brackish fish

[rollin_22]

hey everyone im new to this hobby and just would like a little help... i have a 55 gal bw tank and currently have two columbian shark that i am holding for a friend cause his tank was broken by his dog.... anyways i have asked the local store what fish i can out into bw conditions, and they named off a few, but all of the ones i have tried are dying.;.. all of my water parameters are correct, but i think they are just dumb or something... they told me so far.. which all have died... bala sharks.... pleco..... crayfish.... one told me a gold fish, but i knew better then that... and a betta.. so i guess my question is can somone just give me a list of brackish fish that would be suitable for my 55? any help would be appreciated

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Most of those fish you listed, I'm very suprised they even told you they will go in a bw tank. Did you try to get your money back? Plecos will definitely not last long in bw. Typical salesman that are uneducated and just want your sale.

 

[penpitt]

Balas, plecos and the like are all FW fish. Some BW fish are monos, scats, gobies, some puffers, mollies and orange chromides(a cichlid). Do you plan on keeping the sharks? They get about 14" and would pretty much fill out your tank. Monos tend to get rather large too. I guess it depend on what types your lfs would carry as well as what you are interested in. Here are a few lilnks to some of the fish I mentioned.

http://www.pufferlist.com/

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/monos.htm

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/Scatart.htm

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Here's some ideas that will work. Just remember, as for the puffers, they may feed on other fish. But there's a few others listed besides puffers.

http://www.aquariumfish.net/catalog_pages/brackish_water/brackish.htm

 

[rollin_22]

thankl you for the replies... the two sharks are my friends... i would like to keep them but would two of them get two big in a 55? if they were they only two fish

 

[Lonewolfblue]

In a 55G, they would be fine for a while, but down the road, might think about something a little bigger. They are known to get to be about 12-14 inches, and get to over 2 feet in the wild. Eventually, I think a 55G would be too narrow in the long term. A 75G would suite them better, as it's wider.

 

[rollin_22]

okay... thank you very much.... oh one more question..... i heard that guppies can be accliimated to bw... is that correct or false?

 

[penpitt]

I think they can tolerate lowend bw

 

[jcarlilesiu]

Many species will hand low salinity water, actually I believe it can be good for alot of fish. Im talking like a tablespoon per 5 gallons, however that isn't true BW i dont' think. I have recently added some salt to my tank to treat ich, and most of all fish seem very happy. I am slowly removing the salt now as ich has disappeared. I had 2 deaths, one from ich, one for unknown reasons. I think most fish can acclimate to some degree of salt.

 

[Legacy]

Start here and don't buy fish until you've done the research. I wish you better luck in the future. Neale Monks really knows what he's talking about and he always seems willing to answer direct questions.
http://users.macunlimited.net/n.monks/brackfaq.html#BM1a