Adding Salt?

[Peddles]

I've got some problems in my tank...my water is fine, but my silver dollar has rupture of the skin around his mouth! So alot of people advise me to throw salt (1ml/1l) into my tank...They say this is good for the fish and help in preventing and treating disease. But I read on the net that I musn't do this if I have a loach...I've got a clown fish...What's your advice? Is it save to add salt with my loach? How mutch? How often, must it be deluted, can they eat the salt?

Thanx

 

[Kay1123]

I've never had a problem as far as adding salt for a treatment. I don't keep the salt in for long periods of time... just long enough to help the fish heal.

What kind of loach is it?

Not sure how well it would work for an open sore either.

I've only ever had to use salt to battle ich once. Worked... but I didn't like it. I usually use salt along with a medication.

Not sure where you live but I use Doc Wellfish's Aquarium Salt. It has all the directions on the side. It says for treatment add one rounded tablespoonful for every 5 gallons of water. Water temperature of 80 degrees F during treatment is recommended.

Hope all goes well.

Oh, I add my salt to the filter so it doesn't float into the tank itself.

 

[jimboberdy]

has anyone else heard of salt not going well with loaches??

i hear its quite good to add a little to a guppy tank but i also have some pakistani loaches in there.

jim

 

[community begginer]

i myself have pakistani loaches in with my guppies and such.... add about half a handful for every 250lts and you should be alright.....
if not get back to me and let me have it (yell at me).... lol...
good luck....
reply back to see if i was right....
community

 

[OohFeeshy]

You do not need salt. There are plenty of posts around on the subject. Depending on the cause of the wound, either it will heal by itself, or other meds are needed.

 

[Peddles]

Thanx, I phoned the fish petshop...they were also a bit sceptic with adding salt to my tank with my clown fish...So I used Tetra Medical, General tonic....35ml on my 160-180l tank. The silver dollar is not well yet, but not worse! Maybe I'll repeat my treatment. Ps: I live in South-Africa

 

[rdd1952]

I dont have any clwns loaches but aren't they scaleless? If so, salt wouldn't be a good idea.

 

[loachman]

generally, salt is not advised for loaches. some have reported sucess but just as many have not.

if you're really worried, an antibacterial medication would probably be more beneficial to prevent infection than just salt.

Do you have a picture of the distressed fish?

 

[Peddles]

generally, salt is not advised for loaches. some have reported sucess but just as many have not.

if you're really worried, an antibacterial medication would probably be more beneficial to prevent infection than just salt.

Do you have a picture of the distressed fish?

Thanx, I also heard that salt and scale-less fish is not a good idea. Sorry, I don't have a picture. My silver dollar seem to bennifit from the meds, but my gouramie is still in bad shape.

 

[andywg]

Thanx, I also heard that salt and scale-less fish is not a good idea. Sorry, I don't have a picture. My silver dollar seem to bennifit from the meds, but my gouramie is still in bad shape.

The scaleless fish thing is a bit of a myth. Moray eels don't have scales but live fine in the sea, yet softwater tetras have scales and do very poorly in salted water.

Whether a fish can hndle salt in its water or not is more down to its osmoregulatory function and often (though not always) whether it is a primary freshwater fish (evolved in FW) or secondary (evolved more in marine waters and somewhat recently moved into FW). Secondary FW fish tend to have some of the "equipment" left over to deal with higher salinities, though there are exceptions to this general statement.