The addition of salt to the recovery water to enhance the stress resistance of the fish is effective in reducing post-shipment mortality. Guppies stocked in freshwater for recovery after transport exhibited no significant differences in cumulative mortality at 7 days post shipment among the three groups of fish packed in saline water (1%,3% and 9%) and the control group (Fig. 6). However, when the fish were stocked in their respective salinity of transport water
for recovery (with 30% daily dilution with freshwater),all three salinity treatments displayed a significantly lower cumulative mortality than the control group. Fish packed in 1% also had significantly higher survival in water of the same salinity than when placed in freshwater during recovery.These results suggest that the addition of salt, even only 1%, is critical to the recovery of the guppy after transport. Similar beneficial effects of salt for recovering
and maintaining osmotic homeostasis during the recovery stage from transport stress were reported for other fish species. They include 5% for hybrid striped bass fingerlings (female white bass, Morone chrysops (Rafinesque) _ male striped bass, M. saxatilis) raised in freshwater (Reubush & Heath1997) and 10 %for striped bass (Mazik et al. 1991).