possible damage from salt??

molliefan09

So, against my word of advice my boyfriend decided to add aquarium salt to his tank.....why...i couldnt tell ya....but now his electric blue jd is missin scales off his side and top.....so does one of the oscars....so we are moving them to the hospital tank tonight and my question is: what can we do to help them???? they are eating and seemingly acting fine....but then i also have an issue with nitrItes....

ammonia 0ppm
nitrites between 0.25 and 0 ppm
nitrates 10ppm

iamntbatman

How much salt did he add, exactly?

Unless he added a whole heck of a lot of it, I'd be more inclined to think that the damage is being caused by the fish fighting or some other problem rather than the salt itself.

1077

I understand why the salt was perhaps used for it is useful at detoxifying nitrites to a degree.
A much better way to do same is through water change using dechlorinator such as Prime which also detoxifys nitrites. I am keeping an Electric Blue Dempsey and by most accounts, along with my own obseravations,,, The Electric Blue variety will not be able to hold it's own against Oscars.
The electric blue Dempsey also has a rather undeveloped immune sytem at smaller than 3 inches, and water changes which keep toxins such as ammonia,nitrites,and nitrates in check are beneficial at helping all fish develop properly.
I too suspect one of the oscars is possibly inflicting damage to it's tankmates.Plenty of places for fish to seek shelter in will help.

molliefan09

our one red oscar which is the largest at about 3-4 inches (same size as the JD) doesnt seem to care for him much as when the JD gets too close he will nip..the other 3 oscars (2 tiger and 1 albino) leave the JD alone...we have separated the JD and red oscar for this reason since seeing the damage on the 2 of them (the red oscar also has the same problem with loss of scales). he is religious with PWC of 25% atleast weekly, sometimes twice weekly. we use prime in all our tanks durring PWC and setting up new aquariums. The reason he says he used salt is because through his research he found a lot of stuff saying how it is benefical to the fish in the sence it helps calm them and with the slime coat. he added 1 tbsp/10 gallons to the entire aquarium and then to only the new water durring PWC and says he let it disolve before adding it to the tank itself. Now that the JD and oscar are separated (we are rehoming the oscar) is there anything we can do to help the JD with the healing process??

1077

My plan would be to make sure the fish was moved to a established (cycled) tank and maintain good water conditions . Zero for ammonia and nitrites,and nitrAtes no higher than 20ppm. Would not use bright lights and would keep temp at around 76 to 78 degrees. At higher temps, bacterial infections ,should that occur,,, are able to progress much more quickly than in cooler temps. Any changes I made in temp would be done slowly over a couple days to three days.
I believe the fish can heal without the use of medications and I would not add salt to freshwater tanks unless treating for ICH.
Healing can take a few weeks but if water is kept clean (changes) most fish heal on their own.
Any tank that held Large cichlids, would in my view benefit from 50 percent water changes each week rather than 25 percent ,and perhaps twice weekly when fish reach adult size.

iamntbatman

+1. In my experience, the number one thing when it comes down to healing injuries is water quality. Mild medications like Melafix and Pimafix should be on hand should infection set in, but so long as the water is kept in tip-top shape you shouldn't need these.

molliefan09

we do keep mela and pimafix on hand at all times. he has stoped adding aquarium salt and we did a 50% change on the 160gallon (home to all these guys) and the 10 gallon hospital tank they are currently in....