Nutrafin Aquarium Salt?

[fm27]

Hi there,

My favourite goldfish is suffering from what appears to be finrot so I separated her from my other fish and I'm trying to help her. I'm inexperienced with the whole fish thing so I was hoping someone could direct me. I posted my questions already on Yahoo answers a few times and got a couple of good responses but i thought there's no harm in posting them elsewhere, so here goes.

I bought some de chlorinator from petcetera and already added it to the water i left for changing last night. i also bought some nutrafin aquarium salt for freshwater fish too. i was wondering how i'd add that in. i usually transfer the fish into another container with a cup or two from their original water plus the new water so i can clean the marbles at the bottom and any leftover food or fish...erm...excrement. Do I add the salt in to the new water when i'm filling up the bowl? Can i add it in with the fish in the water as i do it? do i stir it in? The directions on the side aren't very helpful so i was wondering if anyone here has used this specific salt before.

Also, my little fish, because of her fin rot, is always floating upside down and when she tries to turn around she always ends up right back like that. I'm worried she can't get to the food because even the smaller amounts of flakes i'm putting in seem to never get eaten. The pet store employee i spoke with said that when fish are sick they usually don't eat much anyways and a couple of days of healing she'll be able to get back to being able to turn around. otherwise there's nothing i can do to help her reach the food.

Another thing i'm concerned about is the fact that i'm using both the aquarium salt and the de chlorinator. the original lady from the pet store i spoke with said that i should try not to use any sort of chemicals in the water as possible and that the salt is safe to use. However, when i went to go purchase the items at the checkout the girl i spoke with wasn't the same woman i had talked to before and didn't seem to specialize in fish. i asked her whether the salt and the dechlorinator together could have a possible side effect on the fish and she didn't know. is it safe to use them together?

All right, long question i know but i don't want to do anything wrong.

Thanks

[Sasami]

How are you treating the fish with finrot?

Yup, it's safe to use both the salt and the dechlorinator. You should mix in the salt when you dechlorinate and let it completely dissolve before adding the new water to the tank. Only add more salt when you do water changes.

I hope that helps .

[Jess]

How big is your tank? I dont know if this helps, but when my goldfish was in a 5gallon, i wasnt cleaning it as much as I should have. When she got what I thought was finrot, I used a bunch of different medicines to try to treat her, but nothing seemed to work. It turned out that alot of amonia built up in her tank and it acually made her fins disolve! Now that she is in a bigger tank and she is better. Im posting this cuz I noticed you said "Do I add the salt in to the new water when i'm filling up the bowl?"
Well, what ever your fish has I hope she does better!

[fm27]

hi guys, thanks for the replies the lady i spoke with over the phone said that adding aquarium salt into the water should relieve the finrot as it'll reduce the stress or something close to that. i mentioned to her that i'd heard of medications and such but she said it would be better to not do any sort of chemical or medication at first in case it is just a case of stress--and it appeared so. the other, larger goldfish was always chasing her around (they were two different breeds) so i put her in her own water.

Like I posted in another thread i have two fishbowls rather than a proper tank--i'm on a really tight budget and i can't afford a tank from the ones i've seen around in stores (10 gallons are all around 50 and 20 gallons are even more expensive). I'm looking around through the classifieds to find one with a filter and a pump but right now my parents won't pay for more than the food and the aquarium salt and so the bowls are the best i can do. i'm not quite sure about the gallon size...i think a gallon is around 4 litres? the bowls are at least a gallon each i would say, the one that's sick is very small but my other one (the bully) is growing in size so i'm thinking i need a tank soon as 2 gallons seems to be (from the recommendations i've read on websites) too small. the fish are pretty little now but they'll grow in time.

I change the water as often as i can as the food and other parts that sink to the bottom on the marbles will probably decompose and release nitrates or ammonium or whatnot so i'm doing my best now until i can find a good tank. i'm more worried about my little sick fish though as she doesn't seem to eat at all and its worrying

[Sasami]

Honestly, if you can't move them to a larger, filtered tank you're going to be constantly battling with fin rot and ammonia burns . The fish won't get better...at least not for too long.

The best thing to do would be to bring them back to the store or give them to someone who has a big tank/pond. Unless you find a tank with a filter that you can afford. Have you checked cragslist? You could also post to freecycle with your situation...maybe someone will help ya out. Where are you located? On the off chance you live around here I'd be more then willing to give you a tank.

[fm27]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sasami Honestly, if you can't move them to a larger, filtered tank you're going to be constantly battling with fin rot and ammonia burns . The fish won't get better...at least not for too long. The best thing to do would be to bring them back to the store or give them to someone who has a big tank/pond. Unless you find a tank with a filter that you can afford. Have you checked cragslist? You could also post to freecycle with your situation...maybe someone will help ya out. Where are you located? On the off chance you live around here I'd be more then willing to give you a tank.

I was thinking of taking the fish back to the store but the problem is that i've heard that walmart flushes the fish brought back and the state of the fish i saw in there was already pretty bad...i don't know if i'd trust them with it.

After adding the ammonium salt part of the right fin is growing back from the stump it was but it's black around the edges...is that a good sign or a bad sign? i'm hoping it's like a scab effect.

And no i hadn't heard of cragslist or freecycle but i'll check them out. I'm located in Kitchener-Waterloo...do cragslist or freecycle operate near there?

[Jess]

Check grage sales too. I got my goldies 20gallon- filter, hood, light and all- for $12. Sometimes people will put their unwanted fish tanks at the end of their driveways too. If your interensted, I have some 10 gallons Id give you for $5 or so. They might need the seal replaced tho, cuase my hamsters chewed them up. Otherwise theyre in good condition. PM me if your interested.

[Sasami]

Quote: Originally Posted by fm27 I was thinking of taking the fish back to the store but the problem is that i've heard that walmart flushes the fish brought back and the state of the fish i saw in there was already pretty bad...i don't know if i'd trust them with it. After adding the ammonium salt part of the right fin is growing back from the stump it was but it's black around the edges...is that a good sign or a bad sign? i'm hoping it's like a scab effect. And no i hadn't heard of cragslist or freecycle but i'll check them out. I'm located in Kitchener-Waterloo...do cragslist or freecycle operate near there?

Wal-Mart shouldn't flush the fish but they probably wouldn't accept them back. A different store might be willing to take them, though.

It's a good sign but unfortunately the fish is just going to keep running into problems until it has a bigger tank. The best thing to do right now is to keep up on water changes...take out any gravel/marbles to make cleaning easy.

I have no idea but here are the links :

Freecycle™: Changing the World One Gift at a Time
craigslist: san francisco bay area classifieds for jobs, apartments, personals, for sale, services, community, and events

My mother got a 40-gallon long breeder tank with all the supplies for free off freecycle. And I've bought a bunch of tanks from craigslist . Garage sales are good for finding cheap tanks too.