Emergency!!
 

Hello,
I just got myself a 46 gallon tank from a yardsale. I have a couple of questions. I may have just put my fish in harms way. Alright here goes. The tank that i purchased was once a salt water tank. I used gravil that came with this tank. This sank smells odd now. instead of regurlar stone, its crushed shells. Im wondering if maybe there is still enough salt in the shells to cause death to my fish? Right now in the new tank i have my green spotted puffer, a baby red tail catfish, and a couple of mollies. Please let me know. I have not seen any unhealthy signs yet, but then again they have only been in for about an hour.

What kind of smell?

Mollies do well with a bit of salt, though it isn't necessary, so I wouldn't worry about them with regards to the salt.

The puffer should be in a tank on his own or with other puffers only. They are very agressive and in time will nip and kill all your other fish I'm afraid. Many puffer species are brackish water also though so the salt may not harm him.

You should rehome your RTC. They grow to 6ft and are only suitable for massive pond, or a public aquarium of 3000 gallons maybe.

In any case almost all fish can tolerate a small amount of salt in the water so I wouldn't worry about that. Your biggest issues are your fish not being compatable and identifying what kind of smell it is. What are your water parameters? When a tank is going through the nitrogen cycle it can often smell.

Hope it works out for you.

IT SMELLS LIKE A POOL
 

The smell is kinda like a hot tub. almost a clorine smell. I have not added any clorine, because it kills fish. I did add those clorine removal tabs though. maybe that is what im smelling. Will RTC survice with salty water?

WOULD A RTC LIVE IN AN OHIO POND? OR DO YOU THINK IT WOULD DIE ?

Catfish are, in general, less tolerant to salt than other fish.

My guess however is that the levels of salt are really small as I assume you rinsed outthe greavel before using it, and did you cycle the tank? In the 3-12 weeks it takes to cycle a lot of the salt will have disipated anyway.

I did not clean the gravel. I did not know until later on that the stone had been used in a salt water tank. The fish have been in for 2 hrs how and they still seem to be doing great. This gravil had been sitting for a year. Did not even think to ask the lady what type of fish they had.

Did you cycle the tank? And what are your water parameters?

was thinking of relasing him into my parents pond. My parents pond mainly a chanel cat pond.

Put bluntly never release a hobby fish into open water way regardless of if its a native fish or not. Once it goes into your fish tank thats it.

This hobby having enough trouble and situations like this doesn't help it one bit.