Hi Everyone,

Our Oranda has white and black specks appearing on her cap for the past 2 weeks, it doesn't seem to be spreading, but not going away either, they seem part of her cap right now, nothing is coming off of it.

Tank Conditions:

60 Gallon, Magnum Pro 350 with double BioWheels, 2yrs cycled tank.
Nitrite 0.2, Nitrates 40ppm, PH 7.3, Tap PH 6.2

We use Stress Coat, and Nova Aqua Plus as water conditioner, do weekly water changes of 40-50%. Temp is 75

We have 3 Fancy GF 5-6" long, Black Moor 5.5", Oranda is also 5.5" approx. and 2 Dwarf Plecos too.

The other fish are not showing signs of any problems. Our Black Moor had a few white specks on his body a few weeks ago, we treated a few times with Aquar Salt and it went away.

We feed them Bio Blend and occasional treats of Shrimp Pellets, and fresh peas w/o skins.

We have added 6TBS Aquar Salt 4 times in the past 2 weeks, continuing the weekly water changes of 40-50% each time.

We need advice and if the salt is good, how to add proper amount each time we do water changes? we assume half is taken so we add ? much and how often now?

What do these specks mean? She has been very healthy up until now.

she is eating fine, acting normal, happy, swimming around, active..

thanks !

Lynn

Hi Lynn,

I noticed that you didn't give your ammonia reading. The black spots could be healing ammonia burns so please test for ammonia.

The white spots can be natural wen growth or dead white cells. Either way, not too much to worry about.

The easiest way to maintain salt concentration is to add salt to the water you are about to pour back into the tank. So if you wanted a 0.1% salt then you would add 1tsp of salt per gallon of fresh water in the bucket. Mix well and then pour the salted water back into the tank.

BTW, I'm not a big fan of stresscoat as the aloe in it can coat a fish's gill as well.

Hi, thanks for the tip, I did have the ammonia reading, but forgot to include in the post!

it was 0.25.

I do know how to add salt, but wondering about the % factor, do we add the 6TBS each week with reg water change of 40-50%? is this high enough % of salt? and for how long? we've added salt in this measure 4 times in the past 2 weeks.

what do you think?

We don't like using the chemical treatments, and have the most success using aquar salt, and Melaluca too.

Lynn

Hi Lynn,

Salt is a chemical too. Prolonged exposure to it is not recommended.

I suppose the question to ask is why are you adding salt to the tank?

0.1% is use to protect fish from nitrIte poisoning when the tank is cycling or it is going through a hiccup. It does de-stress the fish but once the need for salting is over, it should be diluted out of the tank.

0.3 and over are for treatment of parasites and fungus. You definitely don't want to expose your fish to that level of salt for more than a few weeks at the most.

With 60gal and adding 6 tablespoon per week, it is really not going to do much. You will be better off just have no salt and safe it for when it is necessary.