guppy07

I have just been informed by a friend that I should put a teaspoon/per gallon of aquarium salt. She said that this has a healing/soothing affect on the fish. It also prevents ich which many fish from the store get. I was wondering the opinion on here. Anyone put salt in their fresh water tank? Let me know. To give her credit she kept fish for 10+ years and found that it was good by trial and error. I just want a second, third, and so on opinion. Thanks

pistorta

I would advise against using it on a regular basis. It is good to use when dealing with ill fish, but does cause discomfort and can harm/kill scaleless fish such as Corys.

sgould

Salt for freshwater fish on an ongoing basis is, in my opinion, a bad idea. It is not a soothing experience for them. It irritates them and thus causes an overproduction of slimecoat.

dsmfishgal

I always keep some salt in my tanks, but not that much. That amount creates brackish conditions (fine for my molly tank), where as I'm only shooting for a specific gravity of maybe 1.002-1.004. A little bit does help improve gill function, but the type of fish you keep determines how much can be added.

sirdarksol

It depends on the fish. Mollies, as fishgal said, actually like some salt. Black lyretails prefer water that is closer to true saltwater than true freshwater. Guppies, I believe, prefer a small amount of salt. Basically, fish that, in the wild, live in brackish water would prefer brackish water in their tank.
On the other hand, scale-less fish such as cories and plecos are stressed by salt. My guess is that the salt draws water out through their skin, as there are no scales in the way to slow osmosis down. In most community tanks, don't put any salt in. If you've got a tank full of brackish fish, on the other hand (like my mollies and Amano shrimp), they'd probably love some salt in the water.

If you do decide to make your tank brackish, do it slowly, over the course of days, and use normal aquarium salt, not the therapeutic stuff. The therapeutic stuff is made for short-term use.

steveangela1

I have been given salt by my mil (aquarium salt) and she told me to put it in both tanks however I was wondering if it would bother the pleco catfish? I know the other fish I have can withstand the brackesh conditions.

jsalemi

No; salt isn't good for scaleless fish like catfish. It'll seriously upset their osmosis balance. None of the other fish you have need salt either, so you really shouldn't use it.

guppy07

steveangela1,

the recomendation from jsalemi is spot on about the salt. Plus read sirdarksol's post privious to yours. It is a good one!

Also as I was reading on you have your stock in your 10 gal. It says you are a complete newbie and I don't know if you have gotten this already but your tank is overstocked pretty bad. I don't know what kind of pleco you have but several grow over 12 inches. Common pleco's are one of them and I fear that is what you have. platy's around 2 inches as well as skirted tetra (a schoaling fish that should be kept 5 or more). I can't speak about dwarf frogs or mystery snails I just know they take up space for the others who need more room than what you are giving them.

I would highly recomend you take a second look at the stock that you have and get rid of some fish. This is just a suggestion. Post a question about the fish you are keeping in the freshwater beginner area and you can get more advice!