Salt or not

[Ronfire]

Wondering about adding salt to the pond with Koi, goldfish and plants.
What are the pros and cons?
Is it required?
The fish appear fine without it.

 

[Lisak1]

@Ronfire salting the pond used to be pretty standard, however newer information seems to suggest that it's kind of like overuse of antibiotics in humans: very useful when you need it, but if you use it all the time it loses it's effectiveness. A better way to use salt is to create a salt bath and pull the fish that needs the treatment out of the pond and into the salted water for a brief time. My understanding is it works by stimulating the slime coat which can speed healing of wounds. But it does that by creating an irritation on the skin, which doesn't sounds like it would be comfortable long term for the fish. I believe salt can also be used to rid the fish of some types of external parasites.

Salt can make it difficult to grow plants in the pond if the salinity is too high. And the only way to remove salt from the pond is by doing water changes. So for those reasons - not to mention the fact that koi and goldfish are freshwater, not saltwater, fish - I am not a proponent of salting a garden pond.

 

[IPA]

Do not use salt in the pond itself unless you can test for salinity levels. Often times there are trace amounts of salt in the water we use to begin with and over time adding salt can lead to unhealthy levels.

 

[Mmathis]

I agree with @Lisak1. I only use it as a treatment in a dip or bath (for the fish, not me).

 

[Stephen Noble]

No salt. Use it as stated above in quarantine for specific illnesses. Never as a general 'preventative' as was recommended in the 1990's.

 

[Ronfire]

Thank you, will not use salt in the pond. Hope I don't have to treat any as they are almost impossible to catch.
For a treatment tank can you use the water softener salt as it is almost 100% pure?

 

[CliffandJoann]

Early on we used to salt the pond in the fall...we haven’t used salt in about 18 years.

Ronfire you mentioned that your fish are impossible to catch...We skim the pond with
a big net frequently...our fish are so used to the net that they swim in and out of it...
Early on we often left the net laying in the pond to get them used to it.

 

[Mmathis]

@CliffandJoann I have noticed that when I’m NOT trying to catch fish — like skimming or netting stuff off the bottom — is usually when I catch fish.

 

[CliffandJoann]

Our fish are so fearless, and that’s what worries me most of all...I fear they would
swim up to a raccoon. They swim right up to my pup and my grand puppy.

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Our fish are so fearless, and that’s what worries me most of all...I fear they would
swim up to a raccoon. They swim right up to my pup and my grand puppy.

Mine are the same way with our dogs - they have no fear & swim right up to them. But, somehow they know the difference between the resident dogs & wild predators, because I can see how upset they are (hiding/skittish behavior) when we've had a raccoon fishing the pond edge at night. (Unfortunately this doesn't stop us from occasionally losing a fish to predation. I guess they're not all so savvy...)

 

[CliffandJoann]

Well, I guess our fish aren’t savvy ... They are like little puppy dawgs; they go running up to everyone,
with their little puppy dawg eyes begging for food. As a matter of fact we call them ‘the pups’