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JamesShall

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jan 26, 2004
Messages
52
Location
Southern California
At this time I have a freshwater tank and the water available to me is on the alkaline side of the chart. After several fish deaths it's time to give in and start up with some brackish fish.

I haven't seen too many brackish fish available so I'd like to know what you have!

I DO NOT want ciclids. I still have some barbs and other fish that I don't want getting attacked.

I like the puffers so I'm thinking I'll get into those. Are puffers good in groups or better off alone? From what I read they seem to be fairly peaceful fish.

72 gallons to populate - what would you put in there?

Do you know of any sites that have a good list of brackish fish with pictures so I can see what's available?
 
What caused the death of your fish if you know?

What kind of barbs will you be keeping in a brackish tank? I've never heard of that. Here's a site I found on Google all about the brackish tank:
http://users.macunlimited.net/n.monks/brackfaq.html
There are some species listed there.

Puffers are typically not peaceful fish at all, even with their own species when confined the small space an aquarium provides. You'll find that a dedicated "puffer only" tank is your best bet. And for some in particular it's wise to only keep one puffer per tank. You also need to be prepared to feed them snails and other hard shelled foods to keep their beaks from growing too long.
 
Puffers will probably not be the best fish to mix with your barbs.

Are we talking brackish as in you plan to add marine salt mix and raise the specific gravity of the water? Or did you intend to say that you want fish which thrive in hard alkaline water? I don't think the barbs will be too healthy in brackish water.

Mollies do well in brackish water, scats, flounder, gobies...that is all I know of off the top of my head.
 
Nice link there...I had always thought brackish tanks required the same care with salinity monitoring as marine. Maybe I'll try brackish one day if I don't have to constantly top it off with RO water.
 
Celebes Rainbows can thrive in a brackish tank. I was going to do Mollies, bumble bee gobies and Celebes, but no one could get me gobies and the rainbows did not do well in my tank :?
 
I have no idea what the real reason is for the death of the fish. Suggested reason is the pH is too alkaline. I have gotten suggestions that say the water is better suited for brackish so I'm trying to see if it's worth it to go brackish or just find different freshwater fish that can deal with the high pH.

Puffers are a no go then if they are that aggressive. The LOOK friendly! Shucks.

What was I thinking - it totally went over my head. I'm totally aware that I have to get rid of the freshwater fish I have to do the brackish tank. Satl will kill everything I have. Yeah - I had a lapse of the ability to think. duh.
 
Why not cichlids? I'm not talking KILLER cichlids, but I have brichardi, which are beautiful. They are aggressive when paired up to breed and after keeping them in my community tank for a few weeks, I would not do that again (but as my sig implies, I never wanted a breeding pair and thus got yet another tank :roll:). There are so many types of cichlids that you could have a tank with the less aggressive ones. Look into Lake Tanganyika cichlids, which include Neolamprologus brichardi, Neolamprologus pulcher and shellies (I have Neolamprologus multifasciatus)!
 
Archers. It'll basicaly be a species tank, but believe me, it'll be worth it. I had a good set up with 4 Archers in a 75 gal and a raised canopy that I placed treebrancheds over and put wingless fruit flies on them. Very entertaining. I eventualy got rid of them, I gave them to a friend who had a 120 gal open as a trade for a few very nice discus.
 
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