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

[RupertofOZ]

Yes... salting to 1ppt will stimulate slime coat production... and ease transport stress...

It will also mitigate against any nitrite spike that might occur with the introduction of fish...

1ppt wont do anything to combat any introduction of parasites though...

 

And preferable.. new fish should probably be quarantined in at least 3ppt... before introduction into a new system..

[Chris Carr]

How much of that mentioned is a direct result of the fish reducing the need to actively osmoregulate? I believe in the case of nitrite, the salt competes with the nitrite during regulation through the gills effectively diluting the nitrite concentration in the fish with only a small amount of salt. Someone did have a good link on another thread a couple months back.

Any idea at what concentration an equilibrium is reached for osmoregulation in fish? I assume catfish would be around 2ppt, as they seem to be pretty sensitive to concentrations above that.

RupertofOZ said:

Yes... salting to 1ppt will stimulate slime coat production... and ease transport stress...

It will also mitigate against any nitrite spike that might occur with the introduction of fish...

1ppt wont do anything to combat any introduction of parasites though...

 

And preferable.. new fish should probably be quarantined in at least 3ppt... before introduction into a new system..