Lost fish, not happy!

[ScaredClownLoach]

Hey all, first post here .


Ok ill try and break this down coz its a really long story and sorry for the popr grammar im on my phone.

My 2 loaches had white spot And i purchased some white spot medication for them and got told to jack the temp up to 30 degrees C for 3 days. The white spot went away. The fish shop owner that i see also told me to put salt in the tank and proceeded to grab a bag of salt and put it on the counter if front of me. I said i had a 55gal tank and hes like chuck it all in. I replied "all of it" he replies yes. So i was like ok, this didnt really feel like a good idea to me.

Any who i put all the salt in, fish seemed fine. But the salt took ages to dissolve. Me and my gf planned a fishing trip down south about 400kms away, finally got there and seen weed everywhere. Had a few casts and got a whole bunch of weed. gave up and started heading back home check other beaches, weed every. Buy this time i had been driving for 5 hours and we were 2 hours from home. I was tired but made the call to drive home (luckily). This trip was planned for 2 days minimum.

Finally got home to find most of my fish gasping for air at the top of the water. Quicky scooped them out and chucked them in my 15gal. that seemed great. Did water tests in the tank all results were perfect. So it leads me to believe the shop keeper has giving me false info on the salt.

I found one dead neon and we found a clown loach laying on the bed floor, which broke my heart coz my other loaches have lost a buddy.

Alright sorry i didnt think this post would be this long.

Questions are, was it the salt that killed them?

Ive cleaned out the whole 55 gal, down to the gravel, filter was out of water for a hour. Have i lost my cycle?

Would i have a argument about getting fish back and the fish shop after my losses?


For those who are wondering, i catch and release fish.


Thanks in advance

 

[SKB]

to the forum!

First of all, how much salt did he give you? If you cant remember, can you give us a guess?

Also do you test your water parameters? Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite and pH?

When I treated for ich I used either medicine and heat or salt and heat, not all three, I think it would be too stressful to use all three. I turned up the temp to 86 and used 1-2 tablespoons of salt per 5 gallons (1-2 I cant remember exactly which). With salt and heat it took almost a month to be completely rid of ich.

Ich has a lifecycle where It can be seen on fish and when it cant. So you might still have it in your tank, just in a different form. I would leave your heat up to 86 for atleast a week to 2 weeks after you've seen the last sign of ich. Also when you turn up the heat, there is less oxygen in the water, so youll want to either lower your water from the filter, to produce more flow, or invest in a bubbler.

Chances are you either didn't have enough oxygen in the tank or too much salt. Also using meds and salt and heat can be too stressful for the fish. Scaleless fish are less likely to deal with salt as well as others.

 

[ScaredClownLoach]

Thanks for the welcome and reply.


Ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 10-20

Everything seemed fine. He gave me a 1kg bag of salt. So i just dumped it in like he said. Dont really know much about salt in freshwater aquariums, all new to me so kinda just went on here word.

Do you think i have to recycle my whole tank, i cleaned it all out except the filter. But like i said in the original post my filter was out of water for a hour and worried all the good bacteria would have died. So now im think i have to start again and do another cycle. Thoughts on that?

Thanks again

Edit- i have a large airstone

 

[SKB]

If you filter was outside of your tank for an hour, it might need to recycle. If it was in a bucket with the tank water, no. But if it was sitting out and dried, then yes.

Your params are good.

1 kg seems like too much. Like I said I used 1-2 tablespoons per 5 gallons. So yes it might have been to much salt. But idk im bad at math...

 

[Wiggles24]

So it was a neon and a loach that you lost? When u put in the Ich medication did you mske sure it was the type safe for scaleless fish? Tetras are also very sensitive to Ich medicine they have to be dosed at a lower rate than other fish n loaches can't handle most medication at all