To salt or not?

I

ianheyian

AC Members
Dec 4, 2006
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I've kept mainly Malawi species for about 8 years now ... with a couple of ups and downs. Anyway, when I first set up the tank years ago the LFS owner, (who seemed to be very knowledgible and experienced), strongly recommended I added salt to the tank. My understanding is the salt is beneficial to the fish for several reasons. Anyway, I've done this for the whole time I've had the tank at a rate of 1TBSN per 5 gal. After reading some of the post around here I'm beginning to get the idea that it's not necessary other than as a therapy? I'm curious what the latest thinking is.

Tx.
 
neither recommended nor of any benefit at all but for treatment of specific external parasites. as i'm sure you're aware, Malawi cichlids are not brackish water fish and adding salt does absolutely nothing to duplicate their native water chemistry.
 
It would be nice to stop adding salt ... the corrosive effects and crystaline residue would nice to get rid of.

Is anyone aware of any studies concerning this?

Tx.
 
No salt needed.
 
recipe for an Afircan Cichlid tank

ingredients
fish tank
heater
filter
rockwork
cichlids
water

1.put water in tank. turn on heater and filter. perform a fishless cycle for best results. it should be ready for fish in about 4 weeks*
2. add cichlids

NO SALT NEEDED

*results not typical
 
Only time salt is needed with fish is when it's deepfried and served with chips, along with a dash of malt vinegar!

Oh, and for treatment of certain fishie diseases...
 
Certain cichlids in Africa come from water that has a high degree of hardness. NaCl will not duplicate that. There are recipies for rift lake salts as well as premixed stuff sold at many LFS. But before adding anything like that, make sure your fish need it. Some african lakes are not hard at all. And what is your change water like anyway.

Also take into account the fact that these are not wild caught fish anymore and have been adapted to life in freshwater.
 
TKOS said:
Certain cichlids in Africa come from water that has a high degree of hardness. NaCl will not duplicate that. There are recipies for rift lake salts as well as premixed stuff sold at many LFS. But before adding anything like that, make sure your fish need it. Some african lakes are not hard at all. And what is your change water like anyway.

Also take into account the fact that these are not wild caught fish anymore and have been adapted to life in freshwater.
Click to expand...

From the research I've done the water in Lake Malawi tends to have a PH between 7.7 and 8.7 and is very hard. My tap water runs around 7.8 and is moderately hard. I've added AF Cichlid Salts by Tropic Marin since day one, I also added some substrate by Carib Sea for buffering. Anyway, the tank water is pretty stable at a PH of 8.1. I haven't check the hardness for a while ... but it was fairly high last time I checked. I realise it may not be possible to get an exact water match for the water that the fish were raised in .... but I figured my best bet was to get somewhere in the range and keep it as stable as possible.

I've read I don't need the AF Cichlid salts .... but they don't seem to harm anything and the fish look good. As far as the NaCi ... I added it under the advice of the LFS, it supposedly being beneficial to the fish ... stress reduction etc.. I've used it for years and it too doesn't seem to hurt anything except for the mess it creates. Although, if it's not needed I will stop using it. One other thing that may be related to the salt ... I've never noticed a case of "Ich" in the tank ... I used to get it once in a while when I kept goldfish?
 
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