This is an interesting read, make of it what you wish
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.
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
Some of these infections caused by using salt include:
Hemorrhagic Septicemia (red streaks in body and/or fins).
Saprolegnia Fungus (white cottony puffs on skin, fins or tail).
Pseudomonas Bacteria (Fin and Tail Rot).
Aeromonas Bacteria (Sores on body with ulcerations).
Heavy slime covering the fish. The fish produce heavy slime as a defense against the high salt levels.
Extreme swelling similar to dropsy.
High mortalities, sudden death and complete tank or pond wipe-outs.
Salt at high levels will also destroy the nitrifying bacteria in your filter, that keep your tank or pond cycled and ammonia free. So, if you are using salt and notice abnormally high ammonia or nitrite levels in your water... this is the cause.
Osmotic Pressure On Fish:
The use of salt is being promoted mainly by hobbyists in chat rooms, that have little or no understanding of fish pathology or osmotic pressure on fish and how this works. This is a case of hobbyists, consulting to hobbyists can be detrimental to the health of your fish.
**In the ocean, fish will swim into freshwater to rid themselves of parasites, and then swim back into the ocean. The fish do this only for a few minutes, and then return to their natural environment. The reason that the parasites fall off is due to increased osmotic pressure. When you put a marine fish into freshwater, it is like putting a heavy weight on top of the fish. So, this does not mean that this will work for freshwater fish the same way... in fact it will not work, due to the fact that you are putting fish into an environment with a much lighter amount of osmotic pressure.
Testing The Salt Theory:
A good way to test the salt theory, would be to set up 2 aquariums.
1.) Salt one aquarium (tank 1) according to the instructions that were given to you and use a dechlorinator, if you are using tap water.
2.) In (tank 2), use a nitrifying bacteria like our Aqua Gold, and a good dechlorinator for your tap water. Do not add any salt to this tank.
3.) Go down to your local fish store and purchase a dozen fish of your choice. Tell the fish collector to separate them and put 6 fish in each bag.
4.) Get yourself a small note pad, so you can keep a log of events on both aquariums. This experiment will take some time (around 2-3 months) to complete.
So, now let's look at some facts:
Salt is anti-bacterial and anti-viral. This does not mean that it is good for freshwater aquarium or pond fish. You could pour a bottle of Mr. Clean into your aquarium, and we could guarantee that it will kill any living pathogen in there, but it would also kill all of your fish. See our point?
Salt is toxic to your fish if used at high levels for long periods of time. It will shut down their kidney's, and that is why so many people have fish with "pop-eye" or fish that have the same symptom's as Dropsy. Salt is toxic to humans if ingested in quantity, and high salt levels are toxic to animals. Use some common sense with the information we have provided for you, and remember that if salt was such a great treatment option, we would have not been in business for so long.
Information obtained from
www.fishyfarmacy.com/
