Dats in Brackish.. good/bad? (ngt & pulcher)

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landmineyouth

landmineyouth

Gambusia
MFK Member
Sep 3, 2005
486
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North Miami
www.djrobriggs.com
Hey guys. So I got turned on to Dats a while back and have just never been able to find a LFS who had any/would order any. Now I believe I have, and I have a 125g ready for a 'main-event' type fish. The only thing in the tank now is a pair of mono's and a columbian shark, and if they need to be donated to charity, that can happen.

The question is, the tank's SG is at .013 right now, about dead in the middle between fresh and salt, and thats been working fine for these guys. I got interested in dats because they grow so large and are apparenly brackish, but all the threads ive been reading tonight seem to suggest that even the brackish type species of dats (NGTs and Pulchers) dont' seem to really 'need' salt.

My question is, wether or not they need it, can/will they survive/thrive in it? And at my SG (.013)? CAN they go HIGHER? What's everyones personal expieriences and/or input?
 
As far as I know the pulcher is/was not found in brackish water and any true pulcher that you able to find most likely would cost at least several hundred dollars if you are up to paying that...The NGT is said to live in brackish and fresh but I've not met anyone who has kept them in brackish waters. There are some pretty big ones around but the small ones have not been seen for sale in some time.The AT or silver dat is a brackish fish that few people in the hobby keep in such water as well but that one is easier to come by and would be a better option....I am not sure of the sg numbers that it could tolerate though.
 
I used to have an NGT that was in brackish water when purchased from the supplier. I maintained it in brackish water for a bit before converting it to fresh. At one point the specific gravity went as high up as .02 with no ill effects on the dat. This was only a couple weeks in total though that it was in brackish water.
 
Yeah,my last NGT was in a so called brackish tank at the store I bought it from.I got it home and acclimated it to fresh within an hour.
 
I have a brackish setup with an adult moray eel and ive been keeping 3 baby ATs in it since november (6months), theyve been doing fine in quite high salinity water and seem to eat well tough one has outgrown the others it is now twice theyre size for some reason (got them all same size around 1.5inch).

Since these are my first dats i cannot compare theyre progress in brackish as compared to FW, but it seems that theyre ok at least thats what i can say, i am currently on the look for 3 NTTs that i will experiment on by keeping them in the same brackish tank.... i will keep you guys updated if im successful :)
 
mangrove jacks. barramundi will also do if u really want a monster.
 
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