Converting a brackish fish to fresh water

ospy

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 26, 2006
305
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Washington state
I have two mono sebae's that live in my fresh water tank. A friend of mine said that he, too, wanted a couple mono's. But he was calling the store and they were telling him of the difficulty's in converting brackish fish to fresh and this quite involved process. My question is, can one buy a mono sebae from a fish store that has it in brackish water, take it home, and just reliese it in fresh water (or fresh water with 1 tbls salt to every 5 gallons water)? Is there any danger of doing this? If so, is there an easier way? Thanks for the help. OSPY
 

Legacy

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 12, 2006
35
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40
Hacienda Heights
One can convert a euryhaline fish from salt > fresh, much quicker than fresh > salt. However, in the case of Mono Sebae, I wouldn't recommend keeping it in freshwater for a very long period of time. It will make it more prone to disease and it will live a significantly shorter life than if it was kept in brackish.

In the case of Mono Argenteus, I'd never keep then in freshwater or anything lower than say 1.005-1.010 and build up to full marine as they reached adulthood. All I really know about M. sebae is that they're from Africa and it's recommended to keep them in no less than 2 foot depth of water.
 

Miguel

Ole Dawg
MFK Member
Dec 28, 2006
15,857
27
89
Very much south..
there is a growing trend, at least in europe, of stores selling brackish fish as freswater suited ( even first rate stores ). In my opinion this is wrong, brackish will be brackish, although they may live, for a while, in freswater....in my opinion, and I have made the mistake and saw several fish die, who wants brackish fish should have a brackish system..and it is not difficult..

just my 2 cents, anyway
 

DB junkie

Gold Tier VIP
MFK Member
Jan 27, 2007
9,036
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Iowa
I have read that sebaes are now being tank raised. If this is true and they are a few generations deep and kept in fw then maybe it's possible to keep them in FW or lighter brackish than what the wild caught ones can be kept in.

But I agree......sebae=brackish.

I think it is going to depend on the individual fish. I have 5 sebaes and they all have been kept in FW, brackish, and SW at one point in thier lives. They are currently in 2 teaspoon (instant ocean mix) per gallon water and doing great. The only thing different from my brackish tank to the fresh ones is salt. Same filters same substrate. So yeah, it's FW with salt in it.

Whenever messing with any salt in the water (SW or brackish) I always drip the specimen rather than just the normal float and release. This will help if there is a salinity change.
 
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