Clown Loaches and salt

[kingmed]

I just bought some lyretail mollies this Saturday and put them into my tank with my two tiny clown loaches, tiny rubbernose pleco and weatherloach, question is can I add salt or will it hurt and damage my pleco and loaches. I used to keep sailfin mollies as a child back in the 70's and used no salt with good results but it seems that no matter what you did years ago, it don't work for some reason today. THANKS.

[Emma Turner]

Hi kingmed,

Clown loaches are freshwater fish and should not be exposed to salt long-term. You have a few compatibilty issues with your current stock that you need to look at. Mollies prefer much harder, more alkaline water and tend to do best with the addition of a small amount of aquarium salt. Weather loaches prefer subtropical temperatures and will require a separate tank ideally at least 4ft long. What size tank are all these fish in? If you are honestly going to be able to provide the clown loaches with the extra large aquarium and powerful filtration they require, you must look at getting more of their own kind as they are incredibly social.

These articles may be of interest:

Keeping Weather loaches....http://www.loaches.com/articles/weather-report

Clown loach info.....http://www.loaches.com/species-index/cl ... cracanthus
http://www.loaches.com/articles/an-intr ... ping-botia

Emma

[Diana]

Ditto Emma: Mollies are from hard, alkaline water, salt is optional, but I have kept them best with some salt in a low end brackish tank.
Most Loaches are from relatively soft water, from neutral to acidic (depends on species) but as far as I know, none are tolerant of salt.

[silverdoctor]

hey Kingmed

Here are 2 posts talking about routinely adding salt to a clown loach tank:

http://richelectron.blogspot.com/2007/0 ... arium.html
http://richelectron.blogspot.com/2007/0 ... stock.html

seems the clown loaches do well...

[Emma Turner]

hey Kingmed

Here are 2 posts talking about routinely adding salt to a clown loach tank:

http://richelectron.blogspot.com/2007/0 ... arium.html
http://richelectron.blogspot.com/2007/0 ... stock.html

seems the clown loaches do well...

I have to point out that that is very bad advice, silverdoctor. The person in those links is keeping those fish in horrrendouly cramped conditions and actually say they have had trouble keeping the clown loaches. They are a freshwater river-dwelling fish (the vast majority of which are still wild-caught) that require a tank at least 4ft long to start with, preferably with soft, acidic water. They do not encounter salt in their natural environment, and they will not appreciate the addition of it to their tank over the long-term. Unless those fish are moved from that tank ASAP they are going to suffer not only from being made to live in saline conditions, but also from chronic stunting. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet. A specialist forum like this has a lot of years of combined experience and as such, can readily answer such questions with confidence.

Emma

[chefkeith]

Salt should be used only when a fresh water fish like loaches are in quarantine. If salt needs to be used in the main tank then that means something has went seriously wrong, such as a parasite or bacterial outbreak.

[Dutch]

Welcome kingmed.
I haven't been on these boards for a very long time, but I've seen the issue of salt come up regularly. Don't make the mistake of thinking that putting a fish in salt water (even just a little) is the same as you swimming in it. Salt affects the gills directly and has far reaching physiological consequences not seen from the outside.