adding salt

[sarahh]

ok, so i do not want to ask the petsmart people, because you never know their experience.
just wondering if i should add some salt to the 120 gallon. i am kinda loathe to do it, because i plan on adding plecos in a month or so, and i know it isn't good for them, but i have had 2 fish die in the past week, and the nitrates, nitrites and ammonia are all good along with the pH.
it's not live planted, and i DID get the fish about 4 days ago, but the rest i bought survived well , and i can't see any reason that a little molly would die in a 120 gallon tank.

so, hit me up.. salt or no?

 

[BigJim]

I usually only run salt if I'm treating an illness or the fish are really stressed. If you're just using FW aquarium salt, most any fish will tolerate it. The salt provides electrolytes and other elements the fish use to build thir slime coats.

I'm very picky about what fish I'll buy from Petsmart. Their mollies are usually highly suspect, so I'm not surprised if a few of yours dropped quickly.

 

[jsoong]

Petsmart salt all their tanks to quite a high level. <Saw how much they added once & guess the level will be in the 02-03% range.> This is so they can suppress parasite & bacterial disease in poor water conditions. The salting is basically a stop-gap. They want the fish to appear healthy so you will buy it before the diseases shows.

Generally, properly cared for tanks don't need salt. I use salt only when treating something specific.

However, because the PetSmart tanks are salted, if you just take the fish & dump it into fresh water, the drastic change might just stress them enough to kill. So it would generally be wise to do a slow drip acclimatization to slowly drop the salt level in the water when you first get the fish. And always QT those fish. There is high likelihood they are carrying disease.

 

[sarahh]

gosh darn it.

hey guys, thanks for the advice.
I never knew why people said to quarantine.. now i do. I figured if there are no other fish, go ahead and put the new guys in the 120.

So due to the drop in salt, the disease came out... ich is the verdict. so now instead of 8, we have 6 and they are gooby fish. Ich all over their mouth and fins. We'll treat the tank, and learn a lesson fr more expensive to treat 120 gal than, say, 10.. grrr

 

[Heatheratl11]

interesting about the petsmart salt levels. Every time I get a Molly or platy from petsmart it seems to go South fast.. same with Walmart fish. I've started adding more and more salt b/c I keep reading that mollies really like salt.. even read that they like to to a teaspoon per gallon!

I have a terrible time finding a place to buy healthy fish! Its making me nuts! Petsmart seems to be the WORST!!! Fish seem fine and then I get them home and suddenly they have ick or some other funk.

Good luck with your little guys.

Heather

 

[mfdrookie516]

mollies are naturally found in brackish water. theyre one of the few fish that can live in fresh, brackish, or saltwater. aquarium salt isnt the same as salt like you add to a saltwater aquarium though, so just adding aquarium salt isnt making water conditions like what they come from naturally

 

[mgamer20o0]

mollies are naturally found in brackish water. theyre one of the few fish that can live in fresh, brackish, or saltwater. aquarium salt isnt the same as salt like you add to a saltwater aquarium though, so just adding aquarium salt isnt making water conditions like what they come from naturally

but they are so far from nature in all those fish farms.

interesting about the petsmart salt levels. Every time I get a Molly or platy from petsmart it seems to go South fast.. same with Walmart fish. I've started adding more and more salt b/c I keep reading that mollies really like salt.. even read that they like to to a teaspoon per gallon!

I have a terrible time finding a place to buy healthy fish! Its making me nuts! Petsmart seems to be the WORST!!! Fish seem fine and then I get them home and suddenly they have ick or some other funk.

Good luck with your little guys.

Heather

aquarium salt vs fish that come from brackish water is different. but like i said above those fish for the most part are long away from their natural environment. skip the salt and get a QT set up. dont risk the fish you already have to something get into your system.

 

[sarahh]

thanks guys

valuable advice, and much appreciated. We're picking up a 29 gallon next week, just for quarantine and for the fry that will probably come along the way these molly are at it. At the moment, i found a cute little 1.5 gallon that i had in the spare room (go figure) and i set it up just in case any babies come along in the mean time.
Loving this forum

 

[jestes]

Yeah I'm pretty much done with Petsmart fish too. I got several cories and guppies from
Petsmart, and I found an anchorworm on one of the cories. Plus, my guppy fry were all dying even though my water parameters were OK. I treated the whole tank, and now no problems. All of the tanks at Petsmart/Petco are one giant system, so if one tank has issues, they've all been exposed.

 

[7Enigma]

Your best bet for healthy stock are local aquarium groups. You're in ATLANTA! There's got to be tons of local groups. You'd be surprised how many closet aquarists are living around you! That is the only way I'd purchase/get new fish. I'd still QT them, regardless of where they came from, but at least you (hopefully) are getting healthy stock.

Petsmart/Petco/etc. are as a general rule selling crap fish. They deal in volume, not in quality and so are looking to move their stock quickly with little regard for the health of the fish. Now I've been to a lot of these stores and every once in a while you find one that clearly has someone taking care of the tanks, but it's a VERY small minority.

EDIT: Here's a 10-second search for a club in your city:

http://www.atlantaaquarium.com/