adding salt to the water for bichirs

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
P

pudgeking

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jan 30, 2012
578
4
16
New York City
I have seen this recommended in a number of places, and I have a couple questions about it.

First, I usually see people say one teaspoon of salt per gallon. What kind of salt do you use, exactly? Does regular table salt work or do you need aquarium salt or something else?

What specific gravity would you be aiming for? Would adding this much salt be harmful to my plants?

Since it doesn't seem to be necessary, I would generally just skip it unless my sen looked unhealthy. One of the reasons that I'm asking this is that I have two young (3") "freshwater" stonefish in the tank with him. Now, I have seen reports of the fw stonefish being successfully kept in freshwater long-term, and I am willing to try it (esp for now because they are babies and are acclimated to fw; it's the mature ones that are said to need brackish/marine), but what I'm wondering is this: if I took the recommended measure of adding salt for the bichir, would this be likely to also benefit my stonefish? It wouldn't be brackish, and I wouldn't be using marine salt, but would this be better than nothing?

I know that fw stonefish is not a well known fish, but the same question could apply to any fish that is sold as freshwater but really more suited to brackish water when mature (there are a lot of fish like this). Does anybody keep bichirs with semi-brackish fish or fish that appreciate a bit of salt?

I normally wouldn't bother adding salt, but if it is mutually beneficial to both species in the tank, I might consider it down the road.

Sorry if this is an odd or stupid question; I mainly just want more specific info about the practice of adding salt for bichirs.
 
I use calcium chloride (rift lake salts) instead of sodium chloride in my poly tanks since it matches the waters they come from (most of mine are WC). I don't keep live plants in my tanks since my fish would tear them up. I suppose that plants tolerant of alkaline and hard conditions may do well in their water. I keep brackish species in other tanks containing marine salt mix.
 
ah, makes sense. Do bichirs in general prefer alkaline/hard water? Would my sen benefit from adding some crushed coral to the filter or something like that?
 
I salt my bichirs and they seem to be fine with it, i just use sodium chloride though. Oddball, Do you think my polys condition or overall long-term health will benefit from changing my sodium chloride out for the calcium chloride? They currently seem to be fat and happy and are growing at a decent pace
 
when i do add salt, i use aquarium salt, but i only use it as part of disease treatment. Bichirs do not need salt (sodium chloride) in their water. To the OP, if you're worried about the long term health of your fw stonefish, perhaps you should separate them and add salt in their tank.

as for adding crushed coral or rift lake salt (calcium chloride), it's fine to add, but i won't say it's a must for bichir-keeping. i have crushed coral in my tank as pH buffer (i'm not really trying to get the water very alkaline, just trying to prevent the pH from dropping too much between water changes). i've used rift lake salt in the past, but it can get expensive to replace with every water change, so currently i'm not using it. As far as pH/hardness, a stable consistent value is more important, as long as extremes are avoided.
 
Most of the poly come from soft water rivers in Africa. There are species found in the rift lakes however, such as ornate and a few of the larger lower jaw species.
I've kept ornates in a tanganyikan setup, and they did great. But I just used a aragonitic substrate to keep the water hard and alkaline.
Ornates have been found several miles off the coast of Africa as well, but they were likely washed out during flooding and doomed to slowly die in the ocean.
As has been mentioned though, keeping it stable is the best option.
 
i use solar salt in my bichir tank too. supposely comes from evaporated sea water, super cheap for a huge bag at home depot (hardware store)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom