Opinions on Salt

[Phil Slaton]

I have been seeing more and published on the benefits of adding salt to grow tanks. I raise Koi, Trout and Catfish. What is the opinion out there in our Aquaculture world, should salt be added to the tank water in low quantities, say 1 to 1.25 ppt simply to condition the water before fish are added?

Thanks for taking the time to reply

[Larry Reinhardt]

I'm a retired Koi farm owner, I used a lot of plain old rock salt when harvesting and moving my fish. When I moved the fish from the grow-out ponds in SC to my place in Central Floria the first tank they went into had 3 lbs of salt per 100 gallons of water, this would flush them of parasites. When they started to show signs of stress by rolling over they were moved to pools with 1 lb per 100 gallons of water where they remained until being moved to the sale and shipping area this was about 2 weeks later. Some of my customers maintained salt in their ponds year round.

I did the same treatment with catfish and tilapia.