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Salt Baths for Fishes

by S. N. Nagendra
of India
Aquarticles

We have all given salt baths to fishes. A short-period-dip and they are out, back to the tank. Many times we have also seen that the moment they are released back into main tank they wriggle about, run randomly, dart back and forth, etc. with heavy breathing. Hardy type fishes survive, the sensitive ones die! Why does this happen? Read further to find out...

Salt as medicine:
Whenever a fish is affected by external parasites or injuries, it leads to infection. Basically because the water in which the fish live contains several different kinds of bacteria and although they are normally good, infection may give rise to bad ones.

As a response to the infection on the fish's body (inflammatory response), there will be an increase in the water content of the involved tissues.

Water tends to follow salt. Hence, a fish placed in a dip-tub with a high concentration of salt tends to lose water due to osmosis (the movement of water molecules from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration).

Cell membranes are completely permeable to water; therefore the environment to which the cell is exposed can have a dramatic effect on the cell.

If the tank water has a higher salt concentration than the fish's intrinsic salt concentration, it will tend to draw out some of the fluid from the infected cells of the fish thereby killing the infectious bacteria. This will give some relief to the fish, but the fish will feel an energy burnout.

After salt bath:
The fish when placed in the main tank after a salt dip, tends to absorb a lot of water as the salt content will be high inside its cells…therefore there is a possibility of cell rupturing happening inside the fish's body…which may even lead to the death of the fish within a few minutes. This is definite if the fish is of a delicate species.

Hence, once the salt bath is done, don't remove the fish from the bucket immediately. Instead, add water slowly to the bucket until the concentration of salt becomes negligible. Then, after a brief period of confinement, move the fish back to the main tank. Make sure it is adapted to the main tank temperature. This ensures that the fish will not be affected by sudden changes in water conditions.

This post has been edited by naminator: Jan 18 2008, 03:55 PM

Great info bro! This maybe worth while trying if ever my flowerhorn gets sick.

Thanks again!

I tried this to kill the ich that infected my fish... Now he's back to normal and Kok is coming back nicely... :-)