A SOLUTION?? Change = harmony? We Shall Seeee-PICS

[franmorr1966]

I wrote about my clowns annoying my silver dollars to the point of mutilation of the silver dollar pec fins. But I've come up with a plan to divert the pests.

I really didn't want to segregate the 4 clowns to a 29 gallon when they've been used to the freedom of a 55 gal which also houses 6 med. silver dollars in addition to cherry barbs and a few tetras. I really do love the clowns and their behavior is mischievous, not malicious. In my ideal world I'd house them in an 180 gal.

So I decided to change it up--moved plants, moved the clown cave to the other side of the tank, created more open swimming space and boy did the (silk) plants and gravel get a great cleaning! I figured if I distracted them with the changes maybe they'll forget about their pesky behavior.

I kept it dense on the side where the silver dollars like to hide. The center is now very open and then more dense to the opposite end of the tank. Lights are off, the roomies are investigating, and I hope my plan works for a long time. I would love to post a picture if I can later today.

I have high hopes for success. Right now the group is enjoying a romaine lettuce leaf. Ahhhhhhh....

[franmorr1966]

Things are going marvelously so far. I'm so happy with my work. I will figure out how to post some pics; thought I could do it from here? I'll have to look it up.

Hope this works.

https://sites.google.com/site/fransfishpage/

[glenna]

NICE tank!
You might be onto something with the big rearrange and distract strategy. I recently did the same thing with my 75 gallon angel tank and it did not COMPLETELY solve the problem, but it is definitely better and NOBODY has needed to be moved.
Keep us updated.

[franmorr1966]

Thank you so much, Glenna.

I do see an improvement. Silver dollars are hiding less and clowns are still investigating. I hope it lasts. Thanks for the encouragement and the compliments.

I hope to see Stubby's fins growing back soon.

[palaeodave]

That's a nice looking tank. I've heard that a major shake-up in a tank can deal with the behaviour of individual problem fish so maybe it will clear things up for the clowns. Fingers crossed!

[franmorr1966]

Thank you, Dave.

I wasn't sure what else I could do. Separating the clowns was something I really didn't want to do so changing it up has been working, thankfully.

And the good news also is stubby's pec regrowth is more noticeable each day. I'm changing water twice per week and salting every other water change.

Fran

[chefkeith]

Salting in combination with water changes is known to cause osmoloregulation problems if the salinity levels aren't consistent. The new incoming water should be treated with salt before it is added to the tank. A TDS meter could help you monitor the salinity levels of the new incoming water and the aquarium water. I highly recommend that you get a TDS meter. They only cost $10-20 on ebay.

[franmorr1966]

Hmmm, I will look up that term you mention.

On a positive note, I don't dump in the salt all at once; I put it in gradually over a period of a half hour to an hour. I don't technically need the salt, but felt it would aid in the healing process.

Thanks for alerting me about that condition and as I said I'm going to research it now. It's new to me.

[chefkeith]

I guess it would help if I spelled better. It should have been osmoregulation. It's a term used sometimes when fish need to acclimate to a new water chemistry. When you add or remove salt, you are changing the water chemistry. When the water chemistry changes, fish need to either expel fluids or add fluids to their body so that their body equals the osmotic pressure of the water. If they didn't do this their skin would get pruned, much like how our hands get if left under water too long.

Osmoregulation can be very stressful to fish if the water chemistry is changed drastically and suddenly. It takes a great deal of energy for the fish to osmoregulate, so the fish may become lethargic and bloated or dehydrated. In the most severe cases, the fish may try to jump out of the water.

The best way to acclimate fish to water chemistry changes is with a "drip acclimation" procedure. Instead of pouring salted water into the aquarium, you would drip the salted water in very slowly, taking several hours. When adding larger doses of salt, like for an ich treatment, you should drip the salted water slowly over a 24-48 hour period. This is easy to do if you have some airline tubing, an airline valve, a few small clamps, and pitcher. The set-up would look something like this-

[franmorr1966]

Yes, I realized the spelling was wrong when I looked it up on google. Then when I retyped it in here again with the spelling fixed, I found it.

Well fortunately I see no fish issues with the added salt which was less than the prescribed amount. But you know that heavy salt baths are a form of treatment. Should no one be doing those anymore?

When I change the water on Thursday I will only take out third rather than a half and then another third on Saturday.

[chefkeith]

Full strength salt treatments, if administered properly, can be done safely. They should be done with careful precision and for a specific purpose, to only those fish that need the treatment. In other words, I won't advise anyone to subject healthy unblemished fish to a salt treatment. The infected fish to be treated with salt should be quarantined.

Here's another term-
TDS - Total Dissolved Solids. For our purposes, TDS is what will conduct electricity in water when it dissolves, such as calcium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, and sodium chloride (salt), ect .
Pure water, H2O, conducts very little electricity and will have a 0 ppm TDS.

Distilled water has a TDS of 0.
Freshwater has a TDS under 500 ppm.
Brackish water has a TDS from 1000 to 5000 ppm.
Sea Water has a TDS from 30,000 to 40,000 ppm.

1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons of water will raise the TDS by about 950 PPM.
1 teaspon of salt per 1 gallon of water will raise the TDS by about 1600 ppm.


Healthy fish can usually tolerate a modest TDS change from salt (100 to 500 ppm) without any problems, but if the modest change is done frequently enough it could eventually do irreversible damage to the fishes osmoregulation system. What you don't want to do is raise the TDS by adding more salt, then lowering the TDS by doing a water change, then raising the TDS again by adding more salt. You don't want to keep bouncing the TDS up and down, up and down. You should want to keep the TDS steady, or move the TDS slowly in one direction, either up or down. A TDS meter can help you gage the TDS and salinity level in a matter of seconds.

Here's what a TDS meter looks like-

[franmorr1966]

And doing a 1/3 water change will be just as effective in my opinion then another 1/3 a few days later. I'm sure I'm doing no damage. Salt has been used since the beginning of time yet I do understand the damage that could be done with massive changes occurring at one time. I don't think I need to go technical on this one. Thank you though.