new brackish tank. need stocking suggestions

[james99]

In a month or so I'll have an empty 65 gallon tank, since I'm moving my cichlids over to a 125. I've been trying to decide if i want to do a south american tank built around a pair of angels, or if I want it to be a brackish tank. For the brackish tank I was gonna start off with freshwater and slowly acclimate a group of mollies until they were in a suitable salinity. Other than that I really don't know what kind of fish to get. Also could anyone recommend any websites that have a good selection, so far I've only found liveaquaria.com. Any suggestions on fish and places to get fish would be appreciated.

thanks
james

 

[bromie88]

welcom to MFK, and hopefully to the brackish fishkeeping community.

if you check the "why dont we have a brackish photo thread?" thread, you should get some ideas of the sort of fish available.

there are loads of interesting fish in brackish. archers that shoot water at prey, puffers that look cute, but can chew rock, moray eels, stone fish/lionfish, loads of gobies. monos, scats, columbian shark catfish, chromides (if you want more cichlids), mudskippers that spend more time on land than in water, there are loads of options. you can even mix certain SW species in too, as some SW fish can handle the lower salinity of brackish.

the only limit is your imagination (cheesy line but very true) and obviously the environment that the fish thrives in. also the size limitations of your tank, some brackish fish get big.

anyway, have a look at the thread i mentioned and then feel free to ask as many questions as you like. thats what we're here for.

you will need some basic equipment though. salt obviously, and a hydrometer, to measure the salt content of the tank water.

 

[james99]

that thread had some pretty cool fish in it, im interested in the eels and the chromides. where would i buy stuff like this from. i just talked to the lfs that i frequent and they got rid of all the brackish fish because of no one buying them. are there any small archer fish?

 

[bromie88]

dunno about the archers... internet says max size is about 12" but usually smaller in aquaria. the chromides should be fine in your tank though... mine was even in marine conditions for a while and was fine, even though they are considered a low end brackish fish. so i think anything up to about 1.010 Specific Gravity (SG) should be ok. but your fish will tell you what they like best.

the eel may cause you problems though for two reasons. you'll eventually need a bigger tank, and they can be a pain in the arse to get feeding if they dont like their environment. which can come down to having nowhere to hide, tankmates picking on them, water quality, or too low a SG

eels are also considerd high end brackish/marine animals, so keeping them with low end brackish fish would be a problem. as the eel may refuse to eat in low SG so you will need to raise it to get it feeding, but the other fish may not like it...

as for trying to find fish... you can buy anything on the internet. or check around some more LFS's, as most brackish fish, are labeled as freshwater fish. the eels in that thread are Gymnothorax Tile, also know as snowflake eels or freshwater morays. its misleading as they eventually need full marine conditions, or high end brackish.

 

[jartist15]

Look into moray eels and dragon gobies they are sick monsters

 

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

A 65 gal probably isn't big enough for a violet (dragon) goby, and it might not get along well with the eel. Adults become territorial, and eels have a nasty bite.

 

[imcrystal]

bleh i think dragon fish are ugly they have creep faces. they dies easy too. i got one from walmart (that may be why) he dies in a matter of days. another one I got within a week of turning my tank form fresh to brackish he lasted about a week???