Salt and Amano Shrimp

[guns286]

I've been reading about the benifits of adding 1 tablespoon of salt for every 5 gallons of water in my tank. They say it will help with ich and generally create a healther environment for the fish. I have 2 questions. How will the salt effect my amano shrimp? I know iodine is a no no. But what if the salt is iodine free? Also, they say that if you dont have sea salt you can use kosher table salt. Any thoughts on that? The idea is that as long as its just pure salt (no chemicals added) the benifits will be the same. As you can probably tell by my question I have a one pound bag of iodine free, kosher table salt but am afraid of adding to the tank.

 

[severum mama]

IMO the only reason to use salt in your tank is if you are treating ich. There are lots of myths in this hobby that continue to be perpetuated for whatever reason, and salt as a general tonic/disease preventative is one of them. There's no real evidence to back it up and your fish (and shrimp) will be just fine without it.

 

[An t-iasg]

When I started this hobby, I used to add some aquarium salt for freshwater tanks after I did a water change. Then after some reading I decided to discontinue it. The fish more than likely don't need it and won't benefit from the added effort and money on your part. My fish didn't show an obvious change either way. In my opinion, keeping the water clean (regular water changes) replaces any minerals needed. You don't need to add any with the addition of salt.

Salt can be beneficial during an ich treatment, but as a regular weekly additive, I would say it is not necessary.

I realize your question is about shrimp and I've never had shrimp. A quick search shows that this shrimp seems tolerant of salt but I would suggest that adding it isn't necessary.

 

[beglely]

Actually stepped into a petco recently. Every one of thier tanks had little clear tupperware filled with aquarium salt that said "Petco uses and recommends aquarium salt for freshwater fish". :/ Ive only used salt when treating illness' as well, so I wouldnt bother adding it otherwise. Amano shrimp do require salt to breed in tho, so it wouldnt kill them in small amounts. But unless your trying to breed them (which is difficult as the shrimplets go thru a larvae stage) then just let the water be as it is.

 

[severum mama]

But amano shrimp breeding would require brackish water, for which you would need marine salt mix. Aquarium salt doesn't replicate brackish conditions.

 

[spoonman]

Actually stepped into a petco recently. Every one of thier tanks had little clear tupperware filled with aquarium salt that said "Petco uses and recommends aquarium salt for freshwater fish". :/ Ive only used salt when treating illness' as well, so I wouldnt bother adding it otherwise. Amano shrimp do require salt to breed in tho, so it wouldnt kill them in small amounts. But unless your trying to breed them (which is difficult as the shrimplets go thru a larvae stage) then just let the water be as it is.

Does Petco sell this salt by any chance?????

 

[beglely]

But amano shrimp breeding would require brackish water, for which you would need marine salt mix. Aquarium salt doesn't replicate brackish conditions.

Thats what I meant. Thanks for clarifying for me! SM is correct so dont go adding regular salt. It wont work

 

[severum mama]

Does Petco sell this salt by any chance?????

LOL.... I bet they sell tons of it!

 

[spoonman]

Funny how they tend to recommend things that they sell. Coincedence? , you be the judge......

 

[mgamer20o0]

i agree with SM on both of these points.

 

[bs6749]

IMO the only reason to use salt in your tank is if you are treating ich. There are lots of myths in this hobby that continue to be perpetuated for whatever reason, and salt as a general tonic/disease preventative is one of them. There's no real evidence to back it up and your fish (and shrimp) will be just fine without it.

What other myths are there about salt? I was never one to add salt to my display tanks because the fish don't "need it" but there are actually quite a few benefits of having it in the tank.

Salts can add calcium and magnesium to the water to provide an increase in GH. They can neutralize harmful effects of nitrites and nitrates. They can relieve constipation in a fish and flush out it's insides. They are a stress reliever, and let's not forget about the antibiotic properties of salts. It is for that reason alone that I add salt to my QT tanks. I don't keep salt in my display tanks but QT tanks always have salt in them.

 

[severum mama]

Cool. Go for it then.

 

[bs6749]

Cool. Go for it then.

So you aren't going to provide any supporting evidence about how salts are basically "useless"?

 

[severum mama]

We're not talking about a QT here. We're talking about a display tank, and as there is no mention of disease issues or nitrite poisoning, there is no need for salt. Why bother with it? I never said salt doesn't have its place in certain situations. But you're bringing up situations that are irrelevant to this thread.

As far as being a general tonic/disease preventative, what I know about it is that it stimulates slime coat production because it is an irritant. I'd personally rather not add an irritant to my tank unless it is needed (ich treatment). If you want to, then go for it. That was the point of my post.

 

[HN1]

I've been reading about the benifits of adding 1 tablespoon of salt for every 5 gallons of water in my tank. They say it will help with ich and generally create a healther environment for the fish. I have 2 questions. How will the salt effect my amano shrimp? I know iodine is a no no. But what if the salt is iodine free? Also, they say that if you dont have sea salt you can use kosher table salt. Any thoughts on that? The idea is that as long as its just pure salt (no chemicals added) the benifits will be the same. As you can probably tell by my question I have a one pound bag of iodine free, kosher table salt but am afraid of adding to the tank.

IME, salt is useless especially when you're talking about aquarium salt. Any help with Ich it can provide requires a heat / salt regimen and is not a prophylactic meaning that you have to already see Ich and table salt is a bunch cheaper than the aquarium salt. I never added salt to shrimp tanks. If you want to breed the amanos, you will need to use marine salt as mentioned earlier, but if this is a display it may likely do more harm than good. The "benefit" for salt use that I've seen cited most often is that it increases slime coat which helps ward off disease. It does that by stressing them. Why stress them to begin with? Clean water, proper filtration, good maintenance and QT practices render the use of salt in a FW aquarium obsolete. I have no imperical scientific data for not using it (nor do the ones that are proponents of it) and just going by my experiences and from the advice of very successful local breeders and the FW exhibit biologists at the Ga. Aquarium and Tennessee Aquarium. And yes, I did speak to them specifically on this topic.