aquarium salt...opinions please

C

clikens

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May 14, 2007
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Hi everyone, I thought I had learned so much but on my last trip to the lfs I noticed that many of the information tags on the tanks said that the fish (freshwater) needed salt. I don't know why I never noticed this before, since all of my fish came from this same store. I asked the girl that was working and she said, "oh yeah, you have to put aquarium salt into your freshwater aquarium to keep the fish healthy and to make them bright and colorful." Ok, I am a novice but wouldn't this defeat the purpose of salt to treat illness when needed, if the fish are in it daily? :confused: Please give me your opinions as I feel so much better taking advice from most of you! I don't want to do anything that will screw up my water when I waited so long to cycle my tanks and add my fish a few at a time. Thanks in advance!
 
I dont use it, some people use it to combat ich ..........:)
 
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The only time I would use it is if there was an ick outbreak (meds), or hatching brine shrimp :)
I read an article about the regulation of osmosis in the fish related to salt content but I can't remember where it was. What I got from the article was that salt is ok for short term but could potentially be harmful long term.
 
FW fish do not need salt constantly. I use salt for ich treatments. I'm sure my pleco and inverts appreciate not having to live in salt at all times.
 
From what Ive heard most tropical dont but salt can combat ich and keep it away. Mollys, Platys and Sword Tails almost always benifit from a slightly salty enviroment as they came from a brackish enviroment to begin with, and the odds of survival in salt free enviroment is less than stellar.
 
They say you need it so they can make money.

I just use table salt for ich.
 
DDeHaven II said:
From what Ive heard most tropical dont but salt can combat ich and keep it away. Mollys, Platys and Sword Tails almost always benifit from a slightly salty enviroment as they came from a brackish enviroment to begin with, and the odds of survival in salt free enviroment is less than stellar.
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Mollies and guppies can live in brackish water. Most platies and sword tails come from freshwater and need no added salt. Also Freshwater Aquarium salt is not the same as brackish water, you need marine mix salt for that.

NaCl (which probably is the largest part of aquarium salt) can be had in grocery stores for a lot cheaper (get kosher if additives concern you).

Oh and I only keep it as a potential medication.
 
I asked the girl that was working and she said, "oh yeah, you have to put aquarium salt into your freshwater aquarium to keep the fish healthy and to make them bright and colorful."
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well we have a dwarf gourami we got from persmart, that claimed he needed aquarium salt, we do not use salt and trust me he is very healthy and colorful.
 
:laugh:
 
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