Can a Mono(fingerfish) be kept in fresh water?

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BostonPatriot

BostonPatriot

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2005
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So I have been doing research on these fish and can't find a definative answer. Some places say that if you start them small they can live in fresh water and some say absolutely not. Even at a pet store i was in today one sales guy said you could while another guy in the same store said you can't. Has anyone had any experience keeping one of these in strictly fresh water? Is it like a datinoid in these sense that it can live in either?
 
Every fish is different and in this hobby you will find both sides telling you that it is possible to keep them in freshwater and another person telling you it is not. Yet with my own personal experience I have witnessed Mono living in freshwater, and even spawning in freshwater! The only thing I can suggest when doing that is keeping the pH a bit higher then normal (7.2 as min).

But do note that in the wild they do in fact live in brackish water and would probably do much better under those conditions. There are thousands of other freshwater fish to pick from.
 
i've been told no they can't live in fresh water but everyone has there own opinion
 
I've grown Monodactylus sebae in fresh, brackish, and full marine. The ones in freshwater never got near the same size as the ones grown in brack to marine. In freshwater, slight scrapes were a cause for concern of fungal infections. These fish also prefer extremely clean water (what doesn't?). Maintaining a brack or marine environment for monos allows me to use a protein skimmer to strip impurities from the water and provide additional oxygenation.
 
i have mono's in 55gal freshwater tank (added aqua salt at first but stopped after the first month), there doing fine. got a shoal of 3 at about an 1in high, now there at almost 4in. the ones i have don't have the black finned/double black bars on them though, mine have 1 bar and yellow fins. there pretty mean lil guys, espically during feeding time. i keep my PH slightly above neutral/alkaline at 7.0-7.2
 
Its all just trial and error. All u can do is try, and if it dont work try again with a different plan.
 
If you do keep them in fresh.. Use some crushed coral/aragonite as a substrate, and add some seashells if you can.. Making the water a little harder for them, IMO, should help.. I keep my F8 puffer in a pH of 8.0 because of Aragonite and Shells.. but the water is freshwater.. I add alot of Aquarium salt, but no marine salt. Keeping salt levels high will help with infections and osmoregulation. F8s should technically be in brackish, but this guy has always done just fine with that method.. Then again I have kept the same fish in full saltwater.. ;)
 
KurseD said:
i have mono's in 55gal freshwater tank (added aqua salt at first but stopped after the first month), there doing fine. got a shoal of 3 at about an 1in high, now there at almost 4in. the ones i have don't have the black finned/double black bars on them though, mine have 1 bar and yellow fins. there pretty mean lil guys, espically during feeding time. i keep my PH slightly above neutral/alkaline at 7.0-7.2
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So you mean you have the argenteus. difinitely more colorful not as elegant. We at the LFS I work at almost stopped ordering them because of the condition that we get them in it was nearly impossible to keep them alive in strict salt. We then added 1 tsp of salt quickly after we got them in and slowly moved them to brack. then weaned them back haven't lost hardly any I would consider investing in a lil salt to quarantine them at first and them try and slowly bring them back to fresh water...
 
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