert air (I live in a very dry area...) meanwhile. Is it possible something in the wood caused the problem? Maybe it somehow reacted with the salt or something? I don't know... : - /

Let me know if you have ideas. And if anyone else has ever had tetras, barbs, or bettas with any amount of salt in the water, please tell me about it? I definately didn't expect such a strong, immediate reaction. And with no symptoms! Argh.




PS No, I don't have water perameters for you. I don't have a test kit that measures those sort of things. Sorry!

 

[nmonks]

Your problem here is not the fish but the fishkeeper. Why are you adding salt to a freshwater aquarium? Why are you keeping a random collection of fish that don't like the same water chemistry?

Specfically, neon tetras come from soft, acidic water and cannot tolerate any salt in the water. It severely stresses them over time. Neons are delicate enough as it is, thanks to the near-universal infection of cheap neons with 'neon tetra disease'. As soon as they are moved to water anything less than perfect in quality and chemistry, they die.

Guppies need hard, alkaline water. Mollies need hard, alkaline water with either zero nitrate or the addition of salt. Cherry barbs will tolerate slightly soft and acidic through to slightly alkaline and moderately hard but cannot tolerate salt. African frogs shouldn't be kept with fish. Shrimps need hard, alkaline water.

Without knowing the pH, hardness, nitrites, and nitrates in your aquarium, making a more specific diagnosis is impossible. My guess is that your water is very hard and alkaline, and that you basically cannot keep soft water fish like neons and barbs without softening the water first. But you must go and buy test kits before you go buy and more fish. Otherwise adding more fish is wasting your money as well as their lives.

Wood doesn't kill fish unless it's been sprayed with something accidentally.

Cheers, Neale

 

[JollieMollie]

For clarity: It's an African dwarf frog, not clawed frog. (-: Did you mean a clawed frog when you said they shouldn't be kept with fish, or do you believe that for dwarf frogs as well?



See, on the salt container it has directions to use the salt for medical purposes, as well as just normal (it suggests the same amounts, though) which left me the impression that most species would be okay with it. I wasn't sure, so I asked the guy, and he claimed that their water was kept at the same salinity. Now I've been to that store many times, and they always have extremely healthy fish, rarely any diseases and if you buy a fish from them and keep it in the right conditions you are almost guaranteed they will live many years. So I thought since they kept even neons, cherries, bettas, etc in those conditions and they are always the picture of health, it would be the same in my aquarium. Appearantly I was wrong though... : - /


But you do think that is how they would die if it was too much salt? Just... poof? I guess I was under the impression that it would weaken their immune system and they would get diseases, so die by it indirectly (and give me time to see what was going on and see if I could correct the situation). I suppose I was wrong on that too.



edit: It wasn't a purely random collection of fish ; - ) I didn't know water quality, but I know how they interact in groups and that they were all peaceful community fish at least.