Woohoo new 75gal Brackish

[Daeorn]

So, finally moved into my new apartment (thank god) and picked my self up a long awaited 75 gallon tank. (It's going to be raised and kept at a low salinity over a good period of time)

To go in the tank:

3 Dragon Gobies
2 Archer Fish
1 African Butterfly Fish
1 Pea**************** eel
1 Needlenose Fish
1 Silvertip Catfish


I've done my homework on most of these fish. Most are brackish water fish, and the others can be kept at a low salinity, if acclimated over a period of time.

Hopefully I will have pictures up soon. Right now its cycling. Can't wait.

[fishbguy]

have you look to see if they can all be kept together happily? i am pretty sure that the needlenose fish aka. needlefish or needle nose gar, will eat/harass some of the fish, including the butterfly because they are both surface dwellers. but i would wait for Flamingo. he nose these fish really well. good luck with them.
Andrew

[Scuba Kid]

i personally don't think a 75 is large enough for all of those fish.

[fishbguy]

hey scuba kid,
what does FOWLR stand for in your sig?

[flamingo]

Silver cats require marine conditions as adults and a much larger tank than a 75 gallon. Go down to about 1 dragon goby, 2 at the most, and skip the pea**************** eel, needlenose, and african butterfly. All fish skipped are not brackish, they can be, but shouldn't.

Needlenoses can be kept in brackish conditions, but they're never truly as healthy as one being kept in freshwater. Only time I ever introduced them to brackish was conversion from it to freshwater, and to see if it induced spawning.

[Daeorn]

Thank you very much for the advise. I hadn't read anything about the cats being fully marine as adults.

[Scuba Kid]

Originally Posted by fishbguy

hey scuba kid,
what does FOWLR stand for in your sig?

I sent you a PM explaining it. lol

FOWLR stand for Fish Only with Liverock....its basically the medium between a reef tank and a fish only tank.

[Daeorn]

African Butterfly fish btw, are not brackish? Hm.
I've read that they can be kept in brackish, and even in some articles I've read - that they are sometimes found in brackish waters. (not disputing you, I would be dimes on the dollar you know more about it than I do)

The needle nose I'm refering to is the silver needlenose, what I have read is a freshwater/brackish water fish that grows to be around 8" tops in captivity. (Again, you are definately more the expert than I. Just going by what articles I've read)

The needlenose and eel I can live without, the dragon gobies I already have, and would like to keep.

Would it be possible to have the tank at a low salinity, with 3 dragon gobies, 2 archers and the butterfly?

If it helps, the tank is a 75 long, 4 feet wide, none of the fish, including the gobies at more than 5". I know the gobies can reach a foot, or so - over a period of years.

The archers get what, almost 6" when adults? Not much more for the butterfly.

Just trying to arrange a decent low-end brackish with some interesting fish.
The salinity would be around 1.0002-.0004 I think at most.

Trying also to arrange my tank by - bottom dwellers, middle, and top dwelling fish - while going off the 1 gal of water for every 1" of fish.

Any ideas? I don't out right want to harm any fish - of course. I want to know if there is a comfortable balance between them.

It's a pretty decent size tank, good cover, and various "caves".

[flamingo]

Butterflyfish can handle it, but do a lot better in freshwater. Besides that, the archers and butterflies both would never co-exist long-term. Archers would end up tearing them up quite a bit.

Archers get up to about 10", but usually only half of this or less in normal captivity. And no, the 1 inch per gallon never works, well- almost, but only when it comes to guppies in a small tank or so. Big fish need a lot of space, ample areas of water for waste distribution, and brackish/saltwater decreases all possible stocking levels.

Dragon gobies can reach a possible 24 inches, less then 14 usually, but they too need a lot of area coverage. Two would ultimately be best IMHO. If you have three, that may work, but you need to make sure they're getting enough food, which (if using bloodworms) would equal about 5 cubes per day when they start increasing in size. The more gobies, the less covering you need. Provide a few caves with a lot of open sand.

For the needlenose, there are actually a few subspecies etc. that are in the trade, variations, whatever you personally would call it. All ,,usually are pretty much the same in care. Freshwater, like said, it best long term. Not to boast, but i've never seen a brackish one live as long as my 5 year old one had in freshwater.. a lot of trial and error with these, and i've concluded IME that fw is best.

IMHO, I would just leave the butterfly out to begin with and keep up on heavy water changes with the fish your going to housing. If you leave the ABF, you'll be able to maintain a Sg of 1.008 with no troubles. Archers, in the long run, actually live healthier with higher salinities. Just make sure you know just what species of them your getting..

[Kyoberr]

That is really exciting!!! Good luck! Is this your first tank?

[fishbguy]

i didn't get it. sorry.

[Daeorn]

This will have been my 5th long term tank all together, however my first real brackish tank.

I will be nixing the needle fish. They are magnificent fish, but would rather be able to give it the proper care if possible.

The Dragon Gobies I have right now all get fed frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp and mysis shrimp. Mostly the blood worms. The brine are used for "snacks" and the mysis sometimes just to switch it up a bit.

They all get fed almost by hand, as they will come to the surface to eat when I tap my long tweezers on the side of the tank. Whatever they don't eat immediately they pick off as the day goes on.

The archers I have in the tank now I feed a healthy amount of flake food, then wait about 5-10 minutes before feeding the gobies, so the archers are full enough to not go for more.

There is plenty of cover, about 12 plants in total, 2 large caves and small smooth rock substrait. They seem to like their new digs for now. The smallest is around 4 inches and the larger two are almost 6" now.

Anyone know of somewhere I could diy a plexiglass covering for one of the top sides of my tanks? I'd love to set something up for the archer fish so they can shoot down food, or something like that.

[bomb-]

Make sure your Needlenose fish gets live fish for food, feeder fish and stuff, or he will die/harass your other fish

[flamingo]

NN's actually do better when not on live feeders, this post is old, and he already planned on not getting it.