No salt with mollies

[Elisabeth83]

I've been having terrible times with my mollies lately as most of you know. Well I just got back from my lfs and was talking to the guy who works there and he told me that mollies need salt and that they put salt in all there tanks with mollies He said they get them from Asia and all the breeders there breed them in hot salty waters.

I knew mollies liked salt but I didnt know they needed it

I have 2 saes in there as well as my pleco...could they tolerate a little salt??

I was thinking of putting 3 teaspoons in. It's a 27 gallon tank.

I think the normal dosage of salts is 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons.

 

[Elisabeth83]

anyone?

 

[aloaring]

Wish i could help more, i too have heard that mollies do better with salt but i actually thought it was specific to black mollies. My friend was having a lot of trouble with her black mollies until she put in salt but on the other hand i kept balck mollie in freshwater for years perfectly fine! I know you can't put salt in with scaleless fish, which includes loaches and corys not sure about plecs and saes though. Sorry

 

[Gourami Lover88]

Yes, mostly the problems you have with your mollies could be caused by no salt in the tank due to mollies mostly live in brackish waters,but those cats wont like that salt in the tank. Also are you also feeing a veggies beacuse mollies are mostly herbivors.

 

[specks]

My son has had mollies for ages - we have never added any salt. My dad kept several tanks for many years and I dont remember him using salt either.

 

[Elisabeth83]

Well I added in about 2 teaspoons of salt to the tank and so far the SAE's and pleco are acting fine.

This hopefully will be temporary as this Saturday I am most likely picking up a 60 gallon tank and then I will transfer my swordtails, platies and the mollies in together without the SAE's or pleco.

It would be great to know though if the Siamese algae eaters would be ok with salt as they are great little cleaners.

I'm pretty sure now the problems I've been having are due to the fact there was 0 salt in the tank. You guys who kept them in freshwater are you from the states? I'm not sure where you import your mollies from or if they are locally bred but the ones here are imported from asia where they are bred in salt.

I'm treating for a diesease called the shimmies I guess its like rickets in fish. It might be a secondary disease stemming from them not having any salt.

Well I can only try...and it seems to me to come from asia where they live in salt to the pet shop where they are in salt to my tank where there is no salt their bodies wouldnt be able to cope without the salt. Maybe they need it for body function like breaking down food or something?

 

[laboul]

I too have mollies and had many problems before adding salt. Add it slowly to a final conc. of 1 Tablespoon per five gallons. It must be dissolved before adding to the tank. DOn't add it directly, it can cause burns. They like vegetables like blanched zucchini. I also feed them flake food and bloodworms. This seems to keep them happy. The like a warm temp. My tank fluctuates daily between 78 and 80F. THis is also a good temp for the fry if you have any.

I don't have scaleless fish but have heard they can't tolerate salt. I also heard this about snails, and my snail recently died in my mollie tank. So I definitely would get the fish that can't handle salt out of your tank. The amount of salt you already added is very minimal, though, and i don't know at what concentrations it starts to affect them.

 

[specks]

I live in the uk in a very hard water area.

 

[Elisabeth83]

Since I have the pleco in the tank I often feed him cucumbers which the mollies also enjoy eating

Once I move the pleco out now that I know mollies like veggies I will keep feeding them.

I'll try the zucchini too

 

[Erised]

I'd say you'd better move the mollies or the catfish, because salt and catfish do not go together ( nor do loaches, so no plecs, cories or algae eaters at all)

To understand the effects of salt on fish which come from salt free enviroments such as the rivers of the Amazon basin (where all plecs come from) you need to compare it to alcohol with humans. A little alcohol taken in moderation can be a good thing and when taken sensibly does us no harm at all and can even make us feel better. However if you abuse alcohol and over do it it will have serious effects on your kidneys and liver and can make you very ill. Salt and catfish is the same, a very small ammount of salt used for medicinal purposes once in a while can be a good thing as it helps destroy parasites and improves gill function, but if the fish is exposed to heavy doses of salt or kept in a tank which contains salt for a extended period of time it will leave solid deposits on the kidneys which will eventually kill the fish.

Adding salt with the pictus cats in the tank will not have helped, not only are they scaleless they also originate from the amazon basin in areas where the water has no measurable salt content, this along with the high ammount of salt in the diet of mussels and squid you have been giving is very likely to be the cause of your fishes problem.
Salt affects the kidneys and in large enough ammounts built up over time causes the kidney to stop working altogether, the fish can then not process fluids and they build up in the body causing swelling like you have described. If this is the case then there is no treatment you can do and the best thing for the fish is to be euthanised.

 

[Elisabeth83]

I'm going to get the tank today instead of Saturday. Hopefully tomorrow I can move the pleco and SAE's over to it once I've gotten it up to temp, put some filter media in it and added some benificial bacteria stuff to it.

There isn't a lot of salt in the tank I think 2 teaspoon in a 27 gallon tank will be ok. He'll only be in there another day. If I notice he's unwell I will move him straight away.

 

[Dubby]

I'm treating for a diesease called the shimmies I guess its like rickets in fish. It might be a secondary disease stemming from them not having any salt.

Shimmies is not a disease. Its the behaviour seen when mollies are unhappy. It can be caused by poor water conditions, low temp, etc. It also signals the onset of infections like fungus, ich etc.

In my tank I use my mollies as indicators. The moment one of them does the shimmys you know something is wrong and there is need for action

 

[Elisabeth83]

Well..I don't even think they have the shimmies anymore. I contacted waterlife and he explained to me what exactly shimmies are. It's basically the fish staying in one placing rocking back and forth and that isn't what my mollies are doing.

They seem happier since I put the salt in...I'll continue to watch them and hoepfully whatever was happening to them before will stop now that the salt is in.

I can only hope

 

[subopposite]

I have a sailfin and a gold dust molly (if that is a breed) in my brackish tank and they have been healthy.

I have heard that all livebearers do well with some to little salt. Not positive if that is true, but I have heard so. So, I guess that would cover mollies, swordtails, guppies, platys. I had guppies in my brackish tank for my puffers, but some survived and started breeding, so I got rid of them, but they were quite fine in there, or so it seemed.

It seems that mollies can take the most amount of salt content, or at least the sailfin mollies. Don't know if all of the other types of mollies can take the same amount of salt as they can though.

Anyhow, have fun setting up the new tank.