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I have recently got two young Black Moors. They are in a 65 litre tank. I have recently lost all my fish due to poor advice given at the local pet store regarding Salt treatment, it basically poisoned them all. Having setup the tank again and introduced the Black Moors they seem fine, however they have started "Flashing" and rubbing, I have treated the tank with just under two teaspoons of aquarium salt and added 5ml of Melafix yesterday, and another 5ml today. Should I continue to use the treatment for another 5 days? If so, when I do the next water change in approx 3 days, how much water should I change. The fish seem ok, however, although its hard to see on the Black Moors, one seems to have the signs of small salt grains ( only about 4 at the moment ), should the salt and the Melafix treatment do the job,or should I wait until I do another water change and start a different treatment? I really dont want to lose these fish..please help!! :)

Submitted: 454 days and 18 hours ago.
Category: Pet
Value: $12
Status: AWAITING CUSTOMER ACTION
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Posted by TROPICAL FISH AFICIONADO 454 days and 18 hours ago.

Info Request

You mentioned that you set the tank up again.
Was all new water used to start up the tank?

Exactly how long ago did you start up the tank again?

.

454 days and 17 hours ago.

Reply

Reply to TROPICAL FISH AFICIONADO's Post: Apart from maybe two inches of water the tank was setup again using new water. My other 6 fish that died had anchor worm, which I was treating, the petstore told me the wrong amount of salt to use and I lost every one. I was distraught. The tank was been setup for about a week now and the new fish were introduced 3 days ago. The media in the filter has been cleaned with clean aquarium water, and I was assured by the petstore that no parasites would be present in the aquarium after so much salt was added enough to kill my fish!! I cleaned the gravel and all the glass etc, before adding the new water. I am just getting myself paranoid about the fact that I have parasites attacking these new ones.

Answer

Thanks for the clarification.

What's happening in your tank is called New Tank Syndrome. All new tanks must pass through something called the cycling process, see links below.

When a tank is newly set up with fish, the fish's waste begins to form ammonia. At this time there is nothing to consume the ammonia so its level
rises. Ammonia is harmful and sometimes lethal to fish as you've seen.

After about 10-15 days a bacteria called nitrite
consume the ammonia and it disappears. Nitrites are also harmful and lethal to fish.

After about another 10-15 days a bacteria called nitrates consume the nitrites.
Nitrates are only harmful in high amounts and can be lowered/eliminated by partial water changes.

Once ammonia and nitrites are undetectable on a test kit the tank is considered cycled.

So what is basically happening is that your fish is suffering from the ill-effects of ammonia and/or nitrites. The way to fix this is by doing an immediate partial water change.

Aquarium salt is helpful but it should be used in a ratio of 1 teaspoon of aquarium salt per every 5 gallons of water as the salt will help the fish's gill functions and overall health. Good aeration is also a must and do not use a heater in goldfish tanks.

At tis point in time it's very important that the water be tested for levels of ammonia and nitrites. If the levels become too high then a 25%partial water change would be in order.

Keep in mind that if ammonia and/or nitrites are present no medicine in the world will help a fish.
Note that both ammonia and nitrites lower a fish's immune system thus making it more susceptible to disease.

So good luck and please let me know if you have any questions.

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/cycling.htm

http://www.bestfish.com/breakin.html

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Expert: TROPICAL FISH AFICIONADO
Pos. Feedback: 99.4 %
Accepts: 1289
Answered: 8/10/2008

YOUR TROPICAL FISH RESOURCE

OVER 20 YEARS EXPERIENCE W/TROPICAL FISH---BREEDING, MAINTAINING, CURING

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