# Salt and Scaleless Fish



## PlatyLady (Oct 27, 2006)

Hello, All,
I keep all livebearers except one golden algae eater and an albino corey (soon to be three cories, hopefully). Everyone keeps telling me I should really add some salt for my livebearers, but I'm wary about it because of my cory. I know this question probably gets asked a million times, but what amount of salt would be beneficial to the platies but not harmful to the cories? Thanks in advance! :fish:


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

Cories are not scaleless. The usual dose for livebearers is 1 tablespoon for each 5 gallons of actual volume (note that actual volume is not the same as tank size - once decor are added, they hold quite a bit less).


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## PlatyLady (Oct 27, 2006)

perhaps I was mistaken about them being scaleless, but I am told that they are sensitive to salt. Is this untrue? Should I just add salt per the 1TBS/5g rule of thumb?


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## harif87 (Jun 5, 2006)

Cories are sensitive to salt level changes, which is why you need to add the salt slowly, otherwise the cories will be affected by it. They can tolerate higher levels, but like i said, it has to be a slow change.


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## PlatyLady (Oct 27, 2006)

how slow are we talking about? Like one tablespoon at a time once a month or something?


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

No, they are fine with that amount of salt added all at once. Just make sure you dissolve the salt completely in declorinated water before adding it to the tank or it can burn their gills. When doing water changes, top off the evaporated water with plain declorinated water first, then remove however much water you're going to change and just dose the amount of water you are replacing. Salt doesn't evaporate with the water, it will just get concentrated.


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## PlatyLady (Oct 27, 2006)

thanks, I'll give it a shot


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## Buggy (Oct 17, 2006)

This is not my post but I do have a question related to this topic. What kind of salt is best? Marine? Aquarium? Epsom? Non Iodized table salt? I have the same situation only my livebearers are mollies. I also have corys and two sharks.


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## PlatyLady (Oct 27, 2006)

I've heard aquarium is preferrable when adding to freshwater tanks, but I could be totally mistaken


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

For livebearers, marine salt is best as it has the trace elements they need. For treating ich, whatever you have handy.


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## Buggy (Oct 17, 2006)

And adding the reccomended amout of marine salt for livebearers..ie mollies and platies...won't harm corys or shark (redtail black shark and chinese shark)? What about snails?


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## Lupin (Aug 1, 2006)

The question is why add salt when your livebearers can adapt. I don't think it is totally necessary at all unless the livebearers have been adapted before in conditions where salinity is high.
Personally, adding salt is a waste of time and money especially when your fish have adapted to non-salt conditions. Unless your fish really require the salt, I wouldn't add it if I were you.


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

Yes, livebearers can adapt, but they do better with a bit of salt added. IMO its the difference between having them in acceptable conditions and having them in optimal conditions. They tend to live longer and be healthier with salt added than when they are in salt-less water.

Yes, the sharks and snails will be fine with that amount of salt.


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## harif87 (Jun 5, 2006)

Also adding aquarium salt when high levels of nitrite are present. - Just another use of aquaurium salt.


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

Now I'm wondering, are all of these fish in a 10g tank? Along with the ones in your signature? If so, you are badly overstocked. The RTBS gets very aggressive and territorial, as do Chinese algae eaters (which are neither Chinese nor very good algae eaters). RTBS needs a minimum of 55g IMO because of that. Both the RTBS and CAE get far too large for a 10g tank.


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## girth vader (Apr 24, 2006)

Blue said:


> The question is why add salt when your livebearers can adapt. I don't think it is totally necessary at all unless the livebearers have been adapted before in conditions where salinity is high.
> Personally, adding salt is a waste of time and money especially when your fish have adapted to non-salt conditions. Unless your fish really require the salt, I wouldn't add it if I were you.


yes and no. true most tank raised fish don't know what their native water conditions are, however over hundreds even thousands of yrs, they have adopted many internal evolutions that have helped them adapt to native conditions. You would have to breed out these adaptations for a long time. We might not know what they have done to adapt, but rest assured they have inner workings that require them to have native water conditions and need that in order to fully thrive. Could be something as small as chemo receptors, but I'm sure they are there! IMHO anyhow


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## Old School (Jan 29, 2007)

Well,unscientifically speaking,the best molly tank I ever had was one with marine salt added.They did great in that environment


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