Hard lessons learned

[rmusicpixie]

I learned a couple lessons yesterday that I will share in case some other new person runs into this.
1. Never put cory cats into an aquarium with aquarium salt. They die almost instantly.
2. I think a certain big chain petstore can manipulate their test strip tests so they dont have to refund you if your fish die. You have to take a water sample in if your fish die within 14 days. I did this and they did the test really strangly from what I have seen before. please remember I did the api liquid test right before taking in this water sample and all numbers were in the proper range. The gal tried to tell me that everything was really high and the amonia was in the toxic zone. I had an argument and got my money back for these fish and walked out the door with the watersample and cash back in hand and went to Petsmart. They did the test strip test and all their numbers came back and matched what I had tested at home. Everything in the proper ranges. What an ordeal there. The gal helped me and we figured out why the corys died. Turned out to be the aquarium salts. They cant handle them. I took it out and did a 15% waterchange and the last cory cat is doing just fine. They told me to wait a week before getting anymore corys to be sure the salt is out. So I picked up some glow fish instead and all are doing great

55gallon
1 Betta
1 Cory Catfish
1 Pleco
5 Zebra Danios
3 Glow fish (Zebra Danios)
3 Platys
2 Mollies

Wow my tank is getting better and better!!

 

[OrangeCones]

They told me to wait a week before getting anymore corys to be sure the salt is out.

Be sure to do another water change to get more salt out if you need to for the cory cats. Waiting a week will not make the sal content go down.

 

[Thyra]

I still don't understand the "no ocean beach sand" due to salt and yet they sell salt to put into freshwater aquariums. Isn't the salt they are using NaCl?

 

[OrangeCones]

No, marine salt and 'aquarium salt' are two different types of salt.

I personally do not put any aquarium salt in my fish tanks, although if you have spikes in ammonia or nitrite, it helps the some fish handle the stress better.

Next time you are at a large fish store (one that deals in saltwater fish or supplies), look at the ingredients of something like 'Instant Ocean' and then compare it to 'aquarium salt.'

 

[AndiH]

It isn't just corys that cant handle the salt. Its basically any scaleless fish so be careful with any catfish.

 

[rmusicpixie]

We did research after we found out about the aquarium salt and are aware of all scaleless fish. I also do water changes right now about every 2-3 days I only take about 8 gallons to change and seems to be working out great for me. It also keeps the bottom clean since we have only one sucker and 1 cory to keep all that clean right now. They also get algae disks and vegies. We did lose 1 danio last night but noticed that it was the one that was extremely fat. Do I need to worry about the others? I read something somewhere about fish getting fat. I cant find it now.

 

[bassbonediva]

Just a note...I'd keep an eye on your betta, if I were you. Mollies are notorious fin-nippers when it comes to bettas (one of the main reason I chose platies over mollies when setting up my 55gal sorority/community) and danios of any sort tend to stress bettas out because they are SO active, while bettas are more sedate (and if memory serves, danios can get a little nippy as well). Also, make sure that your water depth is under 16" as bettas don't do well in deep tanks (their swim bladder isn't made to cope with deeper water).