salt?

chrisinha · Post by **chrisinha** » 09 Jan 2005, 05:59

is it ok to add some aquarium salt to the tank where the cories and pleco are??

Allan · Post by **Allan** » 09 Jan 2005, 13:46

Corydoras spp. are more intolerable to saline than most other ornamental fish. Why would You add salt to this tank?
- I would only use salt, if there was a fungal infection, and then add a bit lower than perscripted.

zebraboy · Post by **zebraboy** » 09 Jan 2005, 15:47

Its good to add salt, to all fish, some more than others. cories and plecos like it i would say one tsp. per 5 gallons. Salt is good for healing perposes and helps their gills fuction. All water, even river have some amount of salt in it.

good luck

Allan · Post by **Allan** » 09 Jan 2005, 15:50

Tapwater also has some salt in it.<br>And should You use demineralised water to get the water really soft, the added salt would minimalize the effect.<br>How does salt help on the gillfunction?

Post by **Birger** » 09 Jan 2005, 16:14

Do not add salt just to add salt, if for medical reasons okay, if you have researched a particular fish and it "needs" it to duplicate water conditions okay,otherwise there is just no need.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... light=salt

Check out the link above

Birger

lisa23 · Post by **lisa23** » 09 Jan 2005, 16:28

hi

Salt tolerance in freshwater fishes varies. The percomorph fishes, like cichlids and anabantoids, are derived from marine ancestors in the age of dinosaurs. In general, they are more salt-tolerant than ostariophysii, the loaches and minnows, characins and catfish that have descended from freshwater ancestors. Years ago, William T. Innes reported that when a range of freshwater fishes were exposed to salt baths, the first to die were Corydoras. Those ostariophysan fishes that navigate by electric fields, like knife fishes, gymnotid eels and the "elephant noses" or mormyrids, should never be exposed to salt baths, according to the University of Florida. Killifishes and livebearers are more tolerant of salt, on the whole. But there are many exceptions to this very broad rule. Be aware of the salt tolerance of your particular fish.

I personally wouldn't use salt on cory's.

cheers
lisa

chrisinha · Post by **chrisinha** » 09 Jan 2005, 21:35

the reason i asked was basically because someone told me that is good to add a little bit of salt to the water, meaning that it helps with stress, gills functioning and things like that. But i'd rather go with what most of you guys are saying-- so, no salt!
thanks!

Post by **Shane** » 09 Jan 2005, 22:46

Its good to add salt, to all fish, some more than others. cories and pl*cos like it i would say one tsp. per 5 gallons. Salt is good for healing perposes and helps their gills fuction. All water, even river have some amount of salt in it.

No, no, no! There is no reason to add salt to anything other than a marine or brackish tank. Salt has some medicinal uses with freshwater fishes, but should never be added "normally." Most cory and loricariid spp. come from soft waters that have very little salts and the salts that are found in tropical waters are not the same salts found in Marine or table salt. These are two very different things. It is also false that all waters have some salts (or hardness) there are many blackwater rivers that have no measurable hardness at all.
-Shane

FishFin23 · Post by **FishFin23** » 09 Jan 2005, 22:49

When I kept corys with swordtails and mollies and with salt they did "ok", but many of them died very early (within 3 or 4 months of getting them). They looked like they just gave out - stopped swimming and eating. The few that survived I started keeping in strictly freshwater (no added salt anyways) and they have now lived for over a year and are much more active

. I think it's a good decision to keep them without salt. Good luck!

PlecoCrazy · Post by **PlecoCrazy** » 10 Jan 2005, 04:58

chrisinha wrote:the reason i asked was basically because someone told me that is good to add a little bit of salt to the water...

There are many misnomers about keeping fish and this is one of them. The fact that a fish only grows to the size of the tank is probably the most popular one I hear. Unfortunately many of these seemingly common facts about fish just are not true. I am glad you asked first and if unsure in the future feel free to ask again.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 10 Jan 2005, 10:34

PlecoCrazy wrote:There are many misnomers about keeping fish and this is one of them. The fact that a fish only grows to the size of the tank is probably the most popular one I hear. Unfortunately many of these seemingly common facts about fish just are not true. I am glad you asked first and if unsure in the future feel free to ask again.

I have a theory on why the "fish only grows to the size of the tank" idea comes from. If you keep fish that grows quite large in a too small tank, it will make the water dirty quite quickly. This will make the fish feel "not so good", which in turn will mean that the fish will not grow as well as it should, and eventually either stop growing or die. But if the water is of sufficiently good quality, the size of the tank will not prevent the fish from growing big.

--
Mats

zebraboy · Post by **zebraboy** » 11 Jan 2005, 20:41

hello allen want to know why salt helps gill fuction.During disease and stress, healthy gill function is disturbed. This can lead to the loss of electrolytes through the gills (sometimes called osmotic shock). This reduces the intake of oxygen and release of carbon dioxide from the fish. Freshwater Aquarium Salt reduces electrolyte loss and promotes healthy gill function.

Allan · Post by **Allan** » 12 Jan 2005, 14:49

Thanks for the explanation to your statement.

Most valuable electrolytes are Na+ and K+, right? I do think that a freshwater fish in a freshwater inviroment gets the salts they need through their food and through active drinking and upconcentrating (high volumes of water are depleted by the kidneys and is excreted with the urine) - Also, an active transport of ions from the surrounding water takes place in the gills (quite energy costly, but the fish are built for it).

And I have newer before learned that electrolytes are important in O2-intake and CO2-release of fish, I think it just diffuses to even concentration. To maximise the effect, fish gills are designet by the "counter-flow-principle".

You mention osmotic shock yourself, but I do not agree, that it for a freshwater fish is loss of electrolytes. I think osmotic shock is when to high ammounts of water diffuse into the fish-gill cells because of the higher salt-concentration in the cell than in the surrounding water, causing the cell to bloat and maybe even burst (In osmosis, the water move, not the ions, I think).
But right, either way, osmotic shock is an issue. But to completely illiminate this negative osmosis, You should add 36 gram of mixed salts per gallon. And that is a very bad idea ;)
I don't think this is an issue, as said, Corydoras are built for a low saline enviroment.

I will still keep my salt in the closet untill the fish should get a fungal infection, and advise others to do the same.

zebraboy · Post by **zebraboy** » 12 Jan 2005, 20:27

hello allen

thanks for the tip i will pass this on to others

thanks again