Brackish Water Questions

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xspainx69

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 26, 2007
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Queens,NY
I've kept in the past african cichlids and puffers and all the neat brackish water fish.

We had to get rid of them years ago because it became a financial burden for us.


I wonder now if there is a cheap yet productive way to manage a brackish water tank.

I used to have a 30 gallon tank with crushed coral substrate and a coral as the center piece of the tank. I had an air pump for aeration and a Penguin 125 bio filter.

Whenever I did a water change I would add something called "Aquacichlid" it was made by Aquatronics "All fish safe powder increases alkalinity"

This was suppose to raise up my pH after the water change.

This was all that I had for my tank....Yet the maintenance was such a financial burden. I would run out of Aquacichlid very quickly and have to replace it.

Sometimes my fish wouldnt live....Like my African Cichlids would live but some of the other cool fish like my Puffers would just randomly die in a few days while other fishes would live....Dont all Brackish water fish live in the same environment? Lake malawi and whatever arent they all the same pH and water chemistry? or is there different water requirements?

In other words can puffers live in the same tank as most african cichlids? Or is their pH tolerance different than other brackish water fish. I used to keep my tank at like pH 7.8 and some fish would thrive and others like my puffers would die. But it wasn't any type of fighting, they would just be dead the next morning.....It wasn't ammonia or anything like that.

I wanna try it again someday in the future....But I wanna get my information straight about brackish water fishes......Did I do anything wrong in my setups? Can I keep Brackish water fish without wasting so much money on products?

I appreciate all responses

Manny
 
Actually it doesn't sound to me like your tank was brackish. Were you using artificial sea salt, such as Instant Ocean?
No, different brackish fish do not all live in the same environment. From what I've read, there's low end brackish (with a specific gravity around 1.005), mid brackish (~1.010), and high end brackish (~1.015). There are also different biotopes, like brackish rivers, mangrove swamps, and estuaries.
As far as I know, maintaining a brackish tank is about the same as a freshwater one except with the addition of the sea salt. Certain fish will do better at a certain salinity, and for some a higher specific gravity might be just as bad as one that's too low.
Sorry if I said some stuff you already knew.
 
Dragon cqzzzzz<;2029839; said:
Actually it doesn't sound to me like your tank was brackish. Were you using artificial sea salt, such as Instant Ocean?
No, different brackish fish do not all live in the same environment. From what I've read, there's low end brackish (with a specific gravity around 1.005), mid brackish (~1.010), and high end brackish (~1.015). There are also different biotopes, like brackish rivers, mangrove swamps, and estuaries.
As far as I know, maintaining a brackish tank is about the same as a freshwater one except with the addition of the sea salt. Certain fish will do better at a certain salinity, and for some a higher specific gravity might be just as bad as one that's too low.
Sorry if I said some stuff you already knew.
Click to expand...

No I had no idea about the artificial sea salt. The LFS never told us we needed it. They told us that with just using the Aquacichlid powder that it would elevate the pH for us and that using the crushed coral substrate/ or dolomite that it would be good enough to keep them healthy.

Now I am upset because I lost so much money based on ignorance. I am recently learning now about SG specific Gravity. They never told us any of this....
 
Oh, well an elevated Ph doesn't make brackish water, and it does not help with a brackish fish's osmoregularity (the process of the fish's cells taking in or expelling water to create a certain balance between water and salt, among the other trace minerals found in seawater). When the specific gravity is too far off the mark, the cells have to work harder to maintain this balance, and it wastes energy, making the fish susceptible to disease.
Don't worry. Listening to the owner of the petshop that sells you the stuff is a common mistake. It's always good to make sure that you're only listening to the people who know what they're talking about (for instance, the members of this forum). I only know one petshop in my area that can be trusted, out of five or six, not including Wal-Mart of course.
 
gomezladdams;2029931; said:
Uhh...
African cichlids arent brackish water fish
Click to expand...


yeah but I just read that the lakes in which these fish come from are Brackish water lakes. So I dont get it?????

We were told that African Cichlids and Green spotted Puffers can live in the same tank because they are all "High pH fish" and they all come from brackish water environments. So from my understanding then If you want a brackish environment then you need sea salt.

Then again I was just researching and there are similiar looking Puffers that live in Freshwater as well....So I dont know.... I figure that ignorance played a horrible role in this previous disaster. But then LFS will do that for business right?


I have a 30 gallon tank. I still have my corals and the crushed coral substrates.....Do you guys think I should move in the direction of Brackish water fish and maybe give it another shot?
 
If you're looking for true, factual info on puffers, go to my pufffer forum. African rift lakes have some salt in them--it's not marine salt. And it's certainly not at the salt levels BWS Puffers are kept at. Even low-end BW (1.005), roughly requires a cup of marine salt/5g of water.
 
Pufferpunk;2031081; said:
If you're looking for true, factual info on puffers, go to my pufffer forum. African rift lakes have some salt in them--it's not marine salt. And it's certainly not at the salt levels BWS Puffers are kept at. Even low-end BW (1.005), roughly requires a cup of marine salt/5g of water.
Click to expand...

You know what it is, its that when I go to LFS I see them put Colombian Sharks with Green Spotted Puffers and African Cichlids in one tank. I mean I dont know if those same fish are still alive a week later :ROFL:

But these are the set ups that I see , so this is why i was asking about the compatability of these fishes.

So pretty much African Cichlids are brackish, but not at the same salt level as the brackish water fishes I mentioned. Like African Cichlids are on the super duper low end of the salt scale while the other fishes I mention like the Green Spotted Puffer and Scats are on the higher end of the salt scale and cannot be mixed.

Pretty much there shouldn't be any mixing or else fish will die.
 
xspainx69;2031118; said:
You know what it is, its that when I go to LFS I see them put Colombian Sharks with Green Spotted Puffers and African Cichlids in one tank. I mean I dont know if those same fish are still alive a week later :ROFL:

But these are the set ups that I see , so this is why i was asking about the compatability of these fishes.

So pretty much African Cichlids are brackish, but not at the same salt level as the brackish water fishes I mentioned. Like African Cichlids are on the super duper low end of the salt scale while the other fishes I mention like the Green Spotted Puffer and Scats are on the higher end of the salt scale and cannot be mixed.

Pretty much there shouldn't be any mixing or else fish will die.
Click to expand...

not no mixing at all. just as long as as the fish prefer the same water quallity. and of course that the fish will get along. in the way scats and monos are good together, but monos, scats and green spotted puffers are bad, as puffers should be kept with puffers or nothing at all.

so im told... but it still depends on the animals temperment though....
 
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