African Cichlids, yellow labs, require salt?

My pet shop sells cichlids as bracket water fish. Do african cichlids require salt in their water?. Please give details
Answers:
African cichlids aren't brackish and don't require (sodium chloride) salt. The types of salts that they benefit from isn't sodium chloride, but rather other salts and minerals which raise the general hardness (GH), carbonate hardness (KH) and pH of the water. If you see products such as rift lake salt or african cichlid salt, this is generally what type of salt it is (used to mimic the properties of Lake Malawi %26 Lake Tanganyika). Ordinary baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) will work well with these fish (do a search on "rift salt recipe").

These particular fish thrive in hard, high pH conditions (8.2-8.6pH; although stable pH conditions lower than the optimum will also work).

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I have an african cichlid and never put salt in his water. He has lived about 2 years without salt so I would guess they don't need it. Really great fish and tank stays clean for long time peiods!!

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This fish is listed as a freshwater aquarium fish. I have one in a tank with a few other africans and 2 small flowerhorns. All freshwater tanks benefit from adding a small amount of salt to the water; helps keep diseases in check, helps their gills function better. I have the cichlids in a 20gal tank and I add about 1/4 cup of salt for each water change i do (20%). My cichlids are very happy, but they do NOT require salt. Hope this helps!

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Yellow Labs do not require salt, but they do well in hard water with a high pH. Do some research on African cichlids as there is much good info to be found on the net. Salt is not neccessary, but can help to heal diseased or injured cichlids and they actually seem to "enjoy" having a little salt added to their water. Disolve the salt in water before adding it to the tank (use rock salt like you use for ice cream). Yellow labs are fairly docile as far as African Cichlids go, but a large tank is preferrable to reduce aggression. The Yellow Labs are also prolific breeders and you will have lots of babies if you keep this species in good conditions.

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No they don't. They prefer a higher ph, but don't use the chemicals to adjust the ph in your tank. A stable ph is better then one that's going to fluctuate/crash with chemical use. You need to find out exactly what conditions they're keeping your fish in. If they're complete brackish, you're going to have to adjust your tank a bit to be similar to theirs. You don't want to take them from living in a brackish set up, and shock them into a fresh water set up. I know they make a certain salt/ph chemical for African cichlids, maybe that's what they're talking about for brackish. Not really brackish though. Here's some forums, try searching around or posting your question there for better answers. Not an African expert, had some before, but never heard of them being in a brackish set up before.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/

http://www.aquariumboard.com/forums/home.

http://www.fishforums.com/forum/.