Brackish water tank questions?

Ok so
I know saltwater tanks and freshwater tank. But brackish( I saw puffers at my lfs store and wanted to learn of " brackish water" ) ok so I know salt for saltwater tanks and freshwater salt to keep freshwater fish healthy ( witch one do I use please help thx

 

To create a brackish environment, you use MARINE salt.

 

As in saltwater salt ( I'm a newbie to brackish sorry)

 

Yes, as in saltwater salt (marine=saltwater).

 

Thank you

 

The salinity requirements of the fish will determine the amount of salt per gallon you use. Different fish (even among the puffer varieties) have different salinity requirements.

Do your puffer research before you pick one. Some get huge and will eventually require full marine conditions. They're supposed to be quite intelligent, entertaining, and adorable.

 

Thanks for the info

 

You're quite welcome. Keep us updated if you decide to start a puffer tank.

 

What kind of puffer are you considering?

 

Ummmmmm , green spotted puffer ( this will be in the future) as in hopefully a year ( apperently these little guys have quite a personality.( will he fit in a 10 gallon?

 

https://www.fishlore.com/aquariummagazine/nov08/greenspottedpuffer.htm Here's some info on them; as you can see they need at least a 30g.

If you're looking for a 10 gallon size puffer, I suggest the freshwater dwarf puffer. That's really the only puffer that will fit in anything less than 20 gallon tank.

Here's a great site for dwarf puffers: . Just click the little tabs for solid info on them.

I've seen them at my lfs. I didn't have the space at the time, otherwise I would so have a pair right now - they're adorable!!! You'll love them.

 

^
Agreed 100%. And not to mention that a GSP needs full marine when it fully matures. I have 3 dwarf puffers and they have tons of personality. And a 10 gallon would be great for 2 of them. But you'll have to keep the DPs alone as I've found oto catfish don't do well in a 10 gallon even if there is plenty of algae growth.

Another great puffer site.



Here's a thread of when I had 2 DPs in a 10g.



I've since added another and moved them up to a 29 gallon and removed the otos for now. I've also added a few khulI loaches and they do fine together. I just removed my male back to a 10 gallon because he was getting very aggressive towards the females. But that is a puffer for ya...You never know what to expect.

 

They sound cool I will look
into them

 

IMO salt water is a good way to get into salt. I started my tank as a brackish and slowly over several months raised it to full salt water. I've even seen scats in full saltwater at my local pet shop (don't know if this is a good idea for scats, but they seem healthy and active)

I have GSP's in a 55g. I don't know is I can consider it brackish now because the salt level is that of full salt.
The fish are great. They are very easy to care for and are also swimming up and down the glass for me.
It's nice to have this tank full salt because I have small snails in my tanks and I can rotate live rock into the puffer tank so they can "clean" the rocks of these snails.

With brackish is a good idea to vary your salt levels to mimic what the fish sees in nature.

 

I got a text from my uncle saying do you want a flounder so i'm getting one my tank has been cycling for a week now I want to get perfect plants,inverts and fish compatible with a flounder o and almost forgot what does the flounder eat I have enough time to buy proper food thanks-@lopez18

 

Well, I'm not sure what it eats, but some fish that like brackish are mollies, some guppies, violet gobies...... bumblebee gobies.... monos and archerfish too, but they need larger tanks. Oh, and halfbeaks.

 

Wouldn't a flounder need a huge tank..? Anyawys, I love BB gobies, and I think nerites are good for brackish water.

 

I think he means the hogchoker. Trinectes maculatus. 6 inches.

 

Small live food is best but you should be able to train it to dry food. Just make sure you are doing carnivore pellets.
You can do Java ferns, money wort, valisnera, anubias, and java moss initially. As it gets older you will have to migrate it to saltwater and any plants you have will die.

Tankmates would be ideally Monos and scats because they also migate to saltwater. You can do sailfin molly or red chromides though as the can also tolerate saltwater. I wouldn't soggest BB gobies as they will likely become food at some point. Knight gobies will have to be removed as they won't do well in full saltwater for a long time. Violet or dragon gobie would be good if you gave a large footprint tank for his needs.
I think that is it, besides I need to go back to work.

 

so I researched it i'm getting a hogchocker flounder and it grows up to 4-6 in plus in that 30 gal i'm keeping BB gobies and a puffer the only fish that it won't bother but flounders will be 55 gal tank that will have violet gobies, scats and flounders plus is there any crustaceans for the tank ?

 

Ghost shrimp..... I don't think monos go in a 55g, correct me if I'm wrong......

 

thanks Anders247 yes i'm getting some monos plus will ghost shrimp be eaten,is there an occasional live treat I can give them and can I keep some kind of crab also getting some mollys too

 

Crabs may eat the fish, the violet goby would eat the shrimp...... tbh, nerite snails would be best.

 

guess i'm having BB gobys instead I'll be researching for a possible crab for my crab (if there's one ) any recommendations would be great looking (for crustecaen )

 

From what I've heard, BB gobies should be in a species only tank, or else they will be out competed for food.

 

how about a dragon goby ?

 

how about a dragon goby ?

Dragon gobies are violet gobies.

 

owww lol violet gobys it is !

 

Monos and Scats need huge tanks because they grow big. They also need to end up in full seawater as adults. Scats are very difficult to keep long term and need special care.

 

whew! thanks hampalong save me some trouble gobies and flounders only and Anders247 my gobies (fresh water ) are one of the first one's to eat so active they are ! probably I will keep BB gobies and flounders because spend most of their time still

 

Sorry for the late reply,
Violet/Dragon Gobies belong in at least 75 gallon with the adults in 100+. Mono's and Scats belong in 150+ in order to keep them in the schools that they need. If you want to see what I mean, you can usually find Mono's in larger aquariums in the their big tanks. Baltimore has a nice school of them in the center piece aquarium. For a 55 gallon, I suggest you add Sailfin Mollies and Red Chomides(just got some of these myself), as they get big enough not to be eaten and small enough not to be a problem. Knight gobies are also good fish that are available with a bit of looking, though you will have to be careful with them around inverts. They will eat anything that fit in their mouths and mine will pull the nerites out of their shell if they are unlucky enough to fall upside down. I don't think that there is any problem with BB's eating and they can be somewhat aggressive as they get situated in their tank. They can't hurt the flounder but eventually he will figure out that he can fit them in his mouth. If they start disappearing, you will know what is going on.

 

ironic Sarcasm Included I was researching them was about to see any other options of gobies found out that some people had some luck with fiddler crabs in there tank IS IT TRUE? I always wanted one anyways will be keeping some

 

Fiddler crabs need to climb out into air...you could build a legde

 

yeah that's what's my plan anyways would it be okay ?

 

I'm not sure....sorry
Never kept brakish

 

but do you know of any brackish water live foods ?

 

Brine shrimp!

 

my first guess ! will my culture of daphina be useful as food too ?

 

Brine shrimp will live basically until they are eaten, unless you put a ton of them in there. You can use all the same live foods as freshwater tanks in brackish tanks, but the time spans that they live change. Like worms tend to die pretty quickly in the conditions. Daphnia is good but they probably don't last long. Hard for me to say, as my fish wipe them out too fast.

 

okay that's good the most my foods lasted is 1 minute also will baby rosys die soon in brackish ?

 

By Rosies, do you mean the barbs?

 

ow the rosy red minnows I breed them in my pond and was wondering because I have too many .

 

No. Rosy reds aren't brakish... Maybe they are. Wait for someone else

 

No, they aren't brackish.

 

HI all

I'm writing to seek any other brackish tank keepers?

I currently have a 4 foot tank set up that includes:

dragon goby
3 x monos
2 x Mollies
1 archer
4 x shrimp

I'm thinking of adding the following:

2 x archer
2/3 x scats
1 x knight goby

Any feedback / ideas?

 

Hi, your tank isn't big enough for Monos or Scats. Both these species grow too big, need to be in groups of their own (6+) and need full seawater when they're adult.

:

 

Thank you for your opinion but Neil Monks (brackish author) suggests differently. Do you keep monos and scats?

 

I don't keep any now but I have kept 2 Mono species and all 3 Scat species in the past.

Neale Monks knows his stuff, but I disagree with him on a few things, and this article on Monos is somewhat lacking. When Monos are kept in large tanks they are peaceful shoaling fish, more so as they mature. The aggression comes from lack of space.

Scats grow a foot long. That alone makes them too big for a 4ft.

 

Thanks. I think the scats are a no go then for now. I will keep the monos for now and upgrade my tank in a year or so. Any recommendations on tank mates?

 

Monos are quite slow growing so you should be fine with them for a while. They grow about the size of discus (but taller). They can grow bigger. Most brackish fish will work as tankmates. I haven't really kept the gobies.

We like different fish so I don't know what fish to suggest. My next brackish tank will probably be Green Chromides, but it will need to be a lot bigger. And I would love to keep Green Scats again one day...