I recently setup a 45g tank, amonia 0 , nitrites0.5 , nitrates 10. I have 2 bala sharks, 2 gourami's ( not sure what type think they are neon blue), and 5 platies.

I noticed that one of the gourami's has a very small amount of fungus on her right side. I gave the fish a salt dip yesterday as I read that salt can cure fungus(used coarse kosher salt desolved before added) in a 1 gallon bucket. 3 tsp of salt 10 mins . when I was taking a close look at the fish with a lamp over head she jump out and hit the light. she's fine though . I returned her to the tank and she was moving around fine.

Now today the fungus is still there. I'm not sure if I should continue giving the fish salt dips, and if so how often? Or should I give it a salt bath? what is the difference? I'm new to this and really don't want to hurt the fish, Any advice would be appriciated, THX in advance.

you've come to the right place. someone will be along very soon to help. best of luck w/ your fish and

how long ago did you set up the tank?

the tank has been set up for about 6 weeks. But I was given 12 sick fancy goldfish with the tank, sad to say I could not save then. they already had heavy ick infestation and fin rot so bad 6 had no tails.

Since they passed I swapped out 90 %+ of the water and started again with only the 5 platies, they are all doing fine, so are the bala's .But one gourami is havin a bit of a prob with the fungus but thats why I posted.

anyway glad to be hear hope someone can help

oh I should add I gave the fish another salt dip and returned it to the tank, I am just not sure if the bala sharks can handle the salt or I would treat the entire tank with salt.

melvin. i'm waitin for someone else to come along because i personally haven't dealt w/ fungus (knocking on wood) and i don't like to comment on what i haven't dealt w/ .

i can tell ya tho that while bala sharks shouldn't have a ton of salt, they're ok with a little bit, 1-2 tsp per ten gallons is perfectly fine for 'em. so IF they tell ya to treat the entire tank w/ salt, no harm to your balas. i always put a little in w/ water changes anyways. how big are yours now?

My balas are just little guys maybe 3 inches ea. but they are jsut the coolest things, I love haow they look and the extreme silver.

as for the salt I need a 0.3 percent solution to fight the fungus that would be 2.5 tsp per gallon think that would be ok?

thax for the help balashark it is much appriciated:)

yea man, just wait til they get bigger! they swim with such power and grace, and the light reflects off them while they moving from one end to the other. definitely the centerpieces of my aquarium.

anyways, to answer your question. i've never raised the salt that high in mine, so i can't say for sure what it would do to the balas. however, i do know that balas are particuarlly susceptible to fungus, fitrot, etc. so if seperating them isn't an option, you might want to go ahead and treat w/ salt to try and kill it.

i would say that if you raised the salt level slowly, it would give them time to adjust. i did some research and i can't find anywhere that says salt is harmful to balas, but the fungus is...

best of luck and keep us posted.


o yea, and this is kinda weird, add a parrot fish, a pictus cat, 1 more platty and 5 inches to each of your balas and you've got my tank exactly. spooky

oh melvin, i meant to ask before if you had tried any meds yet? if you're sure it's fungus there are some good ones out there that might help w/ the problem if you don't want to chance the high salt levels.


either way, make sure you don't keep the salt high for very long (it doesn't get filtered out or evaporated, the only way to remove it is through water changes).
[edit] which i'm sure you know, but it bears repeating.

That is funny lol, I really like the setup. My bala's are fine, just the one gourami.

I decided to try a longer salt bath. So I seperated the gourami out and treated with at 2.5 tsp /gallon in a small 5 gallon tank. She must have been in there for a couple of hours. She breached, funny thing I had a cover on but not secured. She got out through a gap no bigger than 1.5 inches, not sure how long it was out of the tank but it had to be atleast 5 or so min. Anyway I put her back in the original tank, thought that was enough for the day. She was ok after

I noticed a lump on her right side that I now read is an internal parasite of some kind. So I think instead of risking my balas and other little ones I'm going to have to(even though I really don't want )exchange her for one that is healthy. The fungus I can deal with but I'm too much of a noob, I don't want to kill or infect ANY of them. getting paranoid after this last breach.

I tried coppersafe on the goldfish I was given with the tank but since I started with these fish everything has been excelent, the fungus I mention is three or four small sized(ball on the end of a pin)white fuzzy spots that just happens to sit on this bump. I can't beileve I missed it before.

thanks for the help Bala, much appriciatted:)

I went ahead and added salt to the regular tank as you suggestted Bala. 2 tsp per 10 gallons (8tsp in a 45 gallon tank) hope this helps cause the 1 bala is breathing heavy, this has me worried.

erm, 8 tsp of salt in 45 gallons would be .2 salinity. which most tropicals can stand, if ur just using it as a general tonic tho (not to specifically protect against nitrites durring cycling or to kill fungus/ick) i'd more reccomend keeping it around .1 or so, which would be 4 level tsp of salt total.

also, as i mentioned before, the next time you do a water change don't think you need to add another 4 tsp of salt. you should add enough salt to where the new water you're putting in is at .1 or w'ever you're trying for. if you take out 10 gallons of water every week, only add 1 tsp of salt to the new water before adding it to your aq. sorry if i'm repeating stuff you already know.

no appoligy needed, always good to get refreshed on info, less mistakes that way. My fish seem fin I removed 1 of the gourami's and put it into a seperated tank until I can get to the store. But I notice one of my bala's that was doing fine yesterday is now jsut hovering near the air stone breathign real fast. So I tested the water the nitrites were 1.0 so I changed the water 50 %.

I checked my levels and Ammonia 0 , Nitirites .25 , nitrates are between 5 -10, after donig the 2nd water change today. The Bala is still breathing heavy, any ideas what it may be? am I just paranoid lol.

glad to hear ur fish are doin better. keep us posted.

as for the bala's breathing, could be the nitrites. while doing what you can to lower the nitrites, you could try and raise the oxygen levels in your water, like turning up the air pump if it's adjustable; adding a live plant or two if you want, turning up your filter to create more forced current, etc.

don't know what else to tell ya, heavy breathing can also just be a sign of stress. if there's no purplish coloration around the gills, just keep the water quality good and he should be alright.

if u think ur paranoid/overprotective about ur fish, well, ur in good company here friend

i gotta ask one more thing. when you 'salted' your aquarium, how did you do it. did you just dump 8 tsp directly into the aq, or did ya do a water change and add salty water?

if you jumped from 0 to .2% salt very quickly instead of over time, that might be enought to stress him out. imo, if ur careful balas are kinda hardy fish, so i imagine yours'll pull through.

hope some of that helps.

Thx for the help. I did add the salt to a small container filled with tank water, then added a bit to the tank every 10 mins or so. but I reduced it from 8 tsp in the tank to 4 tsp with the 2nd water change. I thought the same thing, maybe I added it to fast or just plain used to much, thats why I did the 2nd water change.

I don't see any purple on him near the gills. Your probably right he's just stressed cause his color looks real good and he seems to be moving around a bit more now.

I have to be careful or I'm going to love these fish right into the dirt lol, I see one act funny for a second and I over react lol. Anyway thx again