Salt Kills Fresh Water Fish !!

[Miles69]

I found this article and thought you might want to see it, since this is allways a topic that comes up.

http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/

FACT: Salt Kills Freshwater Fish and Shuts Down Their Kidneys.

Some disturbing news has been going around that states salt levels above 0.3% are going to cure your fish if they are all broken out in sores. This is incorrect because salt works by using osmotic pressure, and therefore will not kill bacteria that are in the fish's bloodstream. These bacteria cause diseases.
Salt will also damage your bio filter and cause high ammonia levels.
We have received call after call from Koi pond hobbyists, and tropical fish hobbyists in the last couple of months, that have ruined their pond, and/or killed their tropical fish due to over-salting. Unfortunately the salt takes awhile (a month to three months) to kill the fish. So most folks do not understand.
For more details on salt, and what it does click here.
We have a very high success rate with our healing and treatment techniques. If you want to save your fish, please take some time to read the material in the Koi pond section of our disease library.

A Koi with a severe Aeromonas infection needs to be treated with antibiotics in the food, and a secondary treatment in the water for 10-14 days. Healing time depends on the severity of the wounds, and may take up to 1 month. Salting the water with wounds like this will kill your fish!

[fshfrk]

Good info!!! Thanks

[imagirlgeek]

I'm going to play Devil's Advocate here and post a link from my 'go to' website for fish disease issues. I have studied most of the publications on this site and have been able to save many fish using the information learned here. I'm just trying to say that I trust this information. This is from the University of Florida Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory.

"Therapeutic uses for salt include parasite control, osmoregulatory stabilization, mucus production, and alleviation of methemoglobinemia in freshwater fish. Salt concentration should be based on intended use, duration of exposure, and tolerance of the species to be treated."

The Use of Salt in Aquaculture: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/VM/VM00700.pdf

I think that, yes, you could absolutely kill your fish by using too much salt, but I don't believe that using it correctly will kill your fish.

A couple things to note that could allow you to O.D. your fish with salt:
1. Salt does not evaporate, so as water is evaporating from your tank, the salt concentration is increasing.
2. Salt settles in the bottom levels of your aquarium. When doing water changes, siphon from the bottom levels.

[Darbex]

I concur with Traci

[Miles69]

Hi,
I'm still realy new at this whole fish thing, so go easy on me.. The article says .3% could cause the damage. Is that a lot?
To salt or not to salt, just seems to be a topic that is always debated, so when I saw the article posted in http://www.oscarfishlover.com/oscar-...uldnt-use-salt I thought I would share..
The other questionable topic I see is, to use activated carbon in the filter or not.. What do you think?
Thanks

[Mzungu]

No worries! You're right in saying that this is a highly debated topic! :)

As for activated carbon, if I were you, I'd start a new thread on that one so we can keep this one about salt.

Very interesting link you posted, though. I hope they post more info on that website about it, because as it is, it seems to be just a summarized warning. I'd like to hear more from them on their reasoning, and also on that experiment they recommended that any doubtful hobbyists perform. :)

[Miles69]

In the post there is a link that says click here, which has more info, but the link to the University of Florida that Imagirlgeek posted has much more info and seems more credible. so the question remains.

[Mzungu]

Yup, that's the article I was talking about, which describes the setup for the experiment, and whatnot. :) It's still pretty vague. But interesting, nonetheless. :)

[imagirlgeek]

I think it was an excellent topic to bring up. :) Personally, I think that everything you ever decide to put into your aquarium should be well thought out and handled on a case by case basis.

The info you posted points out that salt should not be used to treat a huge raw wound. I agree with that. If a fish has an ulcer, there is definitely a bigger problem and it should be researched and treated with something that will help them heal.

Thanks again for bringing up this topic! :)

[Fire_chair]

Interesting.

[blacksmith37]

Depends on what salt and what fish.

[fshfrk]

Something in the article made me think. I used to run salt all the time. I always had a fish or two with popeye. Quit using salt 1 1/2 yrs ago and have not had a case of popeye since.