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 this 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 journeys, for example, thanks to a phenomenon called osmoregulation. Osmoregulation is a set of processes that regulate the salt concentration 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 means that the fish receives water passively and to compensate for its water intake the fish will eliminate large quantities of diluted urine. 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 maintains 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 the balance and weaken.

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

Treatment for diseases

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

Salt can fight and eliminate diseases such as fin rot, white spot (Ichtyo), Saprolegniosis, Dactylogyrosis, Examitosis, Costia, Oodinium and mycoses.

The disadvantages of salt

There is however a terrible disadvantage to salt, it can kill pond plants, good bacteria, snails. You should also avoid putting it in everything - salt stays in your water for a very long time. Some diseases can adapt which could give bad 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 water volume to replace it with fresh water and repeat the operation until the water is well desalinated. There are also fish that do not tolerate salt. Salt is a medicine for fish. It is therefore aggressive in higher doses.

Using salt is not the solution to all problems.

As mentioned above, salt can be an aggressive treatment. You need to make sure that the fish's mucous membranes and skin are completely repaired and surrounded by a uniform and sufficiently thick protective layer. These are the conditions that should be kept as the main objective.

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

You should always know what disease is affecting your fish and not treat blindly. It is recommended to at least find out about the disease affecting your pond if you do not want to suffer considerable losses. The disease can spread from one fish to another in no time.

Take your fish to be examined by the veterinarian specializing in fish farming. It is recommended to quarantine the fish and also observe the others that are in the pond 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 pond has been treated, it must be rebalanced. The treatment also kills the good bacteria, so you have to 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 regain beautiful colors.