allpaws

Hi

Is it recomended to add salt when doing water changes on angel fish

Thank You
Jim

Shawnie

No angels do not like salt....

agabr123

again, no, angels are very sensitive to salt. really the only fish that you could be using salt with are mollies or platies. a lot of other freshwater fish are very sensitive to salt, despite what some may claim. especially scale-less fish such as corydoras

Butterfly

Salt of any kind is not good for angels.
Freshwater fish have a higher concentration of salts and minerals in their bodies than the water around them so through osmosis through their skin and gills they are constantly taking on water and excreting waste(urine and feces)
When salt is added to freshwater fish the salt concentration in the water is higher than in the fish. Fluid is being pulled out of the fish along with normal excretions the fish becomes dehydrated. It doesn't happen over night but will eventually affect the fish. these exchanges are called osmoregulation. Heres a very interesting article if you would like to read it.
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~delbeek/delb11.html
carol

Drew04

OK, I understand the chemistry of that. But why would aquarium salt be recommended for all freshwater tanks? I know why the pet stores recommend it, they want to sell stuff. But why would a company as reputable as API even produce it and suggest it as a general tonic and stress reliever when in fact it's hurting fish?

I know, they want to sell stuff too, but API is kinda like the industry standard in fish care. They didn't get to that status simply by backhandedly convincing novices to buy unneeded or detrimental additives.

As I stated in the other thread, I have an angel and I've been adding salt for several months. My angel seems fine, and has grown x3 since we got her, but I would gladly stop adding it if it's hurting her. In fact, I didn't add any yesterday during my water change.

TedsTank

Angels are one of the SA Chiclids....they originated from soft, slightly acidic to acicidic water. This type of water is usually very low in any mineral content. I would not recommend adding salt to their water....but...it is working fine for you so if your water is testing good and fish are healthy then low doses of salt are ok for you. They are adaptable to almost anything by now after being bred in various fresh waters all over the world. I would say though that the opitmum for raising and breeding angles would be as best to their native waters as possible.....but again people are having success in all different situations.

If it is working good for you then stick to it but keep in mind that if/when they spawn you might have a hatching problem.....this has happened to me with very, very hard water....I have 2 pairs taking turns spawning almost every 2 weeks....and never a hatch.

TedsTank

PS to my reply: the fish grew fine and are beautiful, nice fins, colors etc. So they adapted well to the hard water....definately male/female pairs. The eggs make it for 2 days or into the third....then turn white and are eaten/cleaned off by the pair.

cerianthus

If you read section for F/w fish, what this article is saying is that you should have some salt in f/w for proper exchanges to take place and impose less burden on kidney as I have mentioned on other threads. As body loose salt as excretion thus kindney have to work harder to keep proper conc. in body if no salt is avail in water for exchanges. Same as in article on Jan issue of FAMA. Please read it again thoroughtly and see if you can make correction for others. Thanx Carol.

TedsTank

A very good article...on the basics. I believe that for FW fish the salt lvl's being discussed are trace amounts and are already present in your tap water....and I agee that there are FW fish that can benefit from adding salt as in Mollys, Platies, Guppies, even goldfish and Koi....but in small doses...and I cannot define small doses or trace amounts to you, as in what to add per gallon, etc. I add salt every spring to my Koi pond as a "heal all".....then rain water, water changes, and tap water thru the year dilutes it way down....but some of the fish mentioned above originated from near brackish water habitats.....ADD SALT WITH CAUTION TO FRESHWATER TANKS.

mathas

The article doesn't say you have to "have some salt" (meaning aquarium salt), it says that fish use Sodium (Na+) and Chloride (Cl-) ions. The difference may be subtle, but it's there.

As TedsTank mentioned, most tap water already contains enough of those ions to meet the needs of non-brackish fish. If you're talking distilled or RO water then you may need to supplement, but even then I'm not sure that aquarium salt is really the best additive.