Dalmation Mollys

[marisa]

Hello!

Not sure if any of you are also fish keepers...like tropicals..etc..

But today I purchased two Dalmation Mollys. They are really amazing!

So Question;
Does anyone know if I should be using table salt or if I should use aquarium salt? It's recommended to keep the Mollys in somewhat salty water...but I wasn't sure if table salt is the same thing as Aquarium salt ?????? Stupid question I know, but I only have goldfish otherwise!

lol

marisa

[corr]

Hi Marisa. It is not necessary to keep mollies in salted water. It is more important to keep them in hard water IMHO. If you do add salt, use non-iodized (kosher) salt. Iodized salt is said to be completely safe but kosher is readily available and also cheap. You could also use marine salt that you can buy at the pet store. There are a couple of different brands. It's expensive but your mollies will like it because it also hardens the water slightly as well as adding trace elements. I kept black mollies in brackish water (1/3 marine) and they bred like crazy! HTH

[marisa]

How do you create more brackish/harder water?

I apparently have hard water at my house although I cannot be sure. A friend told me I do because I get water build up, water stains, and "hard water" spots on all of my tanks after only one or two mistings....deposits quickly build up.

Is this hard water? I am totally ignorant to this. I use this water in my tanks, including this one. As well as cholrine remover.

thanks for the replies.
marisa

[corr]

The only way to tell the true hardness of your water is to buy a carbonate hardness (Kh) test kit at the pet store. But it sounds like you do have hard water anyway.

To turn it into brackish water, all you need to do is buy marine salts that are used for salt water aquariums and add it at 1/4 to 1/3 the dose of marine (You should use a hygrometer to measure specific gravity but as long as you're consistant, that's okay). I used 1 cup of Instant Ocean per 5 gallons of water with my mollies.

Make sure you dissolve the salt in water before you add it to the aquarium. Obviously they are in freshwater now, so the change should be slow. Also remember that the salt is always there... meaning that if you lose some water to evaporation, there is still the same amount of salt there. So to stay constant with the salinity, you need to top up with freshwater before you do a water change.

I hope I haven't made this too confusing . What size tank is it anyway?

[Duncan]

Hi Marisa,

The biggest difference betwen table salt and aquarium salt is that the table salt is iodized (has iodine in it).

I have heard of some people using table salt (I think I even read an article recently in an aquarium magazine that verified this . . . plus it indicated that the idea you can't use table salt was simply an old myth to get people to buy the little boxes of aquarium salt), however having said all that, I still like to to play it safe and have always picked up a small box of aquarium salt from my local pet shop (its pretty cheap).

Pickling salt is also supposed to be an acceptable alternative, I presume because it isn't iodized. If you know someone who keeps marine fish, the sea salt mix also works well. I wouldn't bother to go out and buy a 10 gallon bag of sea salt though unless you want to keep your mollies in brackish water though (it is a little more costly!).

Hope this helps,

Duncan

[marisa]

Thanks for the replies...

I am housing them in a twenty gallon tall, with an Eclipse bio filter bio wheel thingie *L* yeah not to up and up on fish stuff...anyways..

I will make sure to purchase some aquarium salt and add it to the water accordingly. thanks guys!

marisa

[corr]

Marine salt comes in packages smaller than 10lb bags.

"Aquarium" salt is a waste of money IMO. It's no different than Kosher salt (pickling salt, same thing).