ok im a new guy who wants to start keeping catfish heres my story any help would be great. i bought a 55 gallon tank and was told by my lfs to cycle it with platys so thats what i did. well 3 weeks latter they got ick. i went down to the pet store and they gave me some medacation told me to turn up the heat and add salt to the tank cause platys are brackish fish. I told here i wanted to keep catfish and i had heard salt was bad for them. see told me to just go half dose (1 tsp per 10 gallons) and that any catfish i buy would be fine with this. is this true? if not what catfish cant stand the salt in my tank? id get rid of the plattys but my wife loves them now
thanks in advance,
kevin
ick salt and catfish
ick salt and catfish
The man that walks with God always reaches his destination
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kim m
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I have recently tried to treat some Corydoras weitzmanis with salt (they had anchor worms). I added one teaspoon a litre (3½ teaspoons a gallon as far as I can figure) and the Corydoras didn't seem to mind. It didn't kill the anchor worms though.
Best regards,
Kim M
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Catfish Study Group
Guardians of Catfish
Skive Akvarieforening
Kim M
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Catfish Study Group
Guardians of Catfish
Skive Akvarieforening
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MatsP
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Lets first get one thing straight: Platy's aren't, generally, brackish fish, at least not if we believe fishbase.
The shop is probably getting confused with the similar Molly, which again according to fishbase is both freshwater and brackish. However, almost all mollies that you find in the shops are bred in freshwater in southeast asia, so as long as you don't get wildcaught ones [which you'd know you're getting, because that would be clearly labeled on the tank for the purpose of explaining why they are 5x more expensive than the ones in the next tank, whilst being more "plain"], you'll probably be better off with them in freshwater.
Now to the addition of salt in tanks: It seems to be a popular thing to recommend in some places, and it certainly has it's uses. But the salinity (salt content) of most rivers in South America [where platys and cories come from] would be very close to zero. So aside from using salt as a medication (against Ick for example - and this is definitely a working method!), I would recommend that you DON'T put salt in the tank. Short term exposure to salt is probably not too bad for the fish - and if you do add salt, make sure you don't SUDDENLY change the salinity - as in, don't replace 80% of the water in the tank... Do 25% water changes, and after some 5-6 water changes the salt level will be so low that it doesn't matter any more. You can do one or two water changes per day if you really want to do it quickly, but I'd say it's probably better for everyone involved if you do it every other day or so.
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Mats
The shop is probably getting confused with the similar Molly, which again according to fishbase is both freshwater and brackish. However, almost all mollies that you find in the shops are bred in freshwater in southeast asia, so as long as you don't get wildcaught ones [which you'd know you're getting, because that would be clearly labeled on the tank for the purpose of explaining why they are 5x more expensive than the ones in the next tank, whilst being more "plain"], you'll probably be better off with them in freshwater.
Now to the addition of salt in tanks: It seems to be a popular thing to recommend in some places, and it certainly has it's uses. But the salinity (salt content) of most rivers in South America [where platys and cories come from] would be very close to zero. So aside from using salt as a medication (against Ick for example - and this is definitely a working method!), I would recommend that you DON'T put salt in the tank. Short term exposure to salt is probably not too bad for the fish - and if you do add salt, make sure you don't SUDDENLY change the salinity - as in, don't replace 80% of the water in the tank... Do 25% water changes, and after some 5-6 water changes the salt level will be so low that it doesn't matter any more. You can do one or two water changes per day if you really want to do it quickly, but I'd say it's probably better for everyone involved if you do it every other day or so.
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Mats