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So I recently found out that Fresh water salt would help my Mollie but I have four tiger barbs and one CAE. Will the salt effect them in a negative way at all?

Don't use it


What were you told that salt would "help" with?

Also how big of a tank do you have?
You do know that chinese algae eaters get to 11", just under 1 foot long, and tend to be rather aggressive and attack other fish as they get older right?


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Im REALLY REALLY new to this and the guy at petco told me it was ok. Its just a ten gallon and Im currently setting up a forty gallon so I can transfer some. And he said the fresh water salt aided in preventing disease?

Once upon a time salt was the only option open for one specific fw disease, and more often then not it killed the fish involved. Think of it as the old treatment of bloodletting in humans. If the human has a disease of the blood then sucking all the blood out of them with a leech is going to make them better right? . These days there are medications for specific fish diseases, if your fish come down with them, then you treat. You don't go treating fish that arent sick. That can just end up stressing the fish out more, and even kill them.

I'd really suggest taking that CAE back to where you got him from, they should give you store credit for it. I wouldn't put one in any of my tanks, and I have a 5' long tank! If the store you purchased it from will not give you a refund or exchange for a different fish its best to put it in the largest tank that you have.

Second, don't really listen to anything the people at chain petstores tell you. Most of them don't know a thing about fish, and often they just make up something that sounds good, and unfortunately fools the new hobbyist (such as yourself) and sometimes gets them to waste money on things they don't need.

Good on setting up a 40 gallon Get those tiger barbs moved over as soon as you have it set up, you will also want to increase the size of the school, I'd say to 8 or 10 fish. Tiger barbs can end up being a bit nippy to their own and other fish when in too small of a school. Make sure you get all of the same type, don't mix regular TBs with green TBs and albino TBs.


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Hey thanks a lot. Any recommendations on Cichlids with my tiger barbs? Good or Bad idea?

I definitely agree on the tiger barbs! I once had a 20 gallon, and can tell you from experience that Tiger Barbs are mean! I had 5 schooled together, and two bala sharks, and a betta, and the tiger barbs CONTINUOUSLY went after the betta. And I'm talking ambushing the poor boy. 4 of them would hide in the rear corner of the tank, send the smallest 5th one out, and that one would make a bee-line for the betta, tangle with it to get him riled up, then "flee" from the betta. The betta would give chase, follow the barb back to the "flock" where the rest would lie in wait and then attack the betta. A massive scuffle would ensue, lasting at least 3 minutes and the betta would then swim back to his corner of the tank, and the whole thing would start over again about two minutes later... They did leave the sharks alone though.

As long as we are talking about the 40 gallon you could do some cichlids with your tiger barbs. You need to get atleast 2 more tiger barbs to up your school though. I would say 4 more, IME six has never been enough. Fire mouths, blue acras, or kribs would be what I would recomend in the 40 gallon. I keep kribs and a blue acara with my tiger barbs right now and they do really good together. With your molly though, keeping it in the ten gallon its going to need a friend, they don't like being alone. Mollies still get kinda big, so I would only get one more and make sure its the same sex so you don't get over run with little ones.