question about snails and salt????

[pikwik]

OK, I know that snails and salt don't mix, but I was told yesterday at my LFS that if there is any salt in my water at all, that I could not put snails in my tank. Is this true or can snails tolerate the little bit(1 Tbls/5g) of salt in a freshwater tank. Someone please let me know cause I really would like to get a couple of snails if I can. I also just noticed last night that I have a baby snail of some sort in my 10g with the Guppy Fry. I can only assume that it came in with the plants that I bought about 3 weeks ago. This tank also has a bit of salt in it, and apparently this snail lives fine in it???? :huh:

 

[OrionGirl]

Well, for me, the bigger question is why are you salting a FW tank? Salt is excellent for specific treatments, but is not needed for a healthy tank.

But: the level of salt, even that used for medication, is fairly low. I've used salt to treat for ich in a planted tankwith numerous snails, and never had a problem. The doses used are typically less than 1.005, and that's tolerable by most tropical animals.

 

[mvigor]

I treated ICH in a 20 gallon tank with a snail. I used 40 T. of salt and the snail is still fine to this day. I've still only removed about half the salt with my 15% water changes and all is well after about 2-3 months.

 

[TKOS]

I assume you are adding salt for the guppies because many live bearers seem to do well in harder water. But the guppies you have are raised and born in freshwater and NaCl salt doesn't make the water hard, just salty. I would stop adding salt to the water and use it only for medication if the fish need it. But I have also used salt in my tanks to treat conditions and sometimes I add KCl salt to my planted tanks to help raise the potassium levels. Snails will do fine in low dose salt situations. They will not do well in brackish or marine tanks which have a much different water composition.

 

[pikwik]

I have only salted my tanks once for medication, and that was quite awhile ago so I think with the water changes i do every week that there really isn't much salt still in my tanks. I just did not want to add snails if it was going to be dangerous for them.