Mono sebae in fresh water?
- Thread starter drb
- Start date
Here's what you need to ask yourself, can it be done? Yes. Should it be done? Probably not, since you'll be taxing their systems in the long run.
In the past, I've kept them in full fw for about 4 months before I moved them to bw. because they stopped eating and I was advised to do so, but I think you can successfully raise them in brackish. I don't know if they can stand the long term effect of being kept in a freshwater setting, in their natural environment they transition from fw, bw, sw. Hope that helps.
I have raised mono argentus to 6-7 inches in size in fesh no problem they do like to kill them selves though, on a move from school to my parents after graduation they bashed them selves to death in the 50 gallon moving container. I purchased sebae a year ago and so far so good. As with most brackish fish to do fresh they want pristine water conditions, a high ph of 8.5 or more. Part of how I do this is with crushed coral substrate that you see in that picture. I would say don't keep any mono in a tank under 200 gallons as they will beat themselves up running into stuff. Mine will be moving into a much larger tank in the next year or so. I have yet to loose a brackish fish from keeping in fresh typically something stupid ends there life instead. My leaf fish jumped out of the tank(2.5 years in fresh) my G. tile contracted some goofy parasite(after 3 plus years in fresh). My argentus beat themselves to death running into the side of a moving container(3 years in fresh). My Chromides always get come with disease from the pet store and don't make it a month in quarentine, same with columbian cats. I think it can be done easily enough just be sensative to the fishes need. Give them a monster tank to grow out in and keep it really really really clean and if they get sick raise the salinity or setup a brackish hospital tank since that typically helps them cope with parasites and infections the best and imitates how many brackish fish rid themselves of parasites in the wild. Good luck.
