What are the benefits of aquarium salt?

Question

I have never really had the benefits explained to me. What kind of fish need them and what kind don't? I don't use it in my tanks even though people say it's best because I'm not very educated on it. I know that I can't use it in my tank with my loach because I know that salt is bad for them. What else can you tell me?

Answer 1

Salt provides essential elements for life, but like in all other things, too much of a good thing is bad. Salt in low doses in a freshwater aquarium is beneficial to the fish as it eases osmotic pressures and assists in the formation of a proper slime coat. Adding salt to an aquarium helps to mimick the natural environment of almost all of our fish. Sometimes this is more important than others, but for most all fish it is of benifit. Is adding it to your freshwater tank required? No, certainly not, but most fish will benefit and in small doses 0.1 - 0.3% it will not harm even salt sensitive fishes like loaches. At those levels it will however kill many fungii that are in tanks and at slightly higher levels (0.6 - 1.0%) has been proven to kill freshwater ich. Even loaches can tolorate 1.0% for a few weeks. Granted, salt does not kill saltwater ich ( a totally different animal from freshwater ich) but then again, it doesn't kill saltwater fish either does it?

Salt is used to great effect in food fish production and millions upon millions of dollars has been poured into research into it's effects for fish and disease control in this growing and important industry. Thankfully we as aquarium keepers can now benefit from all of this expensive research. The information has spread from researchers, to fish farms, to vets that treat fish and finally through books and the internet it has become available to aquarium keepers. Here's a few of thousands of links to support this. It's science and it's proven.
veterinarian support of salt treatment
http://www.aquariumfish.com/aquariumfish/detail.aspx?aid=15788&cid=3806&search=
http://www.vin.com/VINDBPub/SearchPB/Proceedings/PR05000/PR00343.htm

General resource
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthyophthirius_multifiliis

Scientific research links
Supports salt treatment with heat
http://sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk/Document.aspx?DocumentID=276.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_FA006
http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/bio354l/Projects/2000/ginger_hsieh/index.html
Supports heat treatment:
http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/AS/AS-459.pdf.
Download the Ich pdf here:
http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/aquaculture/Health.php

If you have access:
http://www.haworthpress.com/store/ArticleAbstract.asp?sid=U2TAADUBS1GM8G3RFACUJ1R2G00C3U91&ID=36388
http://afs.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1577%2F1548-8454(2001)063%3C0293%3ATFIIIC%3E2.0.CO%3B2

Fish farmers and researchers have known for years what we are just now learning, salt is a good thing in limited amounts for freshwater environments. Remember, they earn their iving on this stuff.

MM

Answer 2

The loach can't tolerate salt well, that is true. Neither can catfish. Most tropicals benefit from salt because it enhances slime coat and increases their electrolytes.
Some fish that will be OK in "freshwater" are actually much better in brackish water. Mollies for example. I raised mollies for about 10 years, early 1980's until early 1990's. I used 1 rounded tablespoon per 5 gallons. The primary dealer they went to used to add 2 rounded teaspoons per 5 gallons in his non-catfish tanks and 1 rounded teaspoon per 5 gallons in tanks with catfish or loaches present.
On his instruction sheet, he recommended only 1 rounded teaspoon per 5 gallons for all tanks. He felt this would end confusion. I guess it did. For many years he bough my mollies. For many years his customers returned fish with ich and eye problems. Had the tanks been kept cleaner and the full dose of salt in the water, I'm certain many mollies would have been fine, rather than about a 50/50 split.

Answer 3

Salt can help with stress and certain parasites, and encourage growth of the slime coating, but a healthy tank has none of these problems in the first place and so salt does not need to be added, despite its popularity. In small doses it won't do any harm, but the less things you add to your water, the less complicated it is and less can go wrong.

With successful fishkeeping for twenty years now, and never using salt or any other additives except dechlorinator in my tanks, I can safely say they certainly don't need it. The trick to keeping fish healthy is removing any stress, not adding things to the water.

Answer 4

It provides essential electrolytes that tropical fish need. I have a Kuhli Loach and I use it in my 30 gallon tank. Doesn't seem to bother it in the least.

Get the right kind for your tropicals. You don't want Saltwater Aquarium Salt. You want Aquarium Salt for Tropical Fish and just follow the directions.

Edit - I see I've gotten a couple of thumbs down here. Do you people realize that in any standing water there is some level of salt? It leaches out of the ground and flows down into ponds and lakes(I guess that means there is even some level of salt in streams and rivers) where it builds to a level where it is sustained based on the inflow and outflow of the body of water. Depending on the body of water the salinity level may be low or quite high and that is one of the factors that determines what type of fish will thrive there.

Answer 5

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It helps them fight off disease and recover from it faster. It also makes them "breath" easier. It reduces stress and can help make fishies more colorful. I use aquarium salt in all of my tropical tanks and have never had a problem if anything my fish never die.

Answer 6

Aquarium salt is recommended for some kinds of fish to help prevent or treat certain types of sickness. Sometimes, a very small dose of salt (0.1%--that's one TEAspoon per gallon water) is used to prevent or ease stress in fish. Some fish owners also use salt perpetually, but this is really not recommended, especially for salt-intolerant fish, like your loach. Others recommend it as treatments. They suggest salt dips or increasing the concentration to (0.3%--3 TEAspoons per gallon water) to treat ick or fungal infections.

Some fish, like salt-water fish need salt because their bodies are more adaptive to having salt in the water. If there is no salt in the water, then they will die because their tissues will absorb too much water, and they will be unable to function. If you have freshwater fish (like your loach, most aquarium fish, and goldfish) you should not need to use salt.

You also need to be careful, because salting the water can burn aquatic plants as well as harm your fish, if you're not careful.

Answer 7

Aquarium salt is for fish that are from teh ocean or areas where teh water has salinity(amount of salt) above normal(freshwater like what you drink or what goldfish live in) Dolphins and whales and nemos(clown fish) and dorys(blue tangs) are fish that live in salt water.Goldfish guppies, loaches, and gouramis are some fish that live in freshwater(no salt). There is also a mix called brakish water. Some species of Puffer Fish live in brakish water.

Answer 8

As g said is is SAID to do certain thing but honestly the downfalls out weight the benefits especially in the quantities it needs to be in, by that time it will kill your fish. NO salt is needed in your tank. A heatlthy tank needs nothing! Do not let anyone tell you differently. NO and I mean absolutley NO scientific studies except by quacks and understudies have proven the need for salt. IF that were the case, they would salt manually ( and salt is the most inexpensive commodity next to corn every lake and river) BS it provides nothing of benefit. It does NOT kill ich, ich does not like salt, but if that were the case, why do salt and brackish water get the ich? At least you asked. Salt really provides nothing to fish. no benefits at all. Minerals which are depleted anyway from regular salt. Salt is bad for loach's since they are salt sensitive. Seriously, don't listen to the old myth about salt. Even ich, ich is a parasite that is found in all water , including tap. It was an old myth that adding salt to the water would kill this parasite. Ich does not like salt but it still lives very well in salt water. It just isn't as prevelant. The idea of salt dips for fresh water fish kiled ich, nope it just dropped the parasite into the salt dip bowl, as with your tank, add salt bad for fish, salt in the concentrations needed will still have ich in the tank and your fish would die before the ich. Which is why 99.99 % of all vet manuels do not mention salt or salt water dips. Medicine only to rid ich. Slime coat, Fish get their slime coat from minerals included in salt. not from salt itself.

Salt is naturally occuring in any body of water at less tha .01 ppm. They still get ich. My salt water is 1.25 salinity and they still get ich. It is a myth.

There are no real Benefits uther than in the foods to absorb.

I don't care who give s you what studies form us govt. sites, I will give you 100 more that say no from Harvard and Stanford at crete and NOVA & Discovery that tell you differently. The books are based on old research and BS assumptions.

I too have been a fish keeper for more than 30 years and never used salt in any of my freshwater tanks or ponds.

Answer 9

All I know is that mollies need salt. It protects fish from disease like ich and dropsy. Loaches don't have any scales and that's why they can't have salt.

Answer 10

kills parasites and can make your fish's colors really come out