Brackish tanks - show and tell

Discussion in 'Oddball fish' started by A new day, Apr 22, 2020.

  1. A new day

    A new day Moderator

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    There is so little on the forum on brackish tanks and perhaps we could kindly ask those with brackish tanks to show their setups and educate us a bit?

    It’s come up here and there in other threads and it seemed as if there might be some interest in seeing & learning more? Lots of cool fish to keep etc.

    Off the top of my head @GaryG @David Kusner @Kiaan26 @Swerwer anyone else, phuleeze :)

    Just watched this video

     
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  3. Reedfish

    Reedfish Moderator

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    Brackish is one setup I have never had.

    A few years ago, my lfs had some mudskippers. At the time, I had a few tanks all over the house, and the SO wasn’t that happy as it was. As much as I wanted them, I had to keep the peace.... priorities :oops:
     
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  4. OP
    A new day

    A new day Moderator

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    Mudskippers seem super cute!
    Edit: @Reedfish would you mind correcting the typo in the thread title please?
     
  5. Kiaan26

    Kiaan26

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    Funny enough when I was going to get my first puffer fish it was going to be a green spotted or figure 8. Didn't even realized that they needed brackish to marine parameters and I was just keeping fish for over a year. Luckily the shop did not have any in stock. I later did more research on them and decided not to get into brackish water. So all my puffer fish are full freshwater species. Might eventually setup a brackish tank if I setup an animal room. I kind of wanting to get into reptiles and amphibians as well as fish eventually.

    At work though when there's brackish fish, I slowly increase the salinity because the do come in freshwater. So far there has been mudskippers, puffers, scats, and gobies. A hydrometer makes it easy to determine the salinity.
     
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  6. GaryG

    GaryG Fishohollic

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    I have a brackish tank, just set it up recently, have some knight gobies and sailfin mollys in there, my 3 Figure 8 puffers are on hold because of the lockdown, they were going to land the day the lockdown started..
    I have experience with african mudskipper, scats, knight gobies, f 8 puffers and bumblebee gobies, will see if I can find pics of my old setups.
    Scats are really nice, I had the silver and green scats, need a lot of water though very fast and busy
     
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  7. GaryG

    GaryG Fishohollic

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    Oh and mono Angel's, also stunnersScreenshot_20200423-072439_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20200423-072408_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20200423-072355_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20200423-072206_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20200423-072149_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20200423-072037_Gallery.jpg20151108_051800.jpg
    These pics are of the scats, monos, puffers and night gobies before I moved them to my 650lt setup .
    The Muddy was in a huge custom cube I built, with some sailfin mollys as anything else would have been lunch.

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  8. GaryG

    GaryG Fishohollic

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    Will take some pics of my current setup when I get home this afternoon.
    People often get put off by the mention of brackish water but it is really easy, just have to keep track of the amount of water you remove and replace with new salty water really not a big deal

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  9. OP
    A new day

    A new day Moderator

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    Great thanks @GaryG ! Such interesting and beautiful critters. Looking forward to more pics.
    Literally the first time I’ve heard of both scats and mono angels, they look cool!
     
  10. GaryG

    GaryG Fishohollic

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    Some pics off the interweb
    Scats
    :60f5a7a37aa1c7f5a55be7126fa0dd24.jpg
    fbfef96ed57e479af8dbb16c84f3f34d.jpg

    d93d4422998e5f270cae9ee1e865a971.jpg
    Monos
    5eb3fbd1b1e63d7099d8f6ae0a036c25.jpg
    6161671bcf02c11771474f724c21b48e.jpg
    bd7191177d4cb9fc0bbb478390c0256a.jpg
    Something I would love to try, one day when I'm big is archer fish with a palladium style aquarium
    6cfafee546075bc5c53060b739e28fc2.jpg
    175e76b301168278be4e989f392587a3.jpg

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  11. OP
    A new day

    A new day Moderator

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    Beautiful!
    Yes such a palludarium would be lovely...
     
  12. Reedfish

    Reedfish Moderator

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    @A new day

    Sorted the title :thumbup:

    @GaryG

    Did you keep to a specific gravity?
    Or was it a bit hit and miss?
     
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  13. GaryG

    GaryG Fishohollic

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    I kept it as close as possible to the right salinity, it can be tricky as even the refractometer or hydrometer are tricky to read at such low levels.

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  14. T. Guppy

    T. Guppy

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    @GaryG so then with brackish set ups, is it literally the same as a freshwater set up but with a bit of salt added?
     
  15. Kiaan26

    Kiaan26

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    Marine salt specifically.
     
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  16. GaryG

    GaryG Fishohollic

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    Yes must be marine salt, about 1 cup salt to 18 lt water, salinity of 1.010 to 1.025.
    If you have a cycled fresh water aquarium that you want to use, just add salt slowly over about 2-3 weeks and that is it. Just remember when water evaporates the salt stays behind so then just top up evaporation with fresh water and when you do waterchange you have to replace the salt that you removed, so you just have to measure how much water you remove and calculate how much salt you need to replace. I worked out how many liters I removed with every waterchange, I refill with fresh water and then I have a 10 lt bucket with an air line pipe fitted in the bottom of the bucket with a tap on, put an air stone into the bucket to keep the water agitating/ mixing while I drip the salt solution into the tank over 30 min or so. Pretty simple really...

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  17. OP
    A new day

    A new day Moderator

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    Ooh yes. Do you follow Serpa Design on YouTube? And Kamp Keanan.
     
  18. Kiaan26

    Kiaan26

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    I do with Kamp Keanan. When I was 9 my parents gave me a choice for a pet between rabbits or an iguana. I had a big outside enclosure built and also have Durban climate so they could stay outside year round. Luckily I chosed the rabbits. An iguana would have clawed me up.

    I would love to have terrariums for a Brazilian smooth snake and a caiman lizard in the future.
     
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  19. GaryG

    GaryG Fishohollic

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    I was thinking a huge palladium with some orchids and ferns, and a green tree python
    Screenshot_20200423-133132_Gallery.jpg

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  20. GaryG

    GaryG Fishohollic

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    ...it seems there are no snake enthusiasts here..

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    Last edited: Apr 24, 2020
  21. GaryG

    GaryG Fishohollic

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    So here are some pics of my current brackish setup, excuse all the snails but in preparation for the pufferfish I have been overfeeding just a tad and now with the lockdown the snail population has exploded...at least when my 3 figure eights arrive they will have more than enough live food
    20200424_045509.jpg
    20200424_045520.jpg
    20200424_045608.jpg
    There are currently 3 knight gobies and the 2 sailfin mollys, sadly I lost one goby last weekend, I hadn't put the lid on and he decided to jump

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