juloea

are there any freshwater fish that cannot tolerate aquarium salt?? i have a 20 gallon with a shark, 2 angels, one pleco and 2 tiger barbs...then a 20 gal. with CAE, tetras, 2 tiny cats and zebra danios and a goldfish tank. also, i am starting a new tank with 3 red wag platties and 3 black mollies. one of my mollies gets ICH a lot...so i'm putting those 6 in one tank since they can use salt and i can isolate the mollie when she gets ich but the salt may help too. so, any fish that i should avoid salt with and since it doesn't evaporate how much do you replace with water changes? sorry for long question. THANKS!

pinkfloydpuffer

No catfish will tolerate salts. The tank with only platies and mollies will be just fine with salt, but I'd leave it out of the others. For replacing, just put back in about as much as you took out with the water change. So, if you change 25%, put back 25% of the original amount of salt that you used.

Angela_96

I honestly would not put any salt in a freshwater tank at all. There is a lot of debates on the subject but most FW fish are intolerent of salt. Mollies are a more salty fish but that would be the exception.

For ich, you can raise the temp above 80 degrees, and make sure there is an air pump going in the tank. Vaccum the bottom of the tank reg. for a couple weeks that will kill the ich w/o meds or salt.

Shawnie

Ich is almost like the common cold germs..they are always present but dont appear or affect a healthy fish..when stress, overstocked, water parimeters, food etc arent good, ich shows its ugly face..sorta like the common cold germ.....its when our defenses are down, or we arent taking care of ourselves and running ourselves to the bone, we get sick...as others have saId, ich can be cured with warm temps for two weeks....this is why alot of our fish we get from fish stores that dont take proper care of their critters, often bring it to our healthy tanks...goodluck!

Allie

I only use salt on sick fish, it seems to aid in healing.

lilFishyfish

I think that since you have many of the species that really can't tolerate salt you should not add it to those tanks, ONLY the molly and platies one. There are fish that can't handle salt like corys, plecos, tetras, most catfish and loaches. It seems everyone has a different opinion about using salt lol , I personally have seen many fish get better when using aquarium salt but thats just me. I have 3 aquariums and 1 pond. I use the salt in all 3 tanks and try to never be without it (you can see all the species I have in my info). I have found that it helps heal infections in fish very well without medication (this is just what I have seen MANY times). Also it works great with medications, you just have to make sure not over do it and only add the correct amount of salt and it add the right amount after water changes. Hope this helps!

sirdarksol

If the mollies were going to be in their own tank, I'd say you could turn that into a brackish tank, but I don't think platies are brackish.

I agree with the above sentiments that aquarium salt just isn't all that great. There are a few instances where I've suggested that someone use some (they lacked access to other meds).

juloea

thanks all! my ichy mollie has been pregnant a lot. so i think the stress is making her susceptible to ich. i will leave the male in another tank for a while and let her get better. i think i'll just add salt to mollie tank and will not replace it once she is better and let water changes get rid of it (mostly). thanks again for advice!