Salt For Guppies

[jimboberdy]

my lfs guy tells me that guppies do much better if a little salt is added to the water. i have looked on this forum and cant see anything to back this up other than it being a disease treatment/prevention.

have any of you guys heard of this?

jim

 

[Musho3210]

ive heard of it, but i dont believe it, for mollies, i believe it, for guppies, no.

 

[*Fishkies*]

Salt treats general problems with fish, and is often added as stress reducer. As salt helps the gills of fish function more properly.

Mollies are fish who require salt more then any other fish. So i wouldn't add salt unless you really see a need to.

 

[Musho3210]

well saltwater fish and true brackish need salt more than mollies.... im just being a jerk here

 

[Meds081603]

I have guppies in several tanks at different temps with different tankmates. they thrive and breed in all of the tanks. none of them have any salt.

 

[Davidtq]

Something not many people know about guppies is that in the wild they are often found in tidal estuary areas. It a trick of the trade to keep guppies in brackish conditions to keep them alive longer. Guppies are very adaptable, Ive kept them in conditions from blackwater ph6, to full marine. Ive not noticed any bad side effects from either conditions but I do know that wholesalers reduce their losses substantially keeping guppies in salt water I would guess some retailers do this as well.

I know the shops I used to supply didnt like it when wholesalers did this (I didnt) as the first they would know about it is when they released the stock and they saw the salt water mix with freshwater and of course the sudden change in salinity stressed the fish straight away. If youve ever kep a marine tank you would be able to recognise the effects of mixing salt water with fresh water and be able to spot when it happened when you bring new fish home. the best way to describe it is like a heat shimmer in the water you can see the two different waters mixing.

Its also worth noting wild guppies are in fact not the drab boring fish many a book makes out, there are wild strains of guppies that are more beautiful (IMO) than many of the line bred fish we see in shops.

 

[andywg]

Salt treats general problems with fish, and is often added as stress reducer. As salt helps the gills of fish function more properly.

Mollies are fish who require salt more then any other fish. So i wouldn't add salt unless you really see a need to.

How does changing the water from the conditions that a fish has evolved over millions of years to live in help it?

This belief came about from a misunderstanding of osmoregulation. Because a FW fish maintains a higher salt level in its body than the surrounding water it was decided that increasing the level of salt in the water would help said fish maintain its osmotic balance. However, you are now placing the fish in different conditions. For most of the suggested dosing levels of "tonic salt" there will be almost no real change to the make up of the water and you probably won't do any harm, but won't do any good.

However, adding salt to a tank with fish in it that are not equipped to deal with salt in the water (Such as softwater tetras) cannot be considered a good idea, especially if the fish is already ill.

Now this is less important with guppies and mollies because, as said, they have a great tolerance to salinity (guppies can survive and even breed at 150-200% strength salt water). However, most Primary FW fish (those that evolved in FW rather than evolving in SW and recently moving into FW) just aren't equipped to deal with having salt in the water.

If you are going to add salt to an aquarium to make it brackish, make sure it is marine salt, not "aquarium salt" or "tonic salt". If you are going to add salt as a tonic, go and buy some pure table sodium chloride from a store rather than paying a fortune for a small packet from the lfs.

 

[ShoC]

well saltwater fish and true brackish need salt more than mollies.... im just being a jerk here

Damn thats why my fish keep dying

 

[Davidtq]

Its worth noting that although Ive never used Tonic salts, Salt dips work on a different theory the theory there is that the parasite cells are less resilient to osmotic pressure changes and the cells burst in the sudden changes, whereas the fish cells have stronger cell walls, its a stressfull process for the fish but it can kill off parasites etc.

Coming from the marine side of things its not uncommon to run salinity below full strength marine, for three reasons number one thats what most shops do! so its less shock for the fish on their last journey, number two the lower salinity can help repress white spot and similiar problems, number three it saves money (the reason most shops do it) Also fresh water dips work well on marines with some problems, and the fish themselves have been know to swim up river when ill, I believe tangs with infections are known to swim into fresh water to ditch their parasites then swim back out to sea.