LFS Keeping fish in salinity 1.019 good or bad

[IPowderBlueTang]

Is it better for LFS keep fish in lower salinity or not! What are the pro and con's

[kau_cinta_ku]

it isn't a prob. for the fish in general it is just cheaper in salt costs for the LFS but long term it isn't a good idea to keep it that low IMO. some LFS say that running it at 1.019 helps with ich but it it doesn't. it needs to be 1.009 to help with ich

[papagimp]

Keeping it lower like that allows them to save costs on salt mix, they don't keep fish for very long usually so I'm sure there not too worried about any ramifications on the livestock. Way too low in my opinion, be sure to acclimate fish and inverts properly and take your time doing so.

[funman1]

This is perfectly normal for a fish only system.
Many FO keepers keep them this low.
~Steve~

[Mariner]

IMO, it's not going to hurt most fish, and as funman said, many with FO tanks keep their SG in that range.
The problem is in bringing the fish home to put in your reef tank where the SG is kept at 1.026 or so for the benefit of corals. It is extremely stressful for fish to acclimate rapidly to a higher salility (adjusting quickly to a lower salinity on the other hand is not nearly as stressful). So take your time with acclimation -- think in terms of hours instead of minutes, slowly bringing salinity up in the holding container or QT tank.
HTH,
Mariner

[Shagsbeard]

There's no problem at all if you properly quarentine your fish. You can bring the salinity up from the LFS's level to the level of your tank over the course of a month.

[BTTRFLYGRL]

lower SG is fine , but not long term. It can eventually do damage to the fishs liver and kidneys.
An SG or 1.019 may reduce stress, but does not help with parasites. As stated above SG needs to be at 1.009 for ich and under 1.015 for Flukes.
I too would worry about placing a fish kept in a lower SG in our displays or qt's where the SG is at a normal level..Fish can handle a rapid drop in salinity, but a rapid increase can send them into shock..possibly kill them
If you know in advance, you can raise it slowly..But I wonder how many places actually let customers know:confused:

[papagimp]

Does nobody here think that if the LFS is keeping fish at 1.019 that there corals are being kept at the same? All the LFS I go to house there fish and corals together most the time. It's one thing if there doing this intentionally as a knowledgable method of fishkeeping, it's another if there just being cheap.

[bureau13]

Actually, I think all of the LFS I've been to keep their fish stock and corals separate. They have a few fish in with their big coral tanks usually, but the fish which are actually for sale are kept separate. IMO this is a good thing, because the fewer fish that get rotated through the coral tanks, the less chance of parasites like ich getting in the coral tank.

jds

[Andrew]

There's a few large chain stores around here who keep the salt low to help them save some money.

[Amphiprion]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8828420#post8828420 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BTTRFLYGRL
lower SG is fine , but not long term. It can eventually do damage to the fishs liver and kidneys.
An SG or 1.019 may reduce stress, but does not help with parasites. As stated above SG needs to be at 1.009 for ich and under 1.015 for Flukes.
I too would worry about placing a fish kept in a lower SG in our displays or qt's where the SG is at a normal level..Fish can handle a rapid drop in salinity, but a rapid increase can send them into shock..possibly kill them
If you know in advance, you can raise it slowly..But I wonder how many places actually let customers know:confused:

I agree completely. Most of the fish we keep remain in reef areas most or all of their lives and are never exposed to salinities lower than that of the reefs themselves, so there is no good reason to keep them in less in aquaria. Much of the supposed 'benefits' to keeping them in reduced salinity indefinitely are not as great as one might think (almost negligible and detrimental, as BTTRFLYGRL said, in some cases). I keep all my reef fish and invertebrate systems at around 1.026-1.027. At the store I work at, we try to keep it no lower than 1.023, but I am working on getting levels up to NSW standards. We have noticed less fish stress and an overall drop in mortalities since it was raised from 1.017-1.019 to the current level.

[IPowderBlueTang]

The reason I ask is the LFS tells me it keeps the ich and other disease away from the fish. But it is a PITA when I have to buy a fish and drip for 2-3 hours to bring up the salinity to 1.025 to match my Q-tank!

[bertoni]

I think the lower SG is to save money. 1.019 isn't low enough to give ich or other diseases a problem.