Bristle Nose and salt...and adding the salt...

[Baldrick30]

Hi There,

Hopefully this is just a simple couple of questions. After a few recommendations I was going to start adding aquarium salt to the tank, but I did read in one forum that some scaleless fish can be hurt by salt in the water. We've got a bristlenose in the tank which if I understand correctly, doesn't have scales - will he be OK with salt, or is it a definite no-no with him in there?

Assuming that he's OK with it - the other question is just about adding the salt. Is there a method to it, should it be introduced over a period of time (couple of tablespoons per day for example)? Or is it a case of just doing the standard suggested cc / liter in one hit and then maintaining that level when doing the water changes?

Thanks muchly! :)

Cam

[OldMan47]

Do you have disease issues or a similar reason to add salt? Unless you have brackish water fish, salt is not only not needed but not a good idea. The angels and tetras will definitely be better off without it. The mollies would not mind some salt but don't need it.

[TwoTankAmin]

Plecos have scales and dont like salt.

FW tanks do not need salt and in most cases keeping salt in the water for longer than medication purposes will have a deleterious effect on fish and many plants.

[theotheragentm]

No salt with Plecos.

[Baldrick30]

far out this fish world is confusing :headshake2:

I had been wondering about it simply because people keep saying it good to do - people seem to talk about it as if it's a proactive way to keep disease away.... But what pushed me to seriously consider it is a fish which appears to have Swim Bladder issues. We've fasted her for 2 days and at that point she didn't look to be improving (although didn't actually look unhealthy as such either.) So amongst the cause and response to swim bladder material I've read there were a lot of comments saying that it can be a bacterial infection, to which salt can be a cure...... so basically I figured since people said it was a good thing anyway - it surely couldn't hurt to try that approach to the swim bladder problem.

So it was partly driven by a 'disease' concern and partly because the general thing I'd heard was that it's good practice.

Side note to all this is that I saw the fish briefly this morning and I THINK she's returned to normal, horizontal swimming. I was running really late so I couldn't stop and look for long - so I'll know tonight for sure.

But this whole salt thing seems to be a bit of a splitting issue - so many people seem to talk about it as if it's a regular, positive thing to do for your tank. Both of our fish shops have suggested it and they've both been really good for information - they're certainly not just a couple of hacks selling fish. Is it a bit of an old school thing that people are now turning away from? I did do some browsing through the forum (not extensive at this point I must admit) for info and generally found a few comments either side - although there was certainly some comments that said the same thing you guys have. So I'm wondering if anyone can point me at some slightly deeper discussion on the salt issue? Either in forum or article form? I'm just curious to get my head around the whole thing.

Thanks!
Cam

[jpappy789]

far out this fish world is confusing :headshake2:

I had been wondering about it simply because people keep saying it good to do - people seem to talk about it as if it's a proactive way to keep disease away.... But what pushed me to seriously consider it is a fish which appears to have Swim Bladder issues. We've fasted her for 2 days and at that point she didn't look to be improving (although didn't actually look unhealthy as such either.) So amongst the cause and response to swim bladder material I've read there were a lot of comments saying that it can be a bacterial infection, to which salt can be a cure...... so basically I figured since people said it was a good thing anyway - it surely couldn't hurt to try that approach to the swim bladder problem.

So it was partly driven by a 'disease' concern and partly because the general thing I'd heard was that it's good practice.

Side note to all this is that I saw the fish briefly this morning and I THINK she's returned to normal, horizontal swimming. I was running really late so I couldn't stop and look for long - so I'll know tonight for sure.

But this whole salt thing seems to be a bit of a splitting issue - so many people seem to talk about it as if it's a regular, positive thing to do for your tank. Both of our fish shops have suggested it and they've both been really good for information - they're certainly not just a couple of hacks selling fish. Is it a bit of an old school thing that people are now turning away from? I did do some browsing through the forum (not extensive at this point I must admit) for info and generally found a few comments either side - although there was certainly some comments that said the same thing you guys have. So I'm wondering if anyone can point me at some slightly deeper discussion on the salt issue? Either in forum or article form? I'm just curious to get my head around the whole thing.

Thanks!
Cam

The thing with aquarium salt is that it is different than marine salt. So where mollies and other livebearers can tolerate low salinity, aquarium salt isn't provding the same effect.

It is also useful in fighting some diseaes, such as ich, but doen't do anything to prevent a maority of the common ones.

SBD can be caused by numerous things, bacterial infection being only one of them. I wouldnt say that aquarium salt would be the answer to treating the disease but if you fish is doing better than that is good.

And I dont want to put down your LFS workers in any way but a lot of times places sell salt for money, not because it is needed in an aquarium or even benefits the fish. Other times they are misinformed. This may or may not be the case with the employees at your stores.

[Mgamer20o0]

cant always believe what you hear. sad but true.

[TwoTankAmin]

I suggest you read the following two articles"
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article5.html

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article22.html