Am I right or Petco -- Salt discussion

[swanandmokashi]

So I went to Petco today to get some more bloodfin tetra (only 1 petco in our area carries them if I am lucky). In their tank I saw there a bowl with aquarium salt in it. I was not sure if it was salt so I asked the sales person. She confirmed and said bloodfins can not live without salt (yep that is what she said) and told me to pick up some aquarium salt if I wanted to buy bloodfins!!

I explained to her that I had bloodfins for close to 2 years now, with no losses. I have aquarium salt at home which I never use and bloodfins at home are about 2-3 times bigger than what she had in her tank and about 100x more colorful and prettier She would not budge -- so I gave up -- told her to just bag the 4 tetras that I was buying today and wanted to be on my way.

What I saw next was heart breaking She had the same aquarium salt bowl in the tank that had green emerald cory catfish. Now if I understand correctly, cories do not have scales and will not tolerate salt, correct? I did not argue with her as I was not 100% but felt like buying all the 10-20 cories that were in that tank (no I did not)

Am i right that the salt can actually harm the cories?

 

[severum mama]

Hmmm.... great question. I believe that you are right that corys really don't do that well with salt added; same goes for loaches.

As far as what they told you about salt and bloodfin tetras, that is just flat out wrong. Aquarium salt isn't necessary, IMO, unless you are treating ich. Some people use it just as part of their general aquarium maintenance, but it isn't needed, just a personal preference. Having salt around, of course, is never a bad thing in case it is needed, but it's wrong to force you to buy it just to buy bloodfins when you have obviously had success with that species in the past without salt. You are 100% right about this.

 

[swanandmokashi]

As far as what they told you about salt and bloodfin tetras, that is just flat out wrong.

Yeah I had my share of wrong informations from pet stores recently. When I went to buy my 3rd bolivian ram, I was told by the pet store person that rams should not be kept with tropical fish (I am not sure what she meant there ) and they would not go well with tetras!! -- I told her I already have 2 rams with my 5 tetras and rainbow fish and they are all fine. She gave me a look like "its your call but this ram is going to die"

 

[Zagz]

I use aquarium salt very rarely. I never use it with cories or loaches. IME you have to take what people at the fish stores say with a great deal of skepticism. There are many knowledgable employees at lfs's but many many are not knowledgable.

 

[Sidi]

Agreed. Salt (with care) is good for fighting ich...although I prefer to go a pure heat route, if possible.

Salt, for brackish fish...good.

As a general additive, I don't use it.

 

[tropicalfish]

They CAN LIVE without salt.

It has come to my conclusion (not true probably) that the "salt requirement" is a method to earn money in a "decent" reason for why to use it.

You probably have more experience than the pet store. I don't use salt in my tank, especially with the fact that it has plants in it.

 

[DepotFish]

Pet store workers are in retail, as in, little educational background needed. I always have to eye up the buenos aires tetras in stores, since they are my favs, and they are never as colorful or healthy as my own. Walmart in my area probably has the healthiest fish.

 

[Burks]

Petco pushes using aquarium salt like crazy. Why....I don't know. They swore all the fish I've bought there would be dead within weeks without salt. Shows what they know!

Anything they say goes in one ear and right out the other. I prefer to listen to actual hobbyist and not someone doing a job just to party on the weekends.

 

[bs6749]

Salt can be used in QT tanks and maybe the employee at Petco is confused. Maybe she was trained to add salt to the tank during the 14 day QT period but misunderstood and thinks that they ALWAYS need salt. I don't know why they would be selling fish that are in QT though...

So was there like a pile of salt in the dish in the tank? I have heard of adding a tablespoon or so to 10/20 gallons but you make it sound like there was a lot more in there. If the salt wasn't all dissolved then they will have a BIG problem because the salt content would be out of sight, unless the salt was just recently added and was on its way to being all dissolved. Either way, I would take her advice with a grain of salt.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Maybe she wants you to use salt so the fish don't die from ich?

 

[CaysE]

I add maybe a teaspoon of salt to my 20 gallon after each water change... the shrimp seem to be more active and colorful. Plants seem fine, too.

 

[tropicfishman]

you should have asked if they needed pepper also LOL