I have a red cap oranda with spots on his tail and dorsel fin, he is playing, eating and acting fine, the spots are not real pronounced and I would like to try a salt treatment as directed on the container of aquarium salt, 1tbs per 5 gallons, hes in a ten gallon, my water params are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, .1 nitrate. I see the spots when he swims up around the top, near the hood area, the spots are like transculent. The spots do not look raised or patchy either. To look at him from a distance u don't notice it, u have to really look if he cooperates and stays still for a minute. I have two snails that I don't want to hurt and a bristlenose pleco also.
Any suggestions?? I have read that certain kind of medicines could be bad for the snails as well as the salt, I understand that the salt doesn't evaporate either. I would remove the snails if I have to and keep them in a bowl, but would I ever be able to return them to the tank if the salt doesn't evaporate?
thanks

Don't put the salt in with your snails. There is some debate as to whether a bit will hurt them or not, but to be on the safe side, I'd remove the snails. I'm guessing the salt has to go somewhere though, so after a while you may be able to return them to the tank. You can probably use a salinity tester thing to judge this.

When I'm adding salt or meds to the tank I always take my snails out. It's too risky. I wait until I do a 100% water change to remove the salt or run a carbon filter for a couple of days to remove the meds + 50% water change before placing the snails back in

how long can snails stay in a bowl then? do they need oxygenated water? am worried about my guys, I have a blue one and a gold one, they have been real active too, up during the day climbing around.
should I be concerned about my pleco? hes still playing shy, when I turn on the light of the room hes in he runs for the castle faster than you can snap your fingers. thanks for the help

When I put my snails in a bowl I put an air stoone in there with a pump, but I dont think apple snails need it as they can go to the top of the water and breathe with their siphon. I guess you would just need to make sure there is a lid that sits on top of the bowl to stop them crawling out. I use a plate and leave a gap for air and the air stone tube.

I'm not sure what's going on with your pleco. I dont have one. You may need to post that in "discussion". Hopefully someone here may know and post info on that for you

Hi Kit,
Don't chance it, run a airstone and put them in a bowl and they'll be fine!

Sounds like you may have a bit of ick going, but if you follow the advice on the back of the salt you won't be doing much good. For treatment purposes such as ick, its recomended to go to 0.3% gradually over three day's. And for treatment of ich, you run that for 3 (three) weeks. Ich resembles salt chrystals sprinkled on too. A salt test kit would help you along with that too! Its preferable to use salt too whenever you can. If you have any problems, check in with the sick fish dept.

Pleco's tend to be a bit odd, I had a couple over the years. They don't like being caught either,lol! If he's fairly new, give him time, he'll figure out who rings the dinner bell!