Hello,
right now i'm interested about salt in freshwater aquariums, i saw some articles where's written that salt is good, then i talked with some people they said that salt is bad, so i wonder is anyone of you add salt in you aquarium.

Well, i dont know about using it 100% of the time, but i do recomend adding it every once and a while, or when a fish is diseased. When my ammonia levels used to be al crazy in my tanks(beginner), sometimes the fish would appear very weak, and when i added salt for a little while they were able to swim, instead of sit on the gravel like how they did do sometimes. but i do have trouble raising livebearer fry to full size and color. would you know anyone that could help?

well right now i'm working with food, i quit feeding my fish with flakes and have started making food, females in breeding tanks seems healthy and takes this food with no hesitation, but if aquarium is without plants, water quality drops pretty fast. And just tested that thing with youngsters to put them in small tank and feed with brine shrimp, they seems growing faster than in large tank and i used only ice cubes of brine shrimps+some of my own made food and some discus beef heart mix

and for salt i have some difficulties with koy swordtails, this is like 5th boght from dealer, from rest 4 boghts left only 1 male every time i buy like 15-20 of them, they seems healthy for like 1-2 weeks and then in few days all gone, i think mabe salt would help me to change anything. Mabe anyone have difficulties with them too, and could help me with them?

It is not bad to add small amounts of salt. I would however not add table salt, but instead salt obtained from evaporated ocean water. It contains more than just NaCl. You can find this at most pet stores and they will indicate how much salt per gallon.

As you might know or maybe you don't care, I specialized in Fancy Swordtails & Platies beginning in the early 1980's to a year ago.
I too used to think you needed to add salt to ALL Livebearer tanks (because a lot of early publications suggested too). I finally was educated that it is-not neccessary, in fact it can weaken the immume system in the fish and if they are put in a tank without this they can become sick more easily than fish not kept under these conditions.

Darrell E. Mefford

Darrell I one hundred percent agree. There is so much myth about livebearers having to have salt. It is benefisical in cases but not necessary. I only use it occasionally
gerard94114@yahoo.com

Yes Gerard, the late/ great Derek Lambert put it best "Save the salt for the kitchen table".

Darrell

I always save the salt for treating ich but that means I almost never use it. I do inspect fish before I bring them home.
I breed pet shop type mollies and know they will thrive in anything from my hard tap water to pure ocean salt water but that does not mean they need all that salt. Some of the other less common livebearers that several of us keep not only do better without any salt but really do not tolerate it as well as some of the common livebearers do.

Do not use salt in tanks with swordtails. It is definitely not necessary.

How about Sailfin Mollies? Or mollies in general? I kept Sailfins years ago, and they always ended up with the shimmies without salt. I just picked up some nice golds, and have them in salt.