Betafish305ca

I'm not sure if this is the best place, but since their is no real 'brackish' tank forum, I thought here might be the best bet. My aplogies if I am mistaken.

So I'm thinking of setting up a brackish tank, and I jsut want to get some advice. Here is my plan....

I'm thinking of using a plastic5gallon water jug container as a 'tank'. I plan to cut off the top/ spout part and the handel to make it more accessable.

After it cycles (do brackish tanks go through the nitrogen cycle?), what kind of fish can go in it? I'm thinking fiddler crabs, so would any be good match? maybe if some sort of barrier was added?

Whats a good site/ link for resources about brackish tanks and setups?

I also have an overstocked fresshwater tropical community tank, with;
3 zebra danios, 4 neon tetras, 1 otto bottomfeeder, 2 african dwarf frogs, adn 3 malaysian trumpet snails.... would any of these guys be able to transfer over to a brackish tank? Specifically the trumpet snails?

Thanks so much everyone for your help and advice,

Betafish305ca

http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...g4.html?cat=53

here is a article i was reading... and it said that zebra danios and fiddler crabs could co-exist.... does that mean the crabs would be in salty freshwater, or the zebras would be living in brackish water??

Jaysee

Yes, brackish tanks need to cycle as well.

A 5 gallon jug will make a better experiment than an aquarium, but since this is your first BW tank, it'll be perfect. Smaller tanks are harder to maintain, but it'll certainly teach you a few things so you are better prepared when you start a real BW tank.

You have 3 malysian trumpet snails? They will live in brackish water, but I'm not sure for how long - they were always eaten pretty quickly by the puffer I had.

I would get something small and cheap for stock, like a dwarf puffer.

Crabs are cool, but they need land which would be hard to do in a 5 gallon jug.

iloveengl

A brackish tank is pretty much the exact same things as a freshwater, just add 2-3 teaspoons of marine salt per gallon of water; I'm not sure why authors and pet store owners try to make it sound more difficult or complicated than that (except to sell more readily available and plentiful FW fish). Brackish water tanks do go through the nitrogen cycle. You'll also need a filter and heater.

I agree that crabs need land and would most likely escape your bucket, so they're not a good option. Danios are definitely not brackish, nor are any of the other fish in your fw community tank.

A bumble bee goby or two would work well. (Some sites say they are fw, they are not. They are brackish fish.) Also you could add some ghost shrimp. I'd suggest either sand substrate or bare bottom to make cleaning easiest.

Hope it works well. Have you looked into just getting a 5g tank instead of the bucket, that way you can see your fish better?

Edit: Actually, if you got a 5g tank, you could use that as a FW tank for your two ADFs and that would help your overstocked FW community tank. Better to solve that issue first than start another tank, imo.

pepetj

I keep trumpet snails in my low-end brackish tank. They are reproducing quite well. Mine are native, and have a beautiful pattern in their spiral-cone shell. They do a great work at moving substrate all around are so far, are safe for my plants.

One observation based on my experience. The fishless cycle with ammonia solution took 10 days more than my average FW cycle, that is, it took me a bit over three weeks instead of a bit less than two. There are several strains of bacteria that make the nitrogen cycle possible, it is likely that the ones that colonize brackish tanks take a bit longer than the ones in FW.

Also for some reason I ignore, it has taken me more time (3 or 5 more days) to cycle 5.5 gal tanks (I've cycled 5 of them) and smaller (2 and 3 gals) than my 10 gal or bigger (I have cycled 12 of these), either by priorly seeding filter or starting from scratch.

As ilovengel states, none of your actual fish in the 10gal are brackish. I wonder if you could set a tank for your African Dwarf Frogs, I believe they might end up snacking your small fish as they mature.


Pepetj
Santo Domingo

aquarist48

Hello Betafish. Best of luck with your brackish tank. Keep us posted.
Ken