Using Salt for fresh water tank to treat sick fish

[Joan Brugal]

hi, i have seen in some videos on youtube that you can treat all deseases of fish by adding some salt to the fish and reducing feeding of the sick fish. so i started researching and found out that there are some products from API that adds salt to freshwater fish.

Can i treat sick fish by moving the fish to another tank and treating it with low feeding and salt?

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Check this out. I refer to this quite a bit.  https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish

Do not use "marine" or "reef" salt, nor table salt (has anti-caking agents) - look for "aquarium salt".

This is the stuff if you're going with API brand.

I like fritz better because it is smaller granules and dissolves better, but I used API for many years prior to finding Fritz.  You'll want to dilute the salt w/ tank water before adding to the tank.

Welcome to the forum!

Edited November 14, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Joan Brugal]

perfect, i bought salt for fish at my local store, i will quarantine my fish and add salt.

will notify any changes here are some pictures.

[Joan Brugal]

Fish placed in quarantine! Added salt.

one question about feeding. Do i still feed it daily or less?

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/14/2023 at 1:56 PM, Joan Brugal said:

Fish placed in quarantine! Added salt.

one question about feeding. Do i still feed it daily or less?

There are mixed opinions on feeding in quarantine. Let’s ask @Colu

Are you treating an illness or is this a preventative quarantine for newly bought fish?

[Joan Brugal]

Both, is a new fish and i see that in about a couple of days it started to show some red/white dots on the fins. In the last reply i sent a picture of the fish

[Colu]

On 11/14/2023 at 10:22 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

There are mixed opinions on feeding in quarantine. Let’s ask @Colu

Are you treating an illness or is this a preventative quarantine for newly bought fish?

I usually feed a small amount once a day during quarantine  that's a small quarantine tank so I would feed a small amount every other day just remember with salt it's only removed though water changes if you were doing 1 table spoon for 2 gallons if you do a 2 gallon water change add 1 table spoon of salt back in @Joan Brugaland add an extra air stone during treatment 

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/14/2023 at 10:56 AM, Joan Brugal said:

Fish placed in quarantine! Added salt.

one question about feeding. Do i still feed it daily or less?

Salt is used for a variety of reasons, but think of it most plainly this way...

There are organs in the fish used for osmoregulation (how much salt % is inside the fish vs outside the fish).  This leads to energy being used for the sake of that process.  Adding some salt to the water for a small amount of time can reduce stress.  This does other things like thicken the water and it helps with gill function.  Adding air to help circulate the water becomes important at that time.

All of this is basically regardless of feeding the fish.  If you're simply doing a QT, not medication, then you're safe to feed the fish. QT = monitoring the fish and not necessarily treating the fish.

Here is a great resource on the topic as well as a brief explanation of the origin of the term.
 

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by nabokovfan87