Cory catfish and salt

[Nyquil Junkie]

I was thinking about getting a few little cory catfish [Corydoras] and I read somewhere they cant handle any salt in the water? I have salted my tank for the goldfish, (1 Tbsp per 5 gal) and the mollies, tetras, the pleco and a handful of glass shrimp) don't seem to mind that dose. Will Corydoras do poorly or die in that salt concentration?

 

[jsoong]

Goldfish don't really mix well with the rest of your fish (pleco is OK only if it is a dwarf - bristlenose or rubberlip). People have had problems with golds & cories .... the golds will try to eat the cory & the cory's spine get stuck in the gold's throat .... you end up with 2 dead fish.

Your salt level at 0.1% is prob too high for the cory .... actually too high for the rest of the fish .... you need maybe half or a quarter that amount for "osmolar stress", if at all. <You don't really need salt unless treating something.>

 

[Zagz]

Agreed that goldfish should not be kept with tropical fish. And they can't tolerate the salt at all well. Neither for that matter can plecos. Mollies are the only ones in the group that do better with salt and they can and do live quite happily without salt.

 

[mike47517]

I have to agree that the Goldfish do not mix well with the tropical fish.

Yes goldfish will eat the cories if they can.

And i agree with Zagz in saying that the only fish in that tank that it is ok to have that much salt in the water is the mollie. Mollies can handle a lot of salt and are classified as brackish water fish. But they can thrive great in FW (no salt in tank). I have 2 mollies and a bunch of mollie fry in my 10g (which has no salt) with 2 ottos and alll the fish do fine

If i was to give you advice then i would say get the gold fish a new tank and SLOWLY decrease the amount of salt in your tank by doing PWCs put FW (water with no salt) in tank. And keep doing this over time until you no longer have any salt in your tank. Dont do any major changes though as the decrease in salt might be too large that the fish may be stressed. Then after the water is all fresh and the goldfish are gone then i would go get a nice school of cories

 

[Zagz]

One important note about brackish salt and aquarium salt. Brackish fish are kept with the same water as salt water fish but with less salinity. Mollies are sold as FW in most instances. They can actually be acclimated to full SW over time but do quite well in FW. Most mollies have been bred as FW fish and do not need salt to survive. Just to clarify the difference between the salt you are adding and brackish.

 

[Nyquil Junkie]

The goldfish I have are big fat faintails, they dont seem to bother the other fish. I have a bunch of glass shrimp in there they dont try to eat those. I used to have Koi and really big comets (I sent them to live in someone garden pond, they got to big)and the Koi would try to eat anything they could get in their mouth. These fat fantails are pretty slow, I can see a Koi going after a little fish (Koi have bigger mouths too) but ya think these chubbies will try to eat the corys? Corys must be alot smaller than I thought they were.