Do gourami's need brackish?

D

D-Bak

The 'ICK'sterminator
Jun 2, 2006
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Columbus, Ohio
I was just at the LFS and under the dwarf gourami tank they said they aquarium salt was required??

I am contemplating adding one of these to my ten gallon tank....

Thank you in adavce for any info....
 
Some stores say aquarium salt is required for a certain fish ( I know petsmart is doing this ) Adding aquarium salt (sodium chloride) will not make brackish water. You need MARINE salt which has a blend of minerals to replicate seawater. The reasons for suguesting aquarium salt are varried depending on which dolt you happen to ask at the store, but usually its along the lines of needing minerals, or stimulating slime coat. For more information read this article.
 
:)

Nope, I have many many many gourmis at home, and I do nt have brackish water. They are doing just fine without it.


As the person above me said, some aquarium slat just helps with slime coat and stuff, and some of this should be in any tank.


If you don't have some, I suggest you get some.
 
supgourami said:
As the person above me said, some aquarium slat just helps with slime coat and stuff, and some of this should be in any tank.
Click to expand...
Well I did say aquarium salt could do this or that, but read the article linked. Salt has no place in the aquarium for anything other than a treatment of disease. Once the disease is cure it should be slowly removed. to paraphrase, What are you doing wrong that your fish need salt to stimulate thier slime coat?
 
You think it does, but it actually iritates there skin/gills and causes thier enviroment to have a very unstable salinity(both of these will shorten thier lifespan), wich by the way, freshwater fish have evolved to deal wih in very very small quantities, whats in your tap water is enough.
 
Some freshwater fish will live longer and be healthier with some salt in the water. Black Mollies are one example. However Gouramis do not need salt.
 
mollies are freshwater, brackish water, and saltwater, however will do fine in both, BUT, if you really think it's nessisry to have them in a brackish or salt enviroment, aquarium salt is still no good. You need marine mix to make brackish.

Here is whats in natural brackish water/salt water:
liv2padl said:
Chloride, Cl 19,500 ppm
Sodium, Na 10,770
Magnesium, Mg 1,290
Sulphur, S 905
Calcium, Ca 412
Potassium, K 380
Bromine, Br 67
Carbon, C 28
Nitrogen, N 11.5
Strontium, Sr 8
Oxygen, O 6
Boron, B 4.4
Silicon, Si 2
Fluorine, F 1.3
Argon, Ar 0.43
Lithium, Li 0.18
Rubidium, Rb 0.12
Phosphorus, P 0.06
Iodine, I 0.06
Barium, Ba 0.02
Molybdenium, Mo 0.01
Arsenic, As 0.0037
Uranium, U 0.0032
Vanadium, V 0.0025
Titanium, Ti 0.001
Zinc, Zn 0.0005
Nickel, Ni 0.00048
Aluminium, Al 0.0004
Cesium, Cs 0.0004
Chromium, Cr 0.0003
Antimony, Sb 0.00024
Krypton, Kr 0.0002
Selenium, Se 0.0002
Neon, Ne 0.00012
Manganese, Mn 0.0001
Cadmium, Cd 0.0001
Copper, Cu 0.0001
Tungsten, W 0.0001
Iron, Fe 0.000055
Xenon, Xe 0.00005
Zirconium, Zr 0.00003
Bismuth, Bi 0.00002
Niobium, Nb 0.00001
Thallium, Tl 0.00001
Thorium, Th 0.00001
Hafnium, Hf 7 x 10-6
Helium, He 6.8 x 10-6
Beryllium, Be 5.6 x 10-6
Germanium, Ge 5 x 10-6
Gold, Au 4 x 10-6
Rhenium, Re 4 x 10-6
Cobalt, Co 3 x 10-6
Lanthanum, La 3 x 10-6
Neodymium, Nd 3 x 10-6
Lead, Pb 2 x 10-6
Silver, Ag 2 x 10-6
Tantalum, Ta 2 x 10-6
Gallium, Ga 2 x 10-6
Yttrium, Y 1.3 x 10-6
Mercury, Hg 1 x 10-6
Cerium, Ce 1 x 10-6
Dysprosium, Dy 9 x 10-7
Erbium, Er 8 x 10-7
Ytterbium, Yb 8 x 10-7
Gadolinium, Gd 7 x 10-7
Praseodymium, Pr 6 x 10-7
Scandium, Sc 6 x 10-7
Tin, Sn 6 x 10-7
Holmium, Ho 2 x 10-7
Lutetium, Lu 2 x 10-7
Thulium, Tm 2 x 10-7
Indium, In 1 x 10-7
Trebium, Tb 1 x 10-7
Palladium, Pd 5 x 10-8
Samarium, Sm 5 x 10-8
Tellurium, Te 1 x 10-8
Europium, Eu 1 x 10-8
Radium, Ra 7 x 10-11
Protactinium, Pa 5 x 10-11
Radon, Rn 6 x 10-16
Click to expand...

aquarium salt only gives you sodium, and nothing else. Obviously you need way more than sodium to make brackish water.
 
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