How much salt should I put in a freshwater tank with a sick fish?

Question

I want to make sure I do not put in too much. Don't worry, it is aquarium salt. Someone recommended it for a swim bladder problem he has. I've already gotten him peas to eat in hopes that it will just flush out and he will be fine. I'm really worried because I'm going away on spring break very soon and have nobody to watch/take care of him, only the automatic feeder :( I hope it's not an infection. He has the exact symptoms of a swim bladder disorder, he is a red cap oranda. I'm switching his food too, the other stuff had corn starch in it, but I used it for the whole year I had him and he didn't start having problems until recently.

Answer 1

For most tropicals and goldfish one tablespoon to every 5 gallons up to 1 teaspoon per gallon is good.


EDIT: see this website:
http://www.goldfishinfo.com/ailment1.htm#bladder
http://thegab.org/Articles/Buoyancy.html

Answer 2

Use 1 tea spoon full for every 05 gallon of water. Use non iodized salt only..

But remember, this is just a temporary thing for the fish. It is NOT GOOD to keep FW fish in a saline environment for their entire life. In the past, people use to add salt to their tanks because they did not understand the osmoregulatory system and they also did not understand the nitrogen cycle and salting a tank actually makes the ammonia spikes less harmful to fish. Their ignorance in adding salt actually saved many of their fish when the tank was cycling or in the case of people that use to fully break down and clean their tank every month, adding salt helped their fish through the ammonia spikes that followed. With our current knowledge of the osmoregulatory system and the nitrogen cycle, salting a tank on a permanent basis is not necessary and is actually harmful to the fish and can actually cause dropsy is some fish.

Answer 3

1 Tablespoon for every 5 gallons, wait 24 hours and do a 20 percent water change. then do a 20 percent water change every 2 days for 10 days to get all the salt out. Remember that salt does not evaporate.

Answer 4

Your fish is sick and if you have other fish that are healthy then you need to remove the sick fish and just treat that fish. Salt is just for open wounds. Sounds like you have bloat. I would go to cichlid-forum.com and consult an expert. Bloat can be treated, but often leads to death. Bloat is a condition of blockage in the intestine from too much protein. A common occurance in many of todays fish food. I speculate your overfeeding your G.Fish.

www.txholeyrocks.com

Answer 5

check with pet shops that sell fish. they can tell you what kind and how much salt to use. They also sell chemicals to add to the water to fight infections.
I had the same problem with mine, and the pet shops were a tremendous amount of help.

Answer 6

One rounded teaspoon per 5 gallons if catfish or other scaleless fish are present. One rounded tablespoon per 5 gallons if it is a "brackish" fish like mollies. Two tablespoons for others.

Answer 7

i put it in a cup it is better