Salt

[imlisa]

I have a 26 gallon tank with 2 platys and 4 zebra danios. I've had it for about 3 months. I had another platy and 2 balloon mollies that died this week from a fungus (I think) . Anyway, I have added salt to the aquarium once and then did not add it again when I've changed the water. I didn't add it cuz there were so many differing opinions on adding it, but now I found out that the lfs I buy the fish from puts it in all their tanks. Now, I'm thinking of adding it again, but I dont' know how much of the salt I orignially put in is still in the water. Is there any way to tell? I don't want to add too much salt and kill the fish.

 

[semper fi]

after three months and as small as the tank is the salt if out of the tank.

the way to add the salt is one tablespoon per every five gallons of water. when doing water changes, only salt the water you are replacing with. if you change out 5 gallons of salt you would add 1 tablespoon for example.

do remember that you cannot use salt with scaleless fish as it will burn them.

semper fi

 

[imlisa]

I went into the fish store and was asking about the fish and the salt in their tanks. They put salt in ALL their tanks, INCLUDING the scaleless fish ( I asked). So I'm wondering if I should continue putting salt in the tank regardless of the fish, since the fish are used to it? So far I just have fish that like it and will probably continue with the same type of fish (platys, zebra danios and mollies). I was thinking of adding a smaller gourami or 2. I don't know if they normally like salt or not? I'll have to look up scaleless fish and see which ones they are. Anyway, thanks for the advice.
HUGS
LISA

 

[Dragonslair]

I would be quite concerned with your lfs putting salt in ALL their tanks as a matter of course. The first question I would ask is why do they need to do this as a procedure? Then I would look closely at their fish. Neons/Cardinals are two of the non salt tolerant species and as semper fi correctly states some scaleless fish are burned by the salt. I can understand putting a little salt in brackish water tolerant species and perhaps certain delta fish. Mollies, Guppies,Danios and Swordtails do not thrive with a constant salt bath. If you have bottom feeders, they too are not constant salt tolerant. Only you can decide if the lfs is a good one or not and if you intend to use it in the future. Don't be bamboozled by the man behind the counter giving you technical jargon, because the more technical he/she becomes, the less they really know. An experienced fishkeeper will explain everything in plain english, no matter how complex.

 

[imlisa]

Okay, thanks for the advice. So I think my question now is: if I have platys, danios and mollies is it harmful to NOT add salt? Can they thrive without it? Let's say maybe I want to add neons or some other type of scaleless fish, can they coexist with the livebearers without salt? I'm actually not sure if I'll get Mollies again. They seemed to be really sensitive to any changes in the water and they were the only fish in my tank to get sick. Since I'm a beginner I don't want to put anything in there that I'm going to kill. Could the mollies have gotten sick due to NOT putting salt in the tank? I think it was a fungus that killed them. Shortly after they died my ammonia spiked up and I lost a platy...but everything seems to be getting back on track now. The remaining 6 fish (2 platys and 4 zebra danios) are active as always. I'm waiting to add more fish until my water is stable for sure. Thanks for all the advice.
HUGS
LISA
P.S. Dragonslair, you said that mollies, guppies, danios and sword tails "do not" thrive in a constant salt bath? I thought they did??? Hmmmm help me out here, I'm clueless and don't know what to do.