I lost another fish, the pleico this time, it's a mystery what is going on as fish look fine until they dropped dead. 2 guppies one rasbora and now the pleico. Water tests fine on all accounts- trace nitrates, 0 ammon, ph6.8, all else w/in normal. I just intorduced guppies Pleico and one rasbora last Mon. All that I have left is a F guppy and the new ras. I did have a heater prob last week, but got a new one and everyone looked good yesterday, then the pleico turned up dead. I'm getting very frustrated. any advice would be appreciated.

First salt should be used as a medicine, aka not all the time.
Second when treating a tank with salt one must be aware that some fish are more tolerant than others and plecos are not as tolerant.
In a normal tank a teaspoon per 5 gallons is fine, in a tank with plecos I would revert to a teaspoon for every 10 gallons.

If you have been salting your tank I would try to avoid it and then try plecos again. Realize that a pleco puts a much larger strain on one's bacteria than the rest of your fish so you may try slowly repopulating your other fish and then try a pleco once the bacteria has built up to a larger bio-load.

Thanks-
I lost the fem guppy this morning. It's a real mystery why I'm having this die-off. all other tanks are fine, but I lost evryone but a little rasbora in the tank. I think I'll start again with some endlers after the tank is settled, they have a nice website w/ lots of info. Should I ditch all the water in this tank, scrub everything and start w/ clean water from my 55 or try a half water change? Should I try to cycle w/ the rasbora?
Thanks again for all the advice. I'd been following the directions on the salt box and that said one T per 5 gallons, and the pet store recs, so I'll adjust that. I think I'll go with corys and the endlers and bag the pleico.
Cyndi

I personally only use salt to treat disease, I don't know if coreys tolerate salt or not.

When I treated my 55gal for Ich I used 3T salt and raised the temp to 84F, as soon as the ich was gone I started water changes to get rid of the salt.

Interesting- the "pet store guy" specifically told me all freshwater has some salt in it, I've used it for a few years and never have had a prob w/it. I have salt (11Tblsp!) in my 55 w/angels danios and shrimp, and they seem fine (knock on wood) I'll do some reseaarch on specific fish.

Should I ditch the water in the 10g and start w/ water from my 55 and new water from my well (conditioned and de-Co2'd)?

Your LFS guy is in business to make money.
Salt is a great disease treatment.

I personally would ditch the water and start with about 1/3 to 1/2 from your other tank and the rest fresh treated water.

Thanks-
that's kind of what I was thinking. I already treated a bunch of water that's sitting until tomorrow to de-CO2. I'll cup off the little rasbora and make the switch tomorrow and hopefully I'll at least be able to save him.
Thanks for all the input.

Transition the rasborra slowly so you do not shock him/her.

I did, thanks, and he/she seems happy. Turns out there was something- a film on the surface of the water, you could only see it from beneath the water line, my eight year old noticed it. We still don't know what it was, but the bags from new fish may have been sitting in something and transferred, we don't know,but it's all cleaned and gone. We'll let it rest for a while and try some endlers.
Hopefully we're through with the series of unfortunate events!

Could be oil from the food, increasing surface agitation would counter films.

Thanks for the tip Glaive, I'm having a problem around my surface Java moss clumps, I'll try adding more air. :thanks:

No problem Dot hope it helps> :)

I don't have an air stone in that tank, should I add one before I get my Endlers?

An air stone would be a good idea, it increases surface area greatly and adds the bonus of adding surface disruption with out disturbing the fish.

Thanks glaive-
You've been a huge help!