Hypo Question

harlequinnut

harlequinnut

Active Member
My 150g display is currently in hyposalinity. I was wondering what harm, if any, does it have on the fishes if I kept the display at or near hyposalinity levels permanently? When I add new fish, I would put it in qt and gradually drop qt to same salinity level as display and then introduce new fish to display tank. The tank is fish only with base rock(was live rock). My concern is if a fish is kept in hypo permanently, will it have any side effect like shortening their lifespan, etc?
 
fishtanker

fishtanker

Member
I'm not Beth or Terry...but i'll tell you what i've experienced and researched.
I've hypo'd my display i tihkn 4 times in the year now (had some bad luck with ich, mostly my fault) and my fish have shown no negative effects.
i've read that there were some experiments where angelfish were kept in salinity (not SG) of 10ppt down to 7ppt for over six months and so negative sideeffects were reported.
i personally don;'t think there are any health risks to the fish in permanent hypo however i would raise the sailinty maybe up to 16ppt or 17ppt after the initial 4 week 13ppt. no real reason for that just makes me feel better :D
 
elfdoctors

elfdoctors

Active Member

Originally posted by Harlequinnut
My concern is if a fish is kept in hypo permanently, will it have any side effect like shortening their lifespan, etc?
I agree with fishtanker. It can be done. I have seen the reports that fish have lived in hyposaline conditions for six months. I don't think anyone as tried to do this longer to answer your question about lifespan.
I wonder why anyone would WANT to do this?:notsure:
Usually your goal as an aquarist is to reproduce the conditions of the natural environment of your fish as closely as possible. Your fish have the best chance of doing well under these conditions. Unless you are trying to raise brackish fish I would try to raise the salinity up closer to natural conditions.
Hyposalinity requires more maintenance to keep the pH up. It also prevents you from having an effective clean up crew. There is less room for error in such environments. I would therefore predict that their lifespan would be shorter in the care of an average aquarist.
Just my opinion. Perhaps Beth or TerryB will give their opinion?
 
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