Totally weird question, but is there anything I can do for fish that accidentally ate salt?

[Criscar]

I was eating a large salted pretzel near our pond when my daughter asked where her fish was. I pointed, and the act of pointing caused a single large grain of coarse salt to fall into the pond, which was immediately eaten by a 4” shubunkin before I could do anything. The fish did not spit it out. The only thing I could think was to give it more food to help slow the absorption - there are no emetics for fish, are there? Any thoughts on what’s likely to happen?

Thanks!

 

[mrsclem]

A small piece of salt is not going to hurt a fish. There are people who keep salt levels in their ponds. Its an old school idea but one little bit of salt is nothing to worry about. I would not try to fix the situation

 

[Criscar]

A small piece of salt is not going to hurt a fish. There are people who keep salt levels in their ponds. Its an old school idea but one little bit of salt is nothing to worry about. I would not try to fix the situation

thanks, it just seemed like a concentrated amount of undiluted salt for a relatively small fish. I mean, we humans typically only consume a teaspoon of salt over the course of an entire day But no doubt you are right!

 

[mrsclem]

You would be surprised at how much salt we actually consume in a day. Almost everything we eat contains salt. Unless you are reading labels, it's probably more like 2 tablespoons a day.

 

[GBBUDD]

I would not try to fix the situation

AGREED

 

[Criscar]

You would be surprised at how much salt we actually consume in a day. Almost everything we eat contains salt. Unless you are reading labels, it's probably more like 2 tablespoons a day.

I actually have a chronic illness that requires me to consume far more salt than the average person. I know it seems like we must eat tablespoons of salt a day, but we definitely don't. The average daily salt intake for an adult in the US is 3400 mg of sodium (recommended is less than 2000mg), which is the equivalent of 8.5 grams of NaCl/table salt, or 1.4 teaspoons of salt, and the recommended amount is 5 grams, which is less than a single teaspoon of salt.

 

[mrsclem]

Average person - yes. Anyone who regularly eats out, no. Several years ago I went to a gym where we monitored nutrition. Tha amount of salt in restaurant food and fast food is insane!

 

[GBBUDD]

YOU'LL GET THOSE NUMBERS FROM SOFT DRINKS

 

[CarolAArnold]

Yes, you can use little bit of salt..that will not hurt them.

 

[Mmathis]

Yes, you can use little bit of salt..that will not hurt them.

I don’t think that the OP was talking about salting his pond, but had an accidental piece of salt fall in the water and a fish ate it.