Derek Benson wrote:
On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 22:38:08 GMT, Elaine T
wrote:


Two things. First, many of us mix fish from different water conditions
in community tanks. I did it myself when I needed to add Otocinclus to
my hard water guppy tank after a brown algae explosion. (Nobody told me
Flourite was rich in silicates.) Joe's got a similar mix of soft and
hardwater fish and adding some salt for the crabs is reasonable.

MarAzul wrote after Joe and I had decided on a safe salt concentration
for the tank and suggested that cories would literally die at 1 tbsp/30
gallons, or 0.01%. My experience simply does not bear this out.
Granted, it's not ideal for cories or sof****er fish. It's not ideal
for the crab either, who would prefer a SG around 1.015. But die?!?


I will venture the following comment, which you may or may not agree
with: the crabs in question have no business in this tank. The
question of adding salt or not would then be nuncupatory.

-Derek

Aye, but they're there. And possibly mixed with mollies, which I also
don't personally believe belong in FW. However, I don't like to tell
people to go buy new tanks or get rid of fish unless they've done
something that is bound to end in tragedy like say, mixing tetras and
oscars or angelfish and mbuna. Just my own thing - YMMV. This tank may
work out OK as some folks report success with some of the species sold
as red crabs in FW.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

I don't have any mollies.

The red crabs seem to be doing okay, one just molted a couple days ago.

Myself I prefer to have bottom feeders like corycats, plecos, shrimp,
crabs, etc.

They provide more entertainment than fish just swiming left and right.
:)

wrote:
I don't have any mollies.

Oops. Must have you confused with someone else. :-O

The red crabs seem to be doing okay, one just molted a couple days ago.

Myself I prefer to have bottom feeders like corycats, plecos, shrimp,
crabs, etc.

They provide more entertainment than fish just swiming left and right.
:)

Inverts are way kewl! I love my Amano shrimp.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

Making your water brackish may be undesireable to your fish inhabitants.
Typically you would do a brackish tank with the crabs and maybe mollies or
other brackish type fish.


wrote in message
oups.com...
Mainly because of the red crabs that I have. They look fine with the
current water, but from the information I have been gathering they like
brackish conditions. So I figure that adding a small amount of salt to
the tank, just enough that it wouldn't affect the fish and be
beneficial for the crab.