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salty plecos?

Posted: 02 Jan 2006, 23:41
by smiffertins
hi people, I just joined and I need to find out how much salt an albino chocolate plecostomus can happily handle. I need to do a salt treatment for a few of the fish in this little cocoa-plecos tank, and I'm not sure if I should leave him in there or move him to my other tank which is 40 gallons but does have another pleco already in it. Both plecos are relatively small... Anyone know which is the lesser of two evils here? If anyone knows and has the time to respond, I'd appreciate it tons!!!! Thanks :thumbsup:

Posted: 03 Jan 2006, 04:25
by PlecoCrazy
Why do you think you need to do a salt treatment on your aquarium?

Posted: 03 Jan 2006, 13:58
by MatsP
Ok, so I would agree with PlecoCrazy: Do you really know that you NEED to treat your tank with salt?

Let's, for arguments sake, say that you have determined that salt-treatment is the least bad thing you can do to your fish, then I would certainly remove the pleco first. However, this is not without problems either: If you have some badness in the tank, then you're likely to move this with the pleco to the other tank...

If this salt treatment is only for a short term, maybe a different setup would work: Take some tank-water (from the heallthiest tank) into a temporary tank (plastic bucket will work just fine), and add an air-line + bubble-stone to this temporary home. A mature filter would be even better. You should be able to keep the fish in this temporary home for a bit, and then put it back into it's old home when it's de-salted. Several big (50% or so) water changes will remove enough salt to make it reasonably salt-free.

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Mats