[joe kool]

Boxermom.

I've used salt in all my freshwater tanks to the tune of about 1 TBS per 10 gal for years now. "most" FW fish benifet from the added salt more than there are any negatives for using it. Some cories and other FW fish are pretty salt intolerant but that's a small %. The "catch phrase selling point" it improves gill function, stimulates slime coat production, and scale fromation but in the real world there are many FW fish that are very salt tolerant and will actually seek it out to a certian dilution over straingt FW if available in their natural habitat. Other FW fish have a large ammount of salts and dissolved solids in thier natural habitat (african rift lakes, tanganyika in particular) and need them to thrive as they have adapted to it over time. So just generalizing and saying no salt in any FW doesn't quite fit. I'd reccomend against salt for cories and a limited "short list" of FW fish but as a whole msot would show some benifet of 1 to 2 Tsp and up to 1 TBS of salt (some even more) but only after researching the natural habitat for that species. "Tank raised" species don't always negate this need either as they have adapted to thier natural waters over many many years centuries in some cases and may have only been tank raised for the last few generations and therefore still have that adaptation "built in"