adding salt to freshwater tank?

I have a 55 gal. tank which was set up two months ago. There are about 14 small 'community' fish. Each one is about an inch......including 2 tetras, 2 minors, 4 danios, 4 guppys, 2 cats. Someone said I should add some salt (without iodine). Is this a good idea? Why? How much? What kind?The person at store said not to add salt with iodine. However, sea salt that is sold in pet stores would naturally contain some iodine because the sea contains iodine. Thank you in advance.......please reply to the group not just my email address as I'm sure others might need to also learn.

There's usually no need to salt a freshwater tank. Most of your fish dislike salt. Guppies like it but can live without so if your guppies seem healthy, don't add any.

There is salt for fresh water in most of pet stores. It function as stress reliever. But, I don't know how it is effective.

Sungwon

Refer to http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/treatment/a/ saltiinfresh.htm

IMO, anyone who says corydoras are scaleless in an article on About.com (mostly an advertisement vehicle these days) is immediately suspect as a source of valid information.

Salt stresses extreme softwater fish, and helps hardwater ones. There's been a huge debate recently about salt over in rec.aquaria and most folks don't add salt unless there is a specific reason.

Pet stores have a specific reason for using salt - protozoan diseases coming in all the time on new fish. The one where I worked used copper as well.

Is this a typo? (I'm confused with the suspect/valid juxtoposition) Are you calling it valid or invalid?

Sorry. Let me be more clear. First, corydoras are not scaleless in the sense that scaleless is usually used for catfish with only skin. The latin name for their genus means 'armored catfish' and they are covered with rows of bony scutes that serve the same function as scales. So anyone who choses corydoras as an example of a scaleless catfish is not an expert.

Second, the quality of articles on about.com has gotten worse and worse over the years as their pages have filled with ads and popups and competent authors have left for less commercial spaces. I actually try not to go there at all as I don't trust the popups and ads not to deliver spyware or hijack my browser.

So, I am immediately suspicious of articles on about.com. When I find large errors in them, I quicly discard them as not valid information and move on to sites by REAL experts like www.netmax.tk or

Thanks so much to all of you. Turns out I'm real glad I didn't use the salt (for the four guppies) because three of them died within days of bringing them home anyway so I returned them to the store and they said that quite often theirs also die.........and the other fish in the tank look great (knock on wood) so I certainly don't want to add anything extra. I appreciate your help. My new theory is............if the store gets their fish stock in on Wednesday, for instance, then don't get them within two or three days..............you need time to see the ones who may survive

Two or three days??? They're barely getting over the transport shock. I buy after two or three WEEKS if I can. If I'm afraid the fish will sell out, I ask how fast they're moving and only buy sooner if it looks like they may sell out.

Good advice, thanks. That's why I am reading and learning from this group. Much appreciated.