Is this Normal?

[Mack]

Hi,
I seem to have a problem over here.I am keeping mollies in my 40gal tank the problem is they move forward and backward the agins glass ALL day(like they want to get out).My parameters are good.Ammonia,Nitrite are 0 Nitrate about 10 ppm.Is this normal?
They eat very well.My tank include power filter and heater
some one told me it could be electricity in the water????????but I put my hands in there with no problems at all even my feet are wet .

 

[Mack]

My temp is about 29C and I have been adding salt in the past 5 days.The mollies are there for only one week.

 

[BrianNY]

Sounds like happy mollie behavior to me. Are their fins erect Mack?

 

[Mack]

Hey Brian,
Their fins are not erect.At the pet store they were moving all over the tank.But over here,they just keep moving agins the front glass all day .What do you think guys ?

 

[tkos]

I would turn the heat down a bit if I were you. Try keeping the tank around 24C. It might be a bit on the warm side for them. And with warmer water comes less oxygen. Also do some water changes.

When you add the salt do you mix it in water first or do you just dump some in. Salt crystals can burn fish flesh so you should always dissolve it first.

 

[Mack]

I just dump it in the tank(oh man ).Could it be the problem?as for the temp its going down.

 

[tkos]

It could be stressing them out. Just take a little tank water, dissolve up to 1 tbsp of salt per gallon and then slwoly mix it into the tank. Don't forget that if you top off the tank water not to add more salt as only the water evaporates. Add new salt only when you take water out of the tank.

Ideally you should use salt for marine or brackish water tanks and not just NaCl. The marine salts have lots of good additives in them to make hard water, and really NaCl doesn't have anything benificial in it. The NaCl salt is best used for treating illness in freshwater tanks.

 

[jbrown03]

And with warmer water comes less oxygen.

I was under the impression that the warmer a liquid the greater amount that liquid can dissolve. So I would have thought warmer water can dissolve more oxygen.

This can be seen from the fact that a coldwater tank has less capacity for fish than a tropical tank. Unless I am missing something, I believe what you have said... to be slightly inacurate :?.

 

[tkos]

http://k12science.ati.stevens-tech.edu/curriculum/water97/temp.html

tellus.ssec.wisc.edu/outreach/teach/ideas/kotoski/ Minifact_Sheets/Minifact4_Dissolved_Oxygen.pdf


There you go.

Not inacurate at all. Coldwater tanks hold less fish as they tend to be big bodied and produce a lot of waste.

 

[tkos]

This one is even better and quicker to load.

http://h2osparc.wq.ncsu.edu/info/do.html

 

[jbrown03]

Not inacurate at all.

After a bit of reading, you would appear to be correct... shows how much I know hey! :x

 

[Mack]

I was out of town for the past few days.However,I kept my eye on them this morning and I have noticed that some of them are scratching 8O .Befor I left the town I raised the temp to 29C and the salt level to 1.004.I think its more likely a parasite problem?Would the salt take care of it?I really do not want to add any meds since they will destroy my bio filter.

 

[tkos]

Salt and a raised temp would help for ick. Are there white spots on them? Otherwise maybe gill flukes. Perhaps you should repost in the sick fish section. You might get a better response in there. I don't know a whole lot about diseases.

Make sure, though, that you do not drastically change salinity levels. this can be hard on your fish as well. Do it over several days.

 

[Mack]

Not a singal spot

 

[Mack]

I meant single

 

[tkos]

http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/

Perhaps that link will lead you to some info if it is a disease.