Salt Tolerant?

[Yetti]

Are otos able to survive in some salt, as I need to use some salt to kill a parasite and, other than salt I am not able to find anything in my lfs's.
Thanks for any and all suggestions.

 

[LisaLQ]

I thought I'd do a google search for salt and otocinclus seeing as no-one with experience has replied (we've only recently bought some otos, and I wasn't sure about salt):

http/www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/otocinclusart.htm

http/www.otocinclus.com/faq.html

http/www.everythingfishy.com/medicine.html

Erm they took some finding lol. I think the general idea is that they cant have salt in their tank, like other plecs. Sorry about that

I hope you get your problem sorted out and your tank is back to full health in no time

 

[geo7x]

arent they like corydoras in the way that they dont actually have "scales" as such, and this makes them more vulnerable to burns from salt even more than other fish? im not sure though.

 

[KathyM]

I've used salt in my old tank with plecs and cories if that helps. I used a low concentration though - 5g (1 teaspoon) per gallon, but it worked wonders and there were no ill effets to fish or plants. I'm not sure about otos though, I haven't owned them before.

 

[Yetti]

Thanks everyone. I was wondering if they would be tolerant to a bit of salt, about 1 tsp per 5 or more gallons, thanks for help guys!

 

[andywg]

Like almost all fish (including cories and plecs) they can tolerate salt in the water for short term (such as treatments). whether a fish has scales or not has no effect on how it reacts to salt in the water. Look at the reef dwelling catfish Plotosus lineatus and all the moray eels. None of these have scales yet live fine in marine conditions.

The reason why most cories and plecs should not have salt in their water is because they have an osmoregulatory system designed to handle water with next to no appreciable salt content. By placing them in salted water for the long term you are placing a greater strain on the osmoregulation and will likely leave the fish susceptible to illness and disease.