dancerhas

Does anybody know if Chinese Algae Eaters are scaleless fish, and/or tolerant of salt?

Reason:

I'm continuously perplexed about the tendancy of my livebearers to get sick. They seem to be the ONLY fish we have that get ICH, parasites, or anything else really. In that light, I got ahold of the guy I got my swordtails from and he told me that he uses 1 Tbsp of aquarium salt per 5 gallons in his community tank. We, on the other hand use none. Our livebearers have never thrived, and I wonder if our little buddies would prefer a more salty dwelling. There is so much debate on the matter that I never really thought it necessary to use salt until now. I'm thinking that I may wean them slowly on to increased salinity starting with around 1 tsp for the whole tank and working up.

Unfortunately I'm afraid that the salt might hurt our beloved CAE's.

Thoughts?

sirdarksol

No, CAEs are not tolerant of salt.
Scaleless and small-scaled fish have no/little protection from the osmosis that will suck water out of their cells if they're in water with salt. It also irritates them, causing them to produce excessive amounts of mucus.

As far as the sick livebearers go; what is the pH of your water and do you have hard water (if you have limescale in your bathtub and sinks, you've got hard water)? It may be that the salt the breeder is using is helping mitigate osmotic stress (which occurs when hard water fish are kept in soft water or vice versa).

dancerhas

I was afraid of that. So CAE's are Small-Scaled fish?

Our water is around 150-180 PPM for hardness. From what I've read, that's WELL within the acceptable range for platy's. And we do have limescale buildup...but most of that may be from the old well which had extremely hard water.

sirdarksol

You're right. That should be fine for the platies.

Yes, I believe that CAEs are either scaleless or small-scaled. I'm not positive, though.

dancerhas

Alright. Thanks a bunch!