Question About Aquarium Salt

[willr1976]

i have several fish mollies, platys, and some glass fish and a couple dianos, i just found out that the livebearers require aquarium salt, will adding this salt keep them alive, since i have no luck keeping these livebearers alive, and another question will it be ok to add the salt with the other fish in the tank, or do i need another tank just for the livebearers that require salt?

thanks alot

 

[Miss Wiggle]

the mollies will definately benefit from a slightly brackish environment, this should be done with proper marine salt, not aquarium tonic salt or anything similar.

it won't benefit the platies or danio's but they can live in it

there's are several different species you could be referring to by 'glass fish' can you confirm exactly what they are, post a picture if you don't know. depending what they are you might be ok with salt, might not.

if you do decide to add salt you will be limiting your options for future inhabitants, so if you don't want to do so then it might be best to get another tank for the mollies and have that with salt in.

on another note though, you say you always have problems keepign these fish alive, if it's other fish not just the mollies you struggle with then salt is probably not the problem so maybe if you give us some more details then we can help you find out what is.

 

[willr1976]

well what type of marine salt do you recommend , i was told aquarium salt, i really dont know the difference, since im new...lol

i cant seem to post my pic but i did a search on painted glass fish on yahoo images and there are a couple of the fish that i have there, some are painted and some are not, but it is the popular painted, or stained glassfish they call them that i have. i have a 10 gallon tank that i use for breeding, i dont loose many of my other fish, ive had a couple that has lived for three years but all the mollies have died, even the babies when they have babies they have died also

 

[nmonks]

Aquarium "tonic" salt is basically overpriced cooking salt. You don't need it.

Marine salt mix contains not just sodium chloride but also salts that harden the water and raise the pH, both of which help mollies a great deal. Mollies, on the average, do better in slightly salty water. The glassfish will tolerate the salt very well, the danios less so. I'd be tempted to move the danios out, but if you raise the salinity slowly, they should adapt well enough, Just keep the dosage small: less than 5 grammes of salt per litre, or a specific gravity (SG) of below 1.003. If you do move the danios out, all livebearers will tolerate a low salt dosage: platies, swordtails, guppies, Endlers, halfbeaks. Whatever. If you get really into brackish water fish, then there's a whole variety of really cool fish to try out, from flatfish to gobies.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showforum=48

When you use salt, add it to the bucket of water, stir, wait 20 minutes, stir again, and when you're sure all the grains of salt have dissolved, then add it to the aquarium. If you add the salt directly or before it's dissolved in the bucket of water, you'll cause all kinds of problems.

The brand of marine salt couldn't matter less. Buy whichever is cheapest. Make sure you keep it somewhere airtight, because you don't want mositure from the air getting into it. A large tupperware or cookie tin does the job nicely, even better if have a bag or two of silica gel handy.

Stop by the Livebearers forum. We have some nice pinned topics that'll probably be a good read for you. Keeping livebearers, even the "common" ones, is an art form, and doing it right isn't nearly as easy as people make out.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showforum=91

Ten gallons is a very small tank, and small tanks are MORE difficult to care for than big ones. Mollies are big fish (some species are over 15 cm/6 inches long) and you really should be giving them a lot more space than a 10 gallon will supply. At least 20 gallons for the shortfin mollies, and 30+ gallons for the sailfin species.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[Miss Wiggle]

just to say i agree with everything neale's said, he knows his stuff so take his advice!

 

[willr1976]

i do have a twenty gallon tank also but the other fish are in it, i have more of the other fish than the mollies why i figured id salt the 10 gallon
thanks for the advice

bythe way ive been thinking about getting a saltwater tank for some seahorses and my wife wants a clownfish (nemo) any advice

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i do have a twenty gallon tank also but the other fish are in it, i have more of the other fish than the mollies why i figured id salt the 10 gallon
thanks for the advice

bythe way ive been thinking about getting a saltwater tank for some seahorses and my wife wants a clownfish (nemo) any advice

check out the pinned topics in the saltwater section of this forum for start up advice.

not to put you off but just to give you an example

i've kept tropicals for 5 years, we have several tanks with a wide variety of fish and I consider myself to be relativley knowledgable about fish, I just started a saltwater tank, it's costing at leas 10x as much as any of the other tanks, taking up 2/3 full evenings a week in maintenance and I'm still really struggling just to grasp the basics of water chemistry involved in it, let alone anything more complex. It's very veyr rewarding, but also massivley hard work.