I asked a question earlier regarding my sisters mollies. They are in a 10g and there is two females and 7 babies that are 7 weeks old. The plan was for her to get just two mollies to keep the tank cycled until my guppies had babies. Anyways they are sick and arnt getting better. There is 10 teaspoons of salt in there right now. They were treated for ich and the white came back, they were treated for fungus and now the white is back. Question! How much more salt can be added to try and help these guys one last time??? Tia!
how much salt to add?
- Thread starter mariah
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I told her for tonight to add one teaspoon. What's a good constant amount of salt for mollies? Is that constant amount good for treatment also?
It would be different amounts unfortunately. Found this link below. I've used 1-2 tablespoons per 5 gals for two weeks as treatment but if you don't see any improvement after 5 days or the fish lose equilibrium then you would have take the fish out and decrease salt level.
The mollies could adapt to quite high levels up to sea-water but then so could the fungus. I assume all ich is gone?
http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Salt
If the salt level is slowing the fungus I'd try increasing salt levels. If no change then I'd pick up fungal cure meds.
Also I'd see if there is a cycled tank somewhere near by and grab seeded bio/media out of that to cycle the tank.
The mollies could adapt to quite high levels up to sea-water but then so could the fungus. I assume all ich is gone?
http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Salt
If the salt level is slowing the fungus I'd try increasing salt levels. If no change then I'd pick up fungal cure meds.
Also I'd see if there is a cycled tank somewhere near by and grab seeded bio/media out of that to cycle the tank.
We don't know if its slowing the fungus or not. They have already been treated for things. Her tank is cycled i tested her water. She changes it about once every 5-7 days. The only things that's different then mine is she has chlorine water but she adds the dechlorine stuff to the water before it goes in every time. She has two mollies and seven-seven week old mollies. In the same 10g tank i have three guppies, five-seven week mollies, and 15 guppy babies. She has a strong filter current and everything looks good. Here is my other question i posted to give you some back round...
My sister is having one heck of a time with her fish!! She is not crazy with fish like mei have 5 tanks and she only has one 10g tank. It was given to her with a 6 inch pleco and an algae eater. I took the pleco and she gave the fish store the algae eater. I made her keep them in that tank for just over a week just for levels to even out again (it was already cycled its just they came with a little water and wet rocks that's it. The girl had cleaned the filter) once the tank was empty, that same day we went and got plants and two female mollies for her. She got them on Feb 11th and on the 12th she had 12 baby mollies. That day i got 5 mollies from her. Everything was great up until about the beginning of march. I can't remember the exact date but she told me they had ick, white dots everywhere. I gave her two packs of super ick api treatment and went and showed her how to do it. She texted me on march 18th and said there were white dots again. I have never had ich come back so i googled it. Turns out mollies need salt. I have never had mollies before but the five i have were in salt because i keep my guppies in salt. Google also said that it might be fungus and not ich. I went there on the 18th and treated the tank with general frugal cure api. I also added 10 teaspoons of salt over a few hours. I told her how to add salt after a water change and to add another pack in two days. After the treatment was over and the day to change the water, she kept it in for a few more days because they were on the bottom being slow and still looked sick. She changed the water once they looked better. I don't know when but the one female Molly started to swim funny. She is on an angle like her heads to heavy and weighing her down. I told her to feed them peas. I said feed flakes once and peas once each day. After two days i told her to just feed only peas for the next two days since that wasn't helping her. My sister has just told me that she sees white on the fish again..... what is it!?!?!?
How does this plan sound????
Her temp is currently at 73 apparently. I am going to get her to bring it up to 80 today. There is 11 tsp of salt in there now and i am going to tell her to do this:
Today (Thursday) do 50% wc then add 5.5 teaspoon to bring it to original level and then add an extra 2 tsp
Friday 50% wc add 6.5 tsp salt and another 2 tsp
Saturday 50% wc add 7.5 tsp salt then add 2 tsp more..
does that sound okay???
There will be 17tsp salt. Is that not enough?
Her temp is currently at 73 apparently. I am going to get her to bring it up to 80 today. There is 11 tsp of salt in there now and i am going to tell her to do this:
Today (Thursday) do 50% wc then add 5.5 teaspoon to bring it to original level and then add an extra 2 tsp
Friday 50% wc add 6.5 tsp salt and another 2 tsp
Saturday 50% wc add 7.5 tsp salt then add 2 tsp more..
does that sound okay???
There will be 17tsp salt. Is that not enough?
Give that a go for a few days and see if improvement. If nothing, I would go to 1 tablespoon per gallon as max or do a short term dip as per the website.
I'm running a QT at the moment at 3 tablespoon per 5 gall. Fish are doing fine but no improvement so added meds last night.
I'm running a QT at the moment at 3 tablespoon per 5 gall. Fish are doing fine but no improvement so added meds last night.
Are you looking to have plants in the tank when all has settled down? That may be the limiting factor on molly keeping with salt. What salt level do you use for guppies?
I've never had live bearers in salty water. I undertsand others do and find a light salt dose useful as a tonic. Will check my notes when I get home to see if I have anything.
I've never had live bearers in salty water. I undertsand others do and find a light salt dose useful as a tonic. Will check my notes when I get home to see if I have anything.
No, she isn't going to do love plants, just fake. I have 10tsp in my 10g with my guppies. I find it makes them happier and they don't get sick as much or at all. I have mg sister doing an ever more salt treatment. On this site a person told me how to do it. I did do it to my guppies a while back and was able to find the post. Its:
Add 1tsp per gallon morning and night (2tsp per day per gallon) for 3 days (a total of six times) day 4-7 leave the water and then if the fish are looking better change the water on day 8-10 by doing a 50% wc each day. (No adding salt) if they don't look better by day 7 you can wait tell day 10 then day 10-13 do water changes.
Thanks for this - so it ends up at 6 teaspoons per gallon (which I think is US 2 tablespoons per gal)? Was that mainly for guppies and other live bearers?
What ends up as 6 tsp per gallon?? That salt adding of 1tsp per gallon twice a day is for a salt treatment so help a sickness. They use to always treat with salt and not api treatments. I dont know where you got 6 tsp from. For a daily good amount of salt for live bearers it is 1 tsp per gallon. Mollies can handle a bit more but that is fine. Remember salt doesn't evaporate. If you have 10tsp of salt in a 10g tank and you do a 50% water change, you ONLY add 5 tsp of salt back
This was it. A total of 6 times read to me as a total dosage of 6 teaspoons per gallon?
dingusplease
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Half cup per gallon lol just a reefing comment passing through.
I never came across the use of salt to treat illnesses in my FW days, I'm interested to know how that works! For marine, hypo saline solutions (less salt) can actually sometimes be used to treat illnesses.
Btw, what type of salt do you use in FW for medicinal purposes? Does it have to be specially made like reef salts?
lol just a reefing comment passing through.I never came across the use of salt to treat illnesses in my FW days, I'm interested to know how that works! For marine, hypo saline solutions (less salt) can actually sometimes be used to treat illnesses.
Btw, what type of salt do you use in FW for medicinal purposes? Does it have to be specially made like reef salts?
Half cup per gallon
I never came across the use of salt to treat illnesses in my FW days, I'm interested to know how that works! For marine, hypo saline solutions (less salt) can actually sometimes be used to treat illnesses.
Btw, what type of salt do you use in FW for medicinal purposes? Does it have to be specially made like reef salts?
That's interesting - what can you treat that way? The salt used here is just plain NaCl with the idea for diseases being the fish can adapt better than the infection. I guess the reverse logic to SW?
Successful for freshwater parasites for sure, also suggested for bacteria and fungal infections. With bacteria I've never managed to cure only with salt, more as an aid with meds.
dingusplease
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For SW, the basic concept is that since fish can survive lower salinity than a parasite like Ich, a short term hypo salinity treatment will kill the parasite. On top of that, less salt means the fish has to work less hard to remove salt from their bodies, so they direct more energy to their immune system.
Definitely seems to work for parasites, however I've never actually heard of it used for bacterial or fungal infections. Very interesting how salt plays such a key role for our fishy friends
For SW, the basic concept is that since fish can survive lower salinity than a parasite like Ich, a short term hypo salinity treatment will kill the parasite. On top of that, less salt means the fish has to work less hard to remove salt from their bodies, so they direct more energy to their immune system.
Definitely seems to work for parasites, however I've never actually heard of it used for bacterial or fungal infections. Very interesting how salt plays such a key role for our fishy friends
Yes for sure - interesting to see the other side. The bacterial and fungal infections I would say almost something like a tonic, the dosage has to be varied a bit as live bearers will cope better than catfish. To date I don't think it is a cure all but it's certainly cheap to try.
Matt68005
Aquarium Advice Addict
Mollies can take alot of salt. You really arent adding enough of you just put a few teaspoons of aquarium salt! lol
Mollies love salt, and can be raised in brackish water (Half sea half fresh)
But delapol is right, fugus is not killed by salt, bacteria is (why we use to store our food in salt before refrigators)
You should try reducing the bioload by frequent water changes and siphoning of the gravel and an anti fungal such as
Malachite green
Methylen blue
Furan Green
Primafix
Mollies love salt, and can be raised in brackish water (Half sea half fresh)
But delapol is right, fugus is not killed by salt, bacteria is (why we use to store our food in salt before refrigators)
You should try reducing the bioload by frequent water changes and siphoning of the gravel and an anti fungal such as
Malachite green
Methylen blue
Furan Green
Primafix
Hello guys!! I am personally using a different salt other then aquarium salt. Its epsom salt. You can find it at walmart and its only like $4 and you get double if not more then that of aquarium salt. So far she is on day 6 and since day 3 at night there has been 71 tsp salt in the 10g tank. She said she hasn't seen much change.. if anything the white dots are getting worse. They have been treated with both api ich and api fungus over the last month. I don't know how to help my sister.. she also didn't feed for 3 days and has only been feeding them peas for the last few days. There is a Molly with swimmers bladder or something.
Good point - I'd forgotten about pre-refrigerators. I didn't think of that at all - I've found the salt will knock say columnaris down but there will be a bit remaining - thinking I should a dip at that point I guess?
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