One thing worth adding--I gave some of my culls to Pierre Gagne. He's been keeping a pair in a 65 gallon tank, with no salt or added calcium--just our local tap water, which has a carbonate hardness of about 40.
They've been doing fine, and haven't showed any of the curvature of the spine, or infections I saw when I kept mollies without salt or calcium. This flies in the face of everything I've ever read or thought I'd learned about mollies.
I know if I'd tried this, those mollies would be long gone. But then again, Pierre's such a talented fish keeper, he'd even be successful keeping fish in a dry tank.
-----Original Message-----
From: James Smith <jbosmith-in-gmail.com>
Sent: Mar 25, 2005 3:08 PM
To: nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org
Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- mollies and calcium
I have a ton of calcium in my molly tank.. it's also an apple snail
grow out tank, and I put about a cup a week of crushed shells in it. I
don't know what the hardness is, my test kit is a mid range and only
goes up to a few hundred ppm, but it's pretty hard. It's buffered
above 8ph while my tapwater is somewhere just above 7. Without sodium,
the mollies still have health issues.
I don't think that the issue there is what is comfortable for the
mollies, I think it is more the preventative properties of the salt.
Things like camelanus just can't survive in salty water.
Jim
On Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:17:06 -0500, Bob Bock <bockhouse-in-earthlink.net> wrote:
> Likewise, Moon, I doubt there's any good data out there, and I don't think
> that all species would react equally well to calcium as a sodium
> substitute. The best chances for success would probably be with intertidal
> species used to fluctuating between freshwater and sea water.
>
>
> > [Original Message]
> > From: <EELReprah-in-aol.com>
> > To: <nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org>
> > Date: 3/24/2005 4:07:52 PM
> > Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- mollies and calcium
> >
> >
> > In a message dated 3/24/05 11:59:39 AM, Moontanman-in-aol.com writes:
> >
> > << I see what you mean but is there any data about how much of the CaCl
> there
> > needs to be to allow salt water fish to live in CaCl instead of NaCl
> > solution?
> > I'm betting it doesn't need to be 1/1.
> > >>
> >
> > I think every species may have a different preferred concentration and
> > tolerance. Sea water analyzes as follows:
> >
> > Element ppm
> > Sodium 10,800
> > Chlorine 19,400
> > Magnesium 1,290
> > Sulfur 904
> > Potassium 392
> > Calcium 411
> > Bromine 67.3
> >
> > So that indicates that a much higher concentration of sodium is
> normal.
> > Substituting calcium may not be OK for all species.
> > Lee Harper
> > Media, PA
> > /-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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