Salt in my Goldfish tank?

D

dmk

AC Members
Apr 28, 2007
61
0
6
Western NC
I keep seeing articles on the web and posts here referring to putting salt in freshwater tanks. The references are slightly vague, so I'm not sure whether it's a preventive health thing or a curative health thing. I'm also having trouble finding anything definitive on how much, how often.

So what's the deal with salt in freshwater fishtanks? Should I be salting my Goldies?
 
There are very few freshwater fish that should have salt. The rift lake cichlids should have a special salt. Mollies are actually brackish, but the captive breeds do not need near that salinity, although they still do better with a little marine salt.

Goldfish are a different story. They do not need it based on their natural water parameters. However, many goldfish enthusiasts routinely use it in their tanks and there is decent argument to its benefits. I do not recommend general salt use for any freshwater tanks except as mentioned above. I am on the fence on salt use with goldfish. I do use salt in my koi tank. Most koi keepers use some salt for their koi.
 
Very advanced koi keepers seem to use it. I am not sure what their main reasons are. I know to up the dosing when mixing new koi together as a preventative. I think it may mainly have to do with helping osmoregulation, one of the common 'pros' of salt use.

Goldfish and koi are completely different species. They actually are not even in the same genus. When I had goldfish I used salt. However, I do not think it did much help, although it definitely did not hurt.
 
I use salt in my goldie tank for specific reasons, but not all the time. It's the first thing to reach for if having nitrite spikes, or suspect parasites.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom