Weird Death

G

goldenchld24

AC Members
Mar 7, 2006
39
0
0
45
Henderson, CO
Hi,
I've been looking but can't find a disease or condition that explains my poor fishes death. He was a dwarf gourami, he was fine one day the next day he started swimming all goofy, vertical and then had almost like convulsions and then dead. Did a 50% water change vacuumed gravel. Oh I added salt right before he died because I got Mollies, hope that didn't do it, it was like 1 tbsp per 5 gallon. I only ask about this because I am concerned about my other fish and because it was a rather violent death.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 25
PH 8
 
looks like something got to its swimbladder..

don't know though if the salt did it :huh:
 
did you mix the salt directly into the tank or premix with water before doing a reg water change? If you just dumped the salt directly into the tank, your fish may have gotten a grain of salt stuck in it's mouth/throat/swimbladder ect. You could imagine how painful that would be! :(
 
I suppose the salt may have affected the gourami's swimbladder, but that shouldn't have killed him very quickly.Was he bullied by any other fish in the tank? I had a Bolivian ram which was constantly harrassed and bullied by another and it eventually died, and its behaviour was similar to that you described. For about a day before it died it wasn't swimming properly, sort of drifting about at odd angles, and breathing incredibly heavily. I figured it was due to a general deterioration in its health due to too much stress and harrassment.
 
Did you add salt specifically for aquariums? Table salt isn't good for your tank(normally anyways).

MikeOscar stop being a troll(I've read your other posts)
 
Don't put any salt in your tank, please. Especially "aquarium salt". Salt should be used for medication, not for something that mollies supposedly need.

Yes, the salt could have killed the gourami if he was already sick to begin with. To quote Daveedka:

. . . The Saltiest freshwater Lake in the world is Lake Tanganyika, It has roughly 60 ppm sodium and 30 ppm chloride. This would indicate somewhere in the range of 90 ppm Salt. Salt is 60.663% Sodim and 39.337% chloride, so the number are not far off of the correct ratio for these two elemanets to make salt.
.....
Now for the crux of the marketing practice. Doc wellfish reccomends 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of water or essentially 1247 ppm of Salt (Based on average weight of one teaspoon being 8.129g) So if we had Lake Tang Cichlids which by far need the highest levels of any freshwater fish then we would be adding roughly 1157ppm or 12 times too much salt by following the label directions given on the box of Doc Wellfish Freshwater aquarium Salt. Sea Salt as sold at the Grocery store is essentially the same thing, so is table salt, canning salt, rock salt and so on. . . .​

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=591591&postcount=5

As for mollies, they do not need salt, especially aquarium salt. They will do best in *hard* water, and salt does not make hard water. It makes thick water.

I just went through all this with someone's goldfish, so I'm not going to repeat, but add a link instead:

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76241&page=1&highlight=rift+lake

Man, no wonder I have carpal tunnel ;)

Roan
 
Genral72 said:
Did you add salt specifically for aquariums? Table salt isn't good for your tank(normally anyways).
Click to expand...
Neither of those are "good for your tank" and should never been used on a long term basis. Either can be used for medicinal purposes on a short term basis.

Roan
 
Thanks guys. I don't know whats going on now, one of my molly females died and the other one is acting all weird now, fins clamped. The male is just as happy as can be somehow. The rest of the fish are good, the cory's are happy little guys too. The gourami wasn't bullied, he was the boss. I had the salt dissolved and it was doc wellfish kind but I will refrain from using it now. I have very alkaline but soft water (well water).
 
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I had the same thing happen to some mollies some time ago. The error was not letting the water sit long enough in my fish container for long enough when changing a tank. By the time I realized my mistake, 3 beautiful mollies were behaving in a manner similar to what you've described.
 
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