adding salt to freshwater?

[dmac]

I noticed at the pet store that many of the freshwater fish said "requires aquarium salt".....Also, the girl I spoke with mentioned that all tanks there had some aquarium salt in them (Petsmart).

This is news to me. Do I add some to my new setup? how much, what kind?


I currently am running on about 48 hours of a brand new tank (30G tall), hoping to get some starter fish this weekend. My only issue currently is slightly cloudy water, tests appear OK, although I might have to do some tweaking....

[rich311k]

I never add salt to my tanks. I have never found a need to use it except to fight disease. There are some fish that require brackish water but that requires marine salt not regular salt.

[DepotFish]

Salt is unnecessary for most freshies. I suppose the store uses it to ward off any ick or other parasites and problems the fish could come in with. I think its bad advice to tell people that the fish "require" salt. Don't plan on using salt if you want to have snails or scaleless fish (most algea eaters). I'd only use it for treatment if the fish have problems, or possibly for mollies though they really don't need it either.

[dmac]

Thanks. Sounds like they are using it to ward off pesky sickness infestations in the store tanks.

I do plan on adding some interesting critters later, probably a snail and eel like fish or something.

Has anyone seen the fish that look like needles? they are top swimmers and probably about 3" long. I saw them at the store, and they look really cool, but not sure what kind they were.

[DepotFish]

Possibly needle-nose gar. If that's what you saw they get over a foot long. Most of what you see in the store will be babies so always make sure you do some researching before buying. Keep in mind also that eels are carnivores too and will make a meal of most tankmates.

[Lonewolfblue]

As for the eels, if you are planning a more aggressive tank, then they will do just fine. But if you are planning a community tank with smaller, more colorful fish, they will start to disappear. I have 2 fire eels over a foot long, and all the fish in the tank are more aggressive fish like sharks, tiger barbs, etc. And the eels do just fine with loaches as well, so I have loaches for my bottom dwellers. And finally, do research on the types of fish. I have my fire eels in a 55G, but within the next year, I will have to upgrade to a 125G minimum for them. But I'm already planning either a 265G or a 300G for them anyways. Some eels stay small, about a foot or a little more, but eels like my fire eels have the capability to grow 2 1/2 to 3 feet, and their max size listed an several sites is 40 inches.