Keeping African Cichlids in Brackish setup?

[BMG94]

Hello everyone, new to this site but not to keeping fish.
As above title, is it possible to keep African Cichlids in a Brackish setup? I was told and also discovered through some searching on the web that it Is indeed possible to keep many type of African Cichlids in Brackish Water as long as the salinity is low usually if it's at 6PPT and a specific gravity of 1.004. now I don't know how true this is that's why I am here lol.
Anyway if anyone knows or has any experience with this subject please share.

 

[deeda]

I have seen some topics on this question so you may want to do a search.

My question is why would you want to keep them brackish?

 

[BMG94]

I have seen some topics on this question so you may want to do a search.

My question is why would you want to keep them brackish?

I've read that keeping them in brackish low level can help fight disease and gives the water more nutrients not exactly sure how true any of this is, all in all I'm very curious plus I think it'd be quite the site seeing cichlids swimming with a goby or something lol

 

[krichardson]

I haven't seen any lately but there used to be a product for African cichlid tanks.It was a kind of a salt mix,it didn't necessarily create salinity but it supposedly added certain trace elements and minerals(nutrients?) in order to mimic the water composition of the rift lakes ....other than that I'm not sure where one would get the idea that those fish could live in brackish water.

 

[BMG94]

I chalk i

I haven't seen any lately but there used to be a product for African cichlid tanks.It was a kind of a salt mix,it didn't necessarily create salinity but it supposedly added certain trace elements and minerals(nutrients?) in order to mimic the water composition of the rift lakes ....other than that I'm not sure where one would get the idea that those fish could live in brackish water.

I chalk it up to me being misinformed lol, I read an article a little bit ago talking about how some cichlids do in fact live near or in estuaries. There's just so so much different information on how and where these fish live that it becomes confusing at times and and difficult to know what is correct and what's made up BS lol.
But I do have some cichlid lake salt and I've been using it for quite some time now... And I picked up a Hydrometer a few hrs ago and tested my water, as it turns out that cichlid lake salt does add salinity to my water it's not much it's barely under the 6ppt mark so now I'm worrying that I've been poisoning my fish with salt water. The bottle says it's for freshwater and it's made for cichlids, all my fish look and act normal. Could it be that cichlid salt is giving me a false reading on the hydrometer?
Any suggestions would be appreciated I've been using that salt since I set the Aquarium up nearly 8 month now.

 

[duanes]

If you mean by African, you mean rift lake species, the higher osmotic level should not be a problem.
But there are many African species that do not tolerate a more saline environment, Hemichromis (jewels), or many west African dwarfs or those from Lake Barumbi mbu and some other lakes of west Africa which have relatively soft water will probably not readily adjust.
An exception might be those of the genus Alcolapia, from the sods lakes like Lake Natron which is more saline that the ocean.
Below Alcolapia alcalicus

male above, female hiding below

 

[BMG94]

Basically from what I know the species that I have is Peacock cichlid, OB peacock cichlid, yellow lab and what I believe to be a hybrid it's a neutral color almost a silverish brown. Off the top of my head I can't remember where these species originate from.

 

[Toiletcar]

I've read that keeping them in brackish low level can help fight disease and gives the water more nutrients not exactly sure how true any of this is, all in all I'm very curious plus I think it'd be quite the site seeing cichlids swimming with a goby or something lol

I wouldn’t do it for this reason. Brackish water doesn’t prevent disease, even salt water fish get diseases.
All you need to do is keep good water quality and do water changes.
And there are freshwater golbies.

 

[krichardson]

I wouldn’t do it for this reason. Brackish water doesn’t prevent disease, even salt water fish get diseases.
All you need to do is keep good water quality and do water changes.
And there are freshwater golbies.

I also agree with this.

 

[BMG94]

Sounds good, but what about the cichlid lake salt that I've been using? It shows up on the hydrometer as salt water, should I stop using it?