Salt

[Tindy]

I just wanted to know if i got a fish that requires 1 teaspoon of salt per imperial gallon of water will it kill the other fish in my tank such as mollies, platties and swortails (plus their fry) and apple snails.

 

[Vip]

From what i know not at all, it can only be good for them i use it on all my tanks.

 

[gadazobe]

Salt won't hurt mollies, swordtails and platties. I don't know about apple snails, but if you have any kind of catfish it can harm them. I know that a lot of people will disagree with me, but adding salt when you have catfish does not give them the optimum conditions for a long life. They may survive, then again, they may not. Tropical catfish are strictly freshwater fish and as such, should be kept in freshwater.

 

[Tindy]

wow thanks you lot you replyed fast. in the book it just says add salt but what type of slat. cooking salt, rock salt what?

 

[gadazobe]

Aquarium salt can be bought at any lfs or petstore. It must be salt with no additives - kosher salt can also be used, but not ordinary table or cooking salt.

 

[ger87410]

On certain catfish you can. On the rest salt will kill them. Not mollies or platies or mystery snails IME. I got 2 mystery snails in a brackish tank and they are doing perfect. I think all snails are the same. I betcha it won't hurt it. I tried adding salt to get rid of pest snails, and it didn't work.

 

[Dragonslair]

It never ceases to amaze me how many people out there dive straight into a book and follow the letter to the T, without actually thing about their actions first.
I know this may sound a little harsh, but why add salt to a freshwater aquarium? If there are no illnesses or other reason other than the book says to, you need to ask yourself-why do I need to add salt?
In the natural state, salts would be dissolved from the minerals, but that is totally different to aquarium salt.
IMO salt should only be used to dis-infect or to treat a sick fish.
If you wish to add mineral salt to the water there are specialist solutions to do this. Waterlife products specialise is various additives.

 

[clutterydrawer]

which fish is it that requires salt?

 

[Tindy]

If you are in a laughing mood do not read on!!

but why add salt to a freshwater aquarium?

which fish is it that requires salt?

OK you guys promise you will not laugh at me (especially that dragon fella) but I was looking at this Anableps anableps

Check out this web page 4eyes

Does it not look cool? I know that the water level has to go down a bit but I just wanted to check the salt thing before I even considered getting one.

 

[Vip]

WTF are those things lol they look pretty cool tho

 

[Dragonslair]

I'm not going to laugh at you at all Tindy. The fish you show are species only fish and is not a general freshwater community aquarium fish. This fish has it's specialist needs. It requires a brackish water to survive. To create brackish water you need marine salt to a specific gravity of 1.010
They require a shallow water unlike other community tropical fish. They may look cool, but their needs and demands are high. The question you must ask yourelf is are you going to be happy with just these in your tank. They can grow up to around 14" each. Their diet is meat based, so your filtration unit must be at optimum performance, otherwise pollution will soon be a problem. It will smell as though you've just been too the loo for (not a wee).....

 

[CFC]

Anableps can be mixed with other peaceful brackish dwelling species which are too big for the Anableps to swallow, scats, archerfish, monos, some gobies and even some species of moray eel can be successfully combined with them provided the tank is large enough, shallow water isnt that much of a priority provided there is at least 4 inches of space between the water level and the top of the tank. They will need to be fed floating foods since they are cheifly insectovors which capture drowning insects from the surface, crickets and mealworms make the best foods for them though floating pellets intended for carnivorous fish should also be taken, also any small fish will be chased down and eaten. They are livebearers and so should either be kept singularly or in groups of 1 male to 2 females to prevent sexual harrasment, sexes can be identified in the normal manner with livebearers as the male has a obvious gonopodium.
As said full brackish water will be needed to keep them, read this artical on how to keep a brackish aquarium if you plan to carry on with your hope of keeping them http/www.fishforums.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=42435

 

[Tindy]

Thanks for the help every one.

wow i had no idea a brakish tank was soo diffrent from a normal freshwater tank CFC.

 

[clutterydrawer]

Hmm, they have those at my lfs, I'd always wondered what they were...they're always in about 4" of water and swim madly against the current. interesting fish. their eyes freak me out though.

 

[SirMinion]

They had them at one of our LFS's for a while too, marked as "foureyes livebearers" at £18 each (three inches).

They had them in a brackish tank with large greenspot puffers, and as we watched, one of the puffers grabbed a foureys from the surface and bit it's head off.

There were several other half eaten fish in the tank too.

(They had a very fat & happy dragon puffer in with tetras and a dogface puffer in with the hermit crabs too.. now there's an 'accident' wating to happen...)

My LFS isn't the brightest star in the heavens, clearly they don't understand the concept of preditory fish.