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  L# Adding salt to Freshwater tanks
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SubscribeAdding salt to Freshwater tanks
crusha
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EditedEdited by crusha
I have a question about adding salt to freshwater community tanks.

I have heard conflicting opinions on this ... from LFS employees, some say its a good thing to add salt to community tanks and others say its not.

Is it true it helps with the slime coat on fish and helps eliminate harmful bacteria, etc? I asked about whether it would benefit Clown Loaches and other scale-less fish, some said they wouldn't mind and others said it wouldn't be a good idea.

What are your opinions/reasons if you do add salt, or is it a NO NO??? I'm getting a little confused and I never really thought about adding salt to the tank until I went Cichlid shopping with a friend.

Hope you guys can end my confusion

Cheers
Crusha


Those who say they cant, Never will !!!
Post InfoPosted 08-Apr-2006 16:54Profile PM Edit Report 
Joe Potato
 
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There are certainly some FW fish that benefit from additions of salt to the tank, such as mollies (which some people argue are actually brackish fish anyway), some cichlids, and a lot of fish that come from harder water environments.

Conversely, fish that come from soft-water environments tend to not tolerate any salt in their water, such as corys, plecos, or many of the labrynth fish.

So, it all depends on what fish you have in the tank. For clown loaches, personally, I would not add any salt.

Joe Potato
Post InfoPosted 08-Apr-2006 21:04Profile Homepage AIM PM Edit Delete Report 
Shinigami
 
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Salt is not really a requirement to the freshwater aquarium. Some of the mineral salts such as the carbonates and bicarbonates are valuable in a Rift Lake set-up so there are "Cichlid Salt" products for such aquariums, but otherwise enough minerals should come out the tap to make it quite all right.

It wouldn't only eliminate harmful bacteria, really; there would be no way to target between the good and the bad types with something like salt. However, if you don't care about screwing up ALL the bacteria that could be what you go for... Likely, what you're thinking of is ridding of parasites, as invertebrates have a greater problem with osmosis than do most vertebrates. Salt was and, to some, still is an effective treatment for parasites.

In my own opinion it'd just be an extra cost and more trouble. IME fish only get sick once in a blue moon anyway, so a little bit of salt ain't gonna help more than simply setting up a good quarantine tank.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.
Post InfoPosted 08-Apr-2006 21:06Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
crazyred
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My opinion, don't do it, comes from the fact that I killed 5 of 6 of my cherry barbs by using salt to treat ick. No I know that just adding salt to help would be a smaller quantity then that of a treatment, but still...I wouldn't risk it.


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Post InfoPosted 08-Apr-2006 21:37Profile MSN PM Edit Delete Report 
bettachris
 
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again, it depends on how much, as to much can kill them.

i personally use salt in my tanks without scale-less fishes.
Post InfoPosted 08-Apr-2006 22:09Profile Homepage Yahoo PM Edit Delete Report 
Calilasseia
 
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Ah, this brings us to the distinction between primary and secondary freshwater fishes.

Primary freshwater fishes are those that have remained, as far as we can tell from the fossil record, in fresh waters throughout their evolutionary heritage. Fishes that fall into this category include Characins, Carps and Catfishes.

Secondary freshwater fishes are those that had marine ancestors at some point in past time, but which moved into freshwater in order to occupy various niches. Cichlids are an example of secondary freshwater fishes - their nearest relatives are the marine Damselfishes of the Family Pomacentridae, and it's highly likely that both Families shared a common (and marine) ancestor.

Consequently, the secondary freshwater fishes still have at least some degree of osmoregulatory capacity for dealing with salt in the water, while the primary freshwater fishes never evolved it in the first place. So, placing primary freshwater fishes into water containing salt is a bad idea, and even modest amounts will kill them. Secondary freshwater fishes, on the other hand, can tolerate small amounts of salt, and indeed some members of secondarily freshwater Families are brackish in nature - the Cichlid fish Etroplus suratensis springs to mind as one example. Cyprinodontiformes also fall into this category - both the egg-laying Cyprinodontidae and the live-bearing Poeciliidae are also secondarily freshwater, some of the latter Family being fully brackish in the wild (indeed, the Giant Sailfin Molly, Poecilia vivipara, is fully euryhaline, and can live in fully marine water, as specimens captured in seawater off the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico testify eloqwuently).

Quite simply put, if your aquarium contains any primary freshwater fishes, do NOT add salt, as those fishes will suffer considerable stress if exposed to salt, and may even die. Even in the case of secondarily freshwater fishes, salt is only a good idea if the fishes concerned are KNOWN to inhabit brackish waters in the wild.

Most fishes fall into the category of being stenohaline, namely, they are either freshwater or fully marine. These fishes should only be exposed to the kind of water in which they occur in the wild with respect to salt content. Euryhaline fishes, that can migrate with some degree of freedom between freshwater, brackish and fully marine environments, are much fewer in number, and tend to be conspicuous in this regard when encountered in the textbooks - fishes such as Scats, Monos, Therapon jarbua, velifera Mollies and one or two of the Puffer Fishes are notable for this. Within the euryhaline division, there are those that can migrate more or less at will, and those that do so developmentally - the Puffer Fish Tetraodon nigroviridis is developmentally euryhaline, spending its juvenile stages in freshwater before migrating at a steady pace to increasingly saline waters until, as adults, they are strongly brackish or fully marine fishes. Once again, and I cannot stress this enough, it pays to do the research and find out what your fish is!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002
Post InfoPosted 08-Apr-2006 23:02Profile Homepage PM Edit Delete Report 
crusha
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Thanks for that most informative reply Calilasseia.

I definately only have primary freshwater fish in my set up so there will be no salt going into my tank at all.

I just cant believe that people who are suppose to be somewhat knowledgeable (LFS employees) would tell people to do something that could be harmful.

I feel sorry for the person that takes the advice and follows through without researching it properly.

Thanks everyone for your replies, most helpful.

Cheers
Crusha


Those who say they cant, Never will !!!
Post InfoPosted 09-Apr-2006 02:50Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
Calilasseia
 
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Hmm, perhaps I should submit that as an article to Adam


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002
Post InfoPosted 09-Apr-2006 15:39Profile Homepage PM Edit Delete Report 
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