i just bought an oscar fish and i havent put any salt in the tank yet, can i use sea salt or table salt?

Question

and can i add salt while the fish is in the tank or have already sscrewed up and my fish will be dead tommorow?

Answer 1

its funny reading all of these answers. Yes its a freshwater fish, but i've been to an aquarium/store where they used aquarium salt in every one of their tanks fresh and salt. Obviously they didnt use much salt in the fresh, but they still did and i never seen fish as lively or as healthy before. Plus salt is a basic step in the help to cure fish disease. So basically your fish will be fine without it....but dont let these guys make you feel like an idiot. But yea no table or sea salt...i'd use only aquarium salt for anything its not expensive.

Answer 2

I would not add salt to an oscar tank, it is not good for them. For great info from the experts who take great care of oscars, visit www.oscarfish.com -- they have a section in the oscar forum on top about why it's bad to put salt in the tank. If you've added some, your fish won't die, but it's better to stop. Good luck!
(and unless a fish is brackish, salt should only be used to help cure an illness. Some people put it in there all the time to prevent illness, but that is not good for most fish)

Answer 3

I wouldn't add any salt, it's not required, and he'll do fine without it. I recommend only using salt to treat for ich or fungal infections. But you can use any kind of salt, it's been proven the iodine in table salt is to minute to cause any problems, or sea salt, aquarium salt, kosher salt. Here's a good article on salt in tanks and what kinds etc.:

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/salt.shtml

Also, if you do add salt to a tank at any time, you'll want to first mix it in a bucket of water and dissolve it. Don't ever want to just add it into the tank directly.

Answer 4

You are kind of limited by the size but true and false percula, banggai cardinals, pajama cardinals, royal grammas, fire fish, clown gobies, pseudochromis, basslets, and most damsels. I would wait to see what you get with your live rock before you start adding other inverts. Sea horses shouldn't be housed with other fish. They really should have only specific tank mates and require a different set up here. Star fish, cucumbers or urchins as well should not be put into this tank. There isn't going to be enough for them to eat in here unless you keep target feeding him even then there isn't enough to graze on. PS NO Frog fish here. They will eat everyone else.

Answer 5

If you use any salt at all - and a pinch should be in each tank regardless if fresh water or saltwater fish ... as all needs some salt even if in traces -

NEVER - EVER ... USE TABLE SALT !!!!!

Table salt will not only kill your fish - it will kill you in the long run.

There are many different chemicals in table salt that allows it to POUR WHEN IT RAINS ... in fact - it keeps the salt from absorbing in to cells and causes many health risks.

Here is an experiment - try to can foods in jars or cans with table salt instead of pickling salt. Two identical jars - one use pickling and one use table salt ... table salt will mush your cucumbers .. .while pickling salt will keep them crispy - why? Pickling salt is pure and unadulterated and table salt was created to kill you - seriously.

Answer 6

I never used salt in my tank and my Oscars grew to a ripe old age.

Answer 7

You need not add any kind of salt to the Oscar tank, just use a little bit of stress-coat solution and use aeration in your tank.

:-D

Answer 8

Sea Salt or Rock salt make the ideal choice. Kitchen salt tends to have less of the salts prevalent in the above two categories.Most Aquarium fishes however adjust to the environment in which they are placed

Answer 9

Oscars are south American cichlids, so they don't "need" to have salt in their water the way the Africans do. If you like to add salt to their tank, small amounts won't hurt them, but you can wait till you have the proper aquarium or rock salt to put it in.

Answer 10

omg, don't use either!!!! lol the table salt has iodine in it, sea salt not good for a freshwater fish, go to your pet store, and pick up fresh water salt, it's in a white box. use what the box says.

enjoy your fish