Salt is an element that has its uses for fish. It can be used in two ways:

For comfort after a period of stress or secondly as a treatment. Let's see it in detail here.

Comfort treatment

To facilitate energy recovery, it is sometimes advisable to use salt. Salt helps fish save energy and recover from long trips, for example, through a phenomenon called osmoregulation. Osmoregulation is a set of processes allowing the regulation of the concentration of salts in biological fluids such as blood or urine. Fish regulate their osmotic pressure through their digestive tract, kidney, bladder, gills and opercula. Freshwater fish have tissues with a higher salt concentration than water.

The phenomenon of osmosis causes the fish to receive water passively and to compensate for its water intake the fish will eliminate large quantities of diluted urine. The salt will therefore reduce the differences in concentrations between the inside of the fish and the outside, will limit its energy expenditure so that it retains its salt concentrations. Otherwise, osmoregulation capacities being naturally limited, when the tolerance threshold, osmolarity is exceeded, they can no longer provide the energy necessary to maintain balance and weaken.

The composition and quality of the water, the salinity and the mineralization of the aquarium are therefore of fundamental importance. If the aquarium water parameters do not meet the maintenance requirements of the fish, the fish will expend a lot of energy to adapt, compensate and weaken and then die.

Disease treatment

 To fight against the various microbes and parasites present in the water, salt can also be used for prolonged treatment. The salt in greater quantity will play the role of a powerful antiseptic, which will burst the bacteria which are on the surface of the skin and the mucous membranes and will clean the wounds and the small sores. When your fish are very sick, it will take at least 5 grams of salt for 1 liter of water and leave the fish in this treatment tank for a period of at least 7 days. This will effectively eliminate bacteria and parasites. It will be necessary to check regularly and to make sure that the water does not decrease either by evaporation and the like, because the salt remains in any case present and the concentration would increase.

Salt can fight and eliminate diseases such as fin rot, white spots (Ichtyo), Saprolegniose, dactylogyrose, examitose, Costia, Oodinium and mycoses.

The disadvantages of salt

However, there is a terrible downside to salt, it can kill pond plants, good bacteria, snails. You should also avoid adding it to all the sauces – the salt stays in your water for a very long time. Some illnesses can adapt which could lead to poor results in the long run. You have to dose carefully and also know how to desalinate at the right time, by removing 40 percent of your volume of water to replace it with fresh water and repeat the operation until the water is well desalinated. There are also fish that cannot tolerate salt. Salt is medicine for fish. It is therefore aggressive in higher doses.

The use of salt is not the solution to all problems.

As mentioned above salt can be an aggressive treatment. You must ensure that the mucous membranes of the fish and its skin repair themselves completely and surround themselves with a uniform and sufficiently thick layer of protection. These are the conditions that must be kept as the main objective.

The salt will also kill the good bacteria, the denitrifiers present in the filter and the bottom. Do not use any salt. It must be food and natural. Some parasites are resistant to salt such as the leech. Finally, using salt as a treatment requires knowledge of your fish and other living beings in your pond.

It is always necessary to know what is the disease which prevails on your fish and not to treat blindly. It is recommended to learn at least about this evil that is rampant in your pool if you do not want to suffer considerable losses. The disease can spread from one fish to another in no time.

Seize your fish so that it can be examined by the veterinarian who specializes in fish farming. It is recommended to quarantine the fish and also observe the others that are in the tank and then proceed with the treatment. Make sure you know the volume of water in your pond so that you can treat in the right amount. Without overdosing or underdosing because in both cases, it can be ineffective or even fatal. Chemical treatment will not kill your plants unlike salt. Finally, when your pool has been treated, it must be rebalanced. The treatment also kills the good bacteria, so add more at the right time. You have a link here to the bacteria that you can buy and do not hesitate to add Malamix 17 present in our online store, this will strengthen the immune defenses of your fish and help them find beautiful colors.