Brackish Dream Tank Questions

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Random Fishy

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One of my future tanks that I decided I would like to have is a brackish water tank. I have some questions though on stocking and various other things. So first off I hear mollies can be adapted into fresh, brackish, and salt water. Is that true? If so how long would I have to be on drip method before I can add it in the tank? Plan on having between 2-3 of those. Has anyone ever had fiddler and red claw crabs together before? I've seen that they can be put together peacefully. It's also on YouTube. Anyways I know that reds can be more hostile and territorial while fiddlers are more peaceful and keep to them selves. I plan on putting just one fiddler and one red. Also can I put driftwood in the water? Or will something bad happen to the wood because of salt? Is there any plants that are sold that can adapt to brackish or will I have to get fake plants? And lastly, any other small fish that can adapt to brackish? Cant think of anything other than mollies? Or can platys adapt too? Thanks!
 
what size tank will this be? and he said they can live in brackish. they can handle and in fact thrive in a full marine setup.
 
Yea I said they can, either way, brackish or freshwater
I have never heard of them in a full marine set up, really! I haven't heard that
 
Wow, that is very cool, if I turn my 29 into a fowlr(wanted coral, but light too expensive) ill add some clowns, fire fish, gobys, and a Molly or two
 
yeah i think its pretty cool but most reefers wont do it because they produce so much waste and aren't anything special haha

I know right? I think mollies are special because they can be adapted to all three unlike most fish with just two.
 
Mollies can be acclimated to full strength saltwater. For plants, java fern would be your best option
 
You can also use java moss and possibly anubias, but you have to acclimate them slowly to the salt over a period of a few weeks or it will kill them. There is a list online I've seen of plants that may tolerate salt, but I'd have to go find it again, you could google that.

You just start with fresh and add a tiny bit of salt water every few days. If the plants show any effect, add fresh and go slower. Once you get near the target salinity level, leave them in that 'til the tank is ready. And same deal if they have to go back into freshwater.. do it slowly.

I see no reason not to use wood, but make sure it's well aged and is not going to leach colour. Salt will not harm the wood at all. Most brackish environments have dead wood in them, being river estuaries for the most part, with everything in them that washes downriver. Not to mention the mangroves.. and they won't really affect pH that much, unless you have a lot of it in the tank. If you have Nerite snails, they will appreciate wood, it is one of their favoured surfaces to lay eggs on.
 
You can also use java moss and possibly anubias, but you have to acclimate them slowly to the salt over a period of a few weeks or it will kill them. There is a list online I've seen of plants that may tolerate salt, but I'd have to go find it again, you could google that.

You just start with fresh and add a tiny bit of salt water every few days. If the plants show any effect, add fresh and go slower. Once you get near the target salinity level, leave them in that 'til the tank is ready. And same deal if they have to go back into freshwater.. do it slowly.

I see no reason not to use wood, but make sure it's well aged and is not going to leach colour. Salt will not harm the wood at all. Most brackish environments have dead wood in them, being river estuaries for the most part, with everything in them that washes downriver. Not to mention the mangroves.. and they won't really affect pH that much, unless you have a lot of it in the tank. If you have Nerite snails, they will appreciate wood, it is one of their favoured surfaces to lay eggs on.

Will it do harm if I slowly acclimate my goldfish? Especially my Pleco who is freshwater but is scaless.
 
Goldfish are fresh water only. Catfish are fresh water only. Neither can tolerate salt other than perhaps as treatment for illness and some cat species do not tolerate it at all. Plecs are among these. They may be able to tolerate salt for the time needed to treat a disease but cannot live in it.

Try looking at Planetcatfish, great info there. They will tell you, no salt for plecs or catfishes.
 
There are a lot of plants that can acclimate to brackish water. Crypt's, Anubia's, Java Fern's are really good, and several other plants. They do need to be acclimated slowly over time as already stated.

I kept a couple brackish water tanks over the years and my favorite had Indian Mud Skippers, Celebes Rainbowfish, gobies, and the other tank had Monodactylus Argenteus. I had lowered the water level in the tank with the Mud Skippers and had smooth rocks that had a slight layer of water over them, the Skippers would come up and sit on them and we would feed them brine shrimp off the dull end of a tooth pick. They were the coolest little guys we ever kept. You have so many options when it comes to brackish water.
 
There are a lot of plants that can acclimate to brackish water. Crypt's, Anubia's, Java Fern's are really good, and several other plants. They do need to be acclimated slowly over time as already stated.

I kept a couple brackish water tanks over the years and my favorite had Indian Mud Skippers, Celebes Rainbowfish, gobies, and the other tank had Monodactylus Argenteus. I had lowered the water level in the tank with the Mud Skippers and had smooth rocks that had a slight layer of water over them, the Skippers would come up and sit on them and we would feed them brine shrimp off the dull end of a tooth pick. They were the coolest little guys we ever kept. You have so many options when it comes to brackish water.

Where did you get the mud skippers?
 
At the time my girlfriend was manager of a fish store and she got them in for me.
 
Mudskippers look hilarious aha, makes me want one. I've seen people that have brackish tanks have vallisnaria in their tank and red nymphea. One of my favourite brackish water fish is bumblebee gobies I find they are the cutest things ever with their grumpy looking faces aha.
 
If you are looking for more brackish fish you can go to liveaquaria.com and go to freshwater fish -->Brackish fish. It should show you some of your available options.
 
Yes, you can have driftwood. I have that in all my brackish tanks, which I have 3.
Here are more brackish fish:

Half beak
red scat
green scat
monos
archers
some gobies - see below plus there are many more
dragon goby
peacock goby
guppies
mollies
swordtails
platies
Celebes rainbow fish
target fish
bumble bee goby
clay goby
jade goby
knight goby
candy stripe goby
reedfish
Columbian shark
Silver tipped shark
Black finned Shark
Five finned shark
Dwarf puffers (Ceylon, Figure 8)
Senegal Birchirs
American flag fish
Ghost Shrimp
Snails - Malaysian trumpet
glassfish
mudskippers
orange chromides
anableps - four eyed fish
Nerite snails (polka dot, orange track, african zebra, tiger, ruby)
Amano Shrimp / Red Nosed Rudolf
My red cherry shrimp bred in my brackish, in fact I couldn't get them to breed at all until I moved them in. Could have been the larger tank, though. Who knows.


Plant:

Anubaas
Vallisnera
Hair Grass
Marimo Balls
Java Moss
Java Fern
Εchinodorus tenellus* - pygmy chain sword plant
cabomba
hygrophilia
Μyriophyllum spicatum
Εleocharis acicularis
banana plant
onion plant
duckweed
anacharis densa
hornwart
water sprite
Sagittaria sp
Cryptocoryne
Samolus valerandi
mangroves
Crinum calamistratum, Crinum pedunculatum
Brazilian Micro Sword


When I switched a tank over, I added 2 tablespoons of instant ocean with each water change over weeks until the salinity was where I wanted which was the most advised advice online and it worked just fine.
 
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