Can Guppies Handle Salt Treatment?

[Nordk]

Hello everyone!
Recently, I moved both of my guppies to a new tank, after their tank mate outgrew them. Shortly after, one of them died, and the other one became extremely ill, dying shortly after, despite many 70% water changes and a temp. raise with extra airation. One thing I did not try was adding a little bit of salt, as I could not find out if it would harm him or not.
I now have another guppy, he's in a tank with 2 dwarf gourami's, and they're doing quite well. I've read that gourami's will be fine if salt is used when treating disease, but  I can't seem to find anything on the web about how a guppy will handle this. Could someone provide me with this information, for future refference?

 

[Paradise3]

I've always found that guppies do not handle salt well. Mollies can, in fact mollies prefer to have a bit of salt in their water but guppies all tend to die after salt treatments with me.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I used to keep guppies in brackish water, they were at their healthiest and were breeding at an extraordinary rate. So, in my experience it is good.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Most fw fish can handle salt as a medication since this is a short term exposure. Living with it longer term is a different story. Then some fish will do OK while many will not. One of the reasons fw fish have a hard time with salt has to do with osmoregulation. This deals with balancing internal and external pressure. A good quick read on this can be found here http/www.petmd.com/fish/care/evr_fi_osmoregulation
 
One important consideration when using things like salt or Epsom salt (for constipation) when treating fish is to dose it over time so the fish have some chance to adjust. For example if one is shooting for one teaspoon/gal of water as the desired dose of salt, you might dose one third, wait 12-24 hours, dose another the next third, wait and dose the final third.
 
The is also the practice of doing what is called a salt dip. Here one mixes up a strong salt bath and then you put the fish into it. When the fish beging to act "drunk" you remove it. The motive is that a strong salt bath tend to kill off fresh water nasties pretty fast. So the fish is able to handle it for longer than the nasties. But that amount of salt for much longer than the brief dip will kill the fish if it is not removed. And finally, while this discussion is about the benefit of salt to certain fw species especially as a medication, the reverse can apply to sw fish. People who keep these are familiar with the use of a fresh water dip as a treatment.
 
How effective salt may be depends on the problem one is looking to treat as well as the specific fish.
 
Guppies can handle pretty high levels of salt, however it is not required for their long term survival. Many folks believe it can be helpful to have some salt in the water during times of stress. However, in a community setting one must consider the needs of the other fish as well.
 
Another thing to bear in mind is there are a number of fish and other aquatic critters who normally make the transition from fw to brackish and even to full salt and back again and are naturally adapted to handle this. Think about salmon for example, or amano shrimp which live in fresh but only breed in brackish.

 

[Paradise3]

I used to keep guppies in brackish water, they were at their healthiest and were breeding at an extraordinary rate. So, in my experience it is good.

 
Guppies never do well in brackish in my tanks... They breed like mad in FW so I don't need to add salt to their tank anyway. That and I have Threadfin Rainbowfish in there so would rather not risk them

 

[Nordk]

Thanks for the input guys, really appreciate it.