rileyrk190

This is my 55g Brackish tank!!

This tank was decorated specifically to accommodate my dragon goby (Bowser) because i have found him to be such a fascinating creature. I have painted the glass shields for the lights with blue krylon paint to help dim the light and give the tank a blue hue. I wanted this to cut down the reflection (and hopefully algae)so it would not bother my goby's eyes. So far he loves it! I cant tell you how much more active he has become between that and the change to brackish. I also like the look of blue for marine/brackish tanks so i painted the background blue too with white aragonite sand. The red rocks i made to simulate lava rock, and are using the garf recipe with concrete and crushed oyster shell.

I must say if you own a dragon goby and are keeping it in freshwater do the right thing and put it in brackish! This thing has truly come alive and is now king of the tank.

Current stock:

1- Dragon Goby (Bowser)
2 Dalmation Lyre-tail mollies
1 green spotted scat (ella):

As for the scat, depending on the site they will outgrow a 55g while others say they are fine. Either way i have a long while for it to mature to its full grown size and i will deal with that when the situation arises. Also i realize that they are schooling fish, and will be getting two more in time. I didn't want to risk adding too many fish at once, not to mention they are a little pricey


It has been terribly hard to find accurate information about brackish water fish. Most of the information i have found is either questionable or contradicting. Also what drove me crazy is the fact that most brackish species cannot live with one another because they will just terrorize each other. So my goal was to sort of have a brackish community tank.


The dark pics are how the tank actually looks to the naked eye. The bright ones are from my cameras flash.





I apologize if this is in the wrong section, but there wasn't a choice for brackish.

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rileyrk190

some more pics...

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Regal

It looks awesome! I like the scat. Your tank looks so different than my brackish tank lol. Mine is planted with driftwood. Yours, on the other hand, makes much more sense since it looks like a saltwater set-up.

I can relate to the confusion on stocking a brackish tank.

Oh and no offense but I think I mentioned something about your Goby sounding cool... I have officially changed my mind lol. He is toooo creepy!

rileyrk190

Thanks Sue!




lol... he's cuter in person


edit: I have more rock i want to add, but its not all cured yet. What i want are two outcrops with some random plants, much like a shallow estuary or lagoon.

Regal

I'm not buying that story lol.

Will you please please respond to my brackish thread? Just a smiley or something... anything. My little brackish thread is so lonely. With cool (creepy) fish like ours surely we can convince some more Fishlorians to go brackish.

Edit: So what is garf? Are you using concrete covered in oyster shell?

rileyrk190

It's an acronym, but i forgot what it stands for. www.garf.org. They show you how to make your own rock for SW tanks. I was actually doing this to keep my pH at 8.2 and the alkalinity up for African cichlids, but i couldn't bear to part with my goby. Also i wanted to mimic lava rock, and i made a ton for a fraction of the cost of lava rock..i just don't have it all in my tank yet because the pH is still too high..but a couple of pieces didn't affect my tanks readings.

Edit: Yes, its concrete mixed with oyster shell, but that's just one recipe for it

JRDroid

I like the look of this tank! If I didn't have my heart set on a saltwater thank, I would make my next tank brackish.

rileyrk190

Thanks Monmouth! One of my mollies already had babies, so i have six fry in a breeder box suctioned to the inside of the tank. So far mother and fry are doing well and the fry are eating cyclopese, which is the smallest food i have.

lorabell

WOWSERS!!!!!!He is huge and lovin it!!!!!!!!

ayelie

That's one big guy you have there. Your tank is beautiful. Thanks for posting pictures.

macifire

your tank is sweet, bowser looks right at home in there

rileyrk190

Thanks!

iloveengl

So awesome. Bowser is a cutie. And I really like the saltwater look that you chose with your tank. Very cool.

And I agree 100% with your point about keeping these great fish in brackish water (with a sandy bottom). Great advice, Ryan!

I have a 55g brackish with a dragon goby too. Great minds. They're really the coolest dudes.

If you're looking to add live plants, marimo balls grow well in brackish water and they're pretty neat looking.

I know what you mean about stocking incompatibilities. It can be really frustrating. I ended up going to the smaller end of the spectrum with gups, plats, mollies, and bumble bee gobies to keep my dragon goby company.

When we eventually upgrade to a 90g-120g, we'll probably go with some of the cooler big fish like scats, archers, and whatnot.

rileyrk190

Thanks! So far my mollies have had one batch of fry that are about 3 weeks old now. My scat unfortunately died despite my quarantine and medication attempts. Not sure why..but for now i am happy with just the mollies and goby. I really want to add bumblebee gobie's when i can find them.