Archerfish in freshwater?

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R

Richie

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 10, 2005
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London, England
Hi,
I have seen articles where people have seen Archerfish in full freshwater in the wild but I have never seen them keep in aquariums in freshwater.
As I know these fish do not enter saltwater at maturity like scats and mono's which are considered brackish water fish. Why aren't Archers kept in freshwater?
Is there a particualr species that can adapt to Fresh more than other types?

All help appreciated. :thumbsup:

Rich
 
um, archer fish live in brakish water and can therefore swim into freshwater or saltier water, but it is best to keep these fish in brakish water. Just google Archer Fish and you'll have tonnes of information
 
Archer fish are said to "thrive" in fresh water, they mean adult archer fish though. Salt is a necesity for juvaniles. Also like any other Brackish water fish, for their long term health you need to put salt in the tank, keeping the salinity between 1.001 and 1.008. It is also benificial to fluctuate the amount of salt, this is easiest if you just do your weekly 20% water changes and add no salt until the salinity drops to arround 1.001 and then adding more, then repeat the cycle.
 
Thomascl said:
i kept one in a fresh water tank for 4 years and it was fine i also had a primitive archer and it was awesome too
Click to expand...
The primitive or lorentz's archer is a cool fish but you almost never see it out of Oz, it is fully fw and only a little more than 6".
 
about two months ago i bought a 3 1/2 inchish archer(t.jaculatrix and they should max at 12") from the lfs and he was in full freshwater and ive had him in it since no problem but when i bought four smaller ones to accompany him(1-1.5 inches) they all died within a week or two of being in my tank and i know all the parameters were good, i test every other day and keep up with water quality, but it mustve been the freshwater that killed em. the larger one is fine and healthy but the little ones just couldnt handle it i guess, i got a refund though and am waiting on more larger archers.

so i would say that freshwater is safe for them as long as theyre a bit larger.

btw they look awesome in a group
 
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