Want To Treat With Salt Need Advice

[QuotheRaven]

2 x danios
2 x clown barbs
2 x Lace Gourami
1 x Kribensis
2 x Angelfish
2 x Platies
1 x Blue Ram
1 x Bristlenose Catfish
1 x Apistogramma Blue Head
2 x Siamese Flying Foxes
1 x Neosilurus rendahli he is a Australian Eel-Tailed Catfish Rendahls Catfish

I fear something serious has infected my tank due to I had to swap filter pads after my filter broke 2 weeks ago and it screwed up my filter pads because it didn't have enough power to get all the waste filtered through it....I believe my tank recycled and now I fear that One of my fish has Fin rot (clown barb) one has dropsy (danio) and a variety of others are flicking and rubbing (Ram, SFF's, Platies and clown barbs.)
I placed some melafix into the tank to treat the fin rot (or nipped fins hard to tell at this stage) however I believe salt and raised temperature needs to be administered. I need some advice. Also my apisto and Krib are more listless than usual the krib not that bad. The majority of them are still eating. I cannot obtain water stats as I cannot get out of the house (I snapped the bone of my toe off the base of my foot and have trouble walking about) and I do not own a test kit (lack of funds due to owing money to parents because of tank Lol).

 

[Kiwigirl]

You need a test kit even if you buy one kit at a time but in the long term getting a master test kit will save you a lot of money, you need ph,ammonia,nitrite, and nitrate kits (minimum).

Flicking and rubbing against rocks is usually called flashing, wonder if your fish have ich.

The more experienced will help you as to whether you can use salt or not.

 

[QuotheRaven]

I know I need a test kit however funds are low. Ich has not been sighted yet at all.

 

[Kiwigirl]

Some other information I have found in one of my books.

Your flashing problem may or may not be one of these.

Gill Flukes:

These tiny, worm-like flukes are barely visible to the naked eye. They infect the fish's gill membranes.

Things to look for: The gills move rapidly. The fish pants at the water surface. The gills are covered in mucus, and parts are eaten away. The fish may scrape itself against objects.

The flukes lay eggs which fall to the tank bottom and are resistant to treatment. Attack is two-fold:

Skin Flukes:

Related to gill flukes these skin parasites have a different life-cycle, without resistant stages.

Things to look for: The fish scrapes itself against objects. Colours fade as the fish becomes mucus-covered. The skin reddens in places. The fins become ragged.



Hope you can get things sorted soon.

As for aquarium salt for freshwater fish, some fish are okay with it, some are not tolerant of it, thats all I could find out.

Good luck, sorry I couldn't help you out any further.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it's scaless fish you need to watch out for, as a general rule catfish, loaches and plecs will not tolerate salt, there may be exceptions which I am not sure of so best checking with someone who knows about your specific species.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Pretty much all of your fish will not be happy with long term salt treament in the tank, some may tolerate a short salt bath, but if you are dealing with a parasite problem then salt baths on individual fish are not likely to cure it.

Its much better to find out what exactly is ailing your fish rather than try and use a general treatment which could be very stressfull for the fish- water quality or parasite problems are some of the most common causes for fish flicking and rubbing themselves.

In the mean time, try and get a water change done (or get someone to do it for you), increase the aeration/filtration in the tank so there are high oxygen levels to help ease the fishes discomfort, and see if you can get someone to pick up some water quality test kits for you .
Finrot can be a symptom of whitespot, however unless you can see any small spots on the fishes bodies, its hard to say at this point.

Dropsy is commonly caused by constipation or internal bacterial infections or both- salt bathing the fish in marine salt (see nmonks article using the search engine on salt use) can help prevent secondary infection setting in under the fishes scales after they have pineconed and can help save fish from dropsy, but the main cause of the desese should still be adressed.