Stressed green chromas???

[rkm]

OK I had my green chromas in a qt tank. Everything was great. Over the last 2 days I raised the salinity in the tank. I went and got a new plastic bag. I put about 8 cups of water in it. I cought one chroma quickly and put him in the bag. The second gave a fight. I got them both in a bag. Now both of them are on their sides at the bottom of the bag. They look like they are not breathing. One keeps his mouth open, but he closes it shortly after, then opens it again. Did I stress them or something? Are these fish that sensitave.
Thanks
Ryan

 

[rkm]

Update They are both on the bottom with their mouths open and not moving. I lost them
What gives?
Did I do something wrong?
The last time I upped the salinity was 12hrs ago.

 

[rkm]

I had the salinity at .1009 friday. I slowly reaised it to .1019until today. The last time I added salt was about 12 hrs ago. I wanted to make sure they were situated. They looked great swimming around good. Not breathing hard or anything. Like I said in an earlier post. The first one was easy, but the second was a little tricky. My qt is a 29g and these fish are the size of a quarter, and move quickly. I really wanted to add these fish in the display. I started with 5 in the qt, but 3 died off quickly with in 2 days. The others have been around for weeks.
Did I raise the salinity to quickly. Should I have spread it over a week or something.

 

[rkm]

I used gallon jugs. I cut the tops open a little. took about 1 cup of salt and used the water in the tank to mix the salt. I let it set for an hour and slowly poured the water back in the tank. this raised the tanks salinity .0002 every time I did it.
Well I'm sorry for the deaths. But it is now something that will never happen again.
Ryan

 

[beth]

Terry is right. You needed to thoroughly mix salt water prior to exposing marine animals to it. This means aerating the water and salt, preferably for at least 48 hrs, but not less than 24 hrs, prior to exposure of the fish.

 

[rkm]

Thanks for the info. I will keep that in mind the next go around.
It must take forever to raise the salinity. What I did in a few days must take atleast a week. Unless I keep 5 gallons of mix airated and stable. Then drip it slowly into the tank until its gone.
I am willing to do it though. As long as I do not harm any more fish.

 

[beth]

It does seem like it takes forever. You bascially have to be constantly available for 2 days during the raising and lowering of salinity.