Salty Dogs

Last Thursday, I did an extensive search for the cory, having not noticed him through the algae-covered tank in quite some time. If I found anything during my vacuuming, it was only his remains. It was an unpleasant and seemingly inexplicable discovery regarding what had been my favorite fish.

Because the water condition concerned me on Thursday, I did a water change on Saturday and scrubbed the algae of the acrylic 5 gallon so I can see through again. Of course, the clarity allowed me to notice that my neons were having to swim downward. They had the same floating issues that the one that died had. Nothing was wrong with the bigger fish, so of course I assumed that the neons came down with whatever the first one had. I pinged my Aquamaniacs buddies for help before I realized what the problem may be. When I did a couple major water changes on the 5 gallon, I didn't replace any of the salt, dramatically changing the salt concentration. I added some more salt, and the neons are looking much better (knock on wood).

Thinking about salt so much helped me realize what probably happened to the cory. I'm fairly certain that they do not tolerate any salt at all, and when I was treating the neon a couple of weeks ago and trying to cure one of the black skirt tetras of a little fin fungus, I'm sure I raised the salt level too high. It's a shame that I didn't think of that, but I definitely learned my lesson. I prefer not killing fish to learn lessons, though.