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I have a 29 gallon community tank. The tank houses....... Platies, Ghost shrimp, Plecos, Syno Cats, and cory cats. I was wondering if it was ok to apply salt to this aquarium with all these type of fish (shrimp) in it?

If it holds water and it's glass I want it!

It's better not to. I'm fairly sure that all of those catfish (depending on the pleco) are exposed to very low salt levels in the wild, and hence haven't evolved to tolerate higher amounts. It is true that most freshwater aquarium fish are very adaptable and can thrive in vastly different water conditions. You could surely get away with adding salt and not have it cause any deaths, but I just don't feel that it would be worth it.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

cory + salt = DEATH

I am a firm believer that salt causes more problems than the supposed benefits.

Some recommend using salt when breeding live bearers. Other than that I personally would never use it at all. Speaking from 35+ years experience of fish keeping

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

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Keith

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Ah, time for my little essay again.

Freshwater fishes fall into two categories. Primary freshwater fishes are those that evolved in freshwater from a very early stage - way back in the Devonian Era. This category includes such fishes as Characins, Catfishes and Loaches. These fishes never evolved the osmoregulatory machinery to cope with salt in water, and so adding salt to an aquarium containing these fishes is likely to kill them in fairly short order.

Secondary freshwater fishes are fishes that had marine ancestors, but moved into freshwater fairly recently in geological time - usually around the Eocene era or later. Cichlids are classic secondary freshwater fishes - they share a common ancestor with the marine Damselfishes, and differ from them anatomically in tiny details of the regions of the skull around the eye socket. Apart from those tiny anatomical differences (I believe it's the means by which two of the skull bones join at the eye socket), the Cichlids and the Damselfishes are very similar - the articulation of the pharyngeal bones in particular is very similar, and allows the fishes to take advantage of a wide range of foodstuffs. Other secondary freshwater fishes include the Killifishes (several of which are brackish water fishes here and now, such as Adinia xenica) and the Poeciliid livebearers (the Giant Sailfin Molly, Poecilia velifera, is actually euryhaline, and can live in anything from hard, alkaline fresh water to full marine water - specimens can be found in sea water off the Yucatan Peninsula if you go diving there!). Some livebearers are seasonal migrants from fresh to brackish waters - Poecilia branneri is an example of one of these. Then there are the Gobies - the Family Eleotridae (Sleeper Gobies) and the Family gobiidae (true Gobies) contain both freshwater and marine species, with a smattering of brackish fishes (e.g., Bumblebee Gobies of the Genus Brachygobius) and seasonal migrants. Among other fish Families that are spread across freshwater, brackish and fully marine environments are the Puffer Fishes of the Family Tetraodontidae.

Secondary freshwater fishes once possessed the osmoregulatory machinery to cope with marine water. Some retain some capacity to tolerate salt in the present day - notably those unusual Asian Cichlids belonging to the Genus Etroplus, which do best in brackish water.

So, the rule is simple. if your aquarium contains ANY fishes that are primary freshwater fishes, then do NOT add salt to the aquarium, or you will lose them. If your aquarium only contains secondary freshwater fishes, then these can tolerate varying amounts of salt depending upon species.

So your list looks as follows:

PRIMARY FRESHWATER FISHES

Characins - Characidae and related Families
Carps - Cyprinidae
Catfishes - ALL families with the exception of the Family Ariidae and the Family Plotosidae (see below)
Labyrinth Fishes - Family Anabantidae, Family Belontiidae, Family Helostomatidae

SECONDARY FRESHWATER FISHES

Killies - Family Cyprinodontidae and allies
Livebearers - Family Poeciliidae, Family Goodeidae, Family Jenynsiidae
Half-beaks - Family Hemirhamphidae (Genus Dermogenys is obligate brackish)
Stickebacks - Family Gasterosteidae (some are fully marine)
Cichlids -- Family Cichlidae
Gobies - Family Eleotridae, Family Gobiidae
Mudskippers - Family Periophthalmidae (obligate brackish fishes)
Puffers - Family Tetraodontidae (some exclusively freshwater, others obligate brackish or seasonal migrants)
Scats - Family Sctaophagidae (euryhaline, will live in anything from freshwater to full marine)
Monos - Family Monodactylidae (euryhaline, and Monodactylus sebae spawns in fresh water but the fry need to return to brackish water within 72 hours of hatching)
Target Fishes - Family Theraponidae (euryhaline)
Glassfishes - Family Centropomidae (several are obligate brackish fishes)
Tiger Fishes - Family Lobotidae (some are brackish fishes, e.g., Coius microlepis)

SPECIAL CASES

Family Ariidae - brackish water catfishes (most of which are BIG fishes as well)
Family Plotosidae - fully marine catfishes
Family Anguillidae - True Eels - hatch in the Sargasso Sea, migrate to freshwater where they live for up to 20 years, then return to the Sargasso Sea to spawn
Family Salmonidae - Salmon and Allies - hatch in fresh water, migrate to the sea, spend the majority of their lives as marine fishes, return to fresh water to spawn.

This should hopefully be a useful guide for anyone wanting to know if their fishes will tolerate salt.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I would like to add
family: Pantodontidae - african butterfly
family: ATHERINIDAE - celebes rainbow
family: Anablepidae - four eyed fish
family: Scorpaenidae - freshwater lionfish, Hatophryne trispinosus.

to the list of salt tolerant fish, though I realize that last one is a bit obvious.