Aquarium Salt

[FoundMoney]

Recently, when I bought my bristlenose catfish, the sales guy at my lfs told me he thought it would be beneficial to add salt to my tank - 1 teaspoon/5 gallons. He said it helps the fish and that they do it in all of their freshwater tanks. I read the package on the aquarium salt and it seems that it is good for fish to have a little salt in the water. It relieves stress and helps with electrolytes (whatever that means).

However, I just re-read the "Newbie No-Nos" and it says not to add salt with corys, plecos or loaches. Isn't a bristlenose considered a pleco and wouldn't it bother him? So far he seems fine so I'm wondering and considering he came from a tank with salt in it, I wonder how harmful it actually is. Am I missing something here? This is important because I'm also considering getting some corys at some point in my life.

 

[wetwetwet]

As with most things there are differing opinions and I wouldn't allways believe what fish store guy tells you.

Yes there are benificial effects from adding salt but its not advisable long term for the species mentioned - infact some don't tolerate it at all...



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[BobK]

I get the same thing from one of the lfs around my house. They said they use that same dosage in ALL their freshwater tanks and their pleco's and cories are fine. They say you just have to make sure the salt is diluted in water before you add it to the tank. In other words don't just shake the salt into the water. They almost had me convinced but if these fish don't live in salt or brackish water in the wild then why would they need it at all. It is a good treatment for parasites and some other things but I decided against it.

 

[tara spooner]

i add a very small amount of aquaium salt to my tanks once in a while...i have loaches and twig catfish and whiptail catfish....youre right they cant handle large amounts of salt all the time, but like i said i put a few granules in my 55 gallon to help keep disease away.

 

[FoundMoney]

Well, I certainly don't listen to everything that the lfs tells me otherwise I wouldn't need this site, but it's good advice nonetheless.

It seems like with everything else, that common sense prevails. Salt has its place but shouldn't be overdone or used as a matter of course. I can understand why an lfs would do it; they have high volumes of fish from different sources coming through their tanks. For the short time their fish are in them it probably does help more than it hurts.