Danios with salt questions!

[Feathers]

I've read (I basically find out everything via digging through whatever internet information I can find) that the ideal environment for a Danio is in a freshwater tank, but that they can endure some salt.

I'm wondering if Danios could handle a brackish tank? I generally go light on the salt to keep it mildly brackish, but I was hoping I could test out some new mollies in my Danio tank before putting the guys in with my existing boys. This would require the Danios have enough salt to at least appease the Mollie's need.

I'm concerned because I was hoping the Danio tank could be a refuge for any mollies getting bullied too much in the other tank (I keep an all male tank because I don't have the means to try breeding... so bullying can happen from time to time).

Is a brackish environment too much for Zebra Danios? Or do you think they could be okay?

Or, on the flipside, could Mollies do alright with lesser amounts of salt?

I've read that people keep Danios and Mollies together, but how does the salt thing work out?

(Another question, not salt related, for anyone who may know: Does anyone know if the bubbles from an airpump would bother Danios? I've read that it can bother schooling fish by making it so they can't "hear" eachother or something to that degree. I have an airpump from when I still thought about doing Dwarf Platies, so I wondered if putting it in would stress the Danios or if it's no big deal...? o_O)

Thanks in advance!
Feathers

[TheOldSalt]

Excellent questions. I think this is the first time anyone's asked about bubbles vs schooling.

Danios aren't for brackish tanks. Sorry.
Mollies can take straight seawater, brackish, or straight freshwater. They prefer brackish, especially brackish a little on the fresh end, which is where you mostly find them in the wild. They'll do fine with anything as long as the other needs are met. In short, you can keep danios and mollies together, but your results won't be optimum.

The bubbles may affect schooling, but I would suspect that they'd have to be some pretty major bubbles to do it. they'd probably be a bigger problem in a smaller tank.

[Feathers]

Thanks for responding so quickly ^^

As to the bubbles, my Danios are in a 10 gallon and I'm a little reluctant to put in the bubbler if it'll keep the little guys from schooling, since I rather enjoy watching the schooling behavior because they're my first schooling fish ever. Is a 10 gal large enough to give them room away from the bubbles?

As for the mollies, I only planned on keeping the mollies in the tank for a couple weeks to make sure they aren't super aggressive with each other or anything (since I don't particularly want to add overly aggressive males in with the two I already have since they're fairly dominant and also a great bit larger than the mollies from the store.) I hope that, in the short amount of time the mollies will be with the danios, that all parties involved will be alright?

I'm quite new to Danios, and mostly experienced with Mollies, so I might have some odd questions here and there. I really like the little guys, but my experienced fish friends think I should opt for some dwarf platys instead, if I want to be able to use the tank as a potential Molly refuge later on. I don't know... I'd feel awful giving up the Danios now that I've gotten used to them... Though, it doesn't seem that dwarf platies would really be able to handle brackish either? Hm... Well, hopefully the Mollies will be okay with lesser salt in the Danio tank... *frets*

[Damon]

Keeping livebearers is simple and easy to deal with aggressive males. Either keep all males (there will be a bit of squabble but nothing serious) or keep 2 females to every male in the tank. The mollies can handle freshwater but you must acclimate them to whatever condition you are changing to. If they were bought from a fw tank, then a cpl hrs of drip will do. To change them to sw will take much more time slowly increasing the salinity (sg) over the course of many weeks. Brackish will be somewhere in the middle. Remember, just adding aquarium salt will NOT make a tank brackish.

[Daeorn]

I think the salt you are seeing in your research is really aquarium salt, not marine salt.

But yeah, Danios, unfortunately, can't live in brackish environments.

[TheOldSalt]

Schooling behavior tends to fade after a time in small tanks anyway, so don't worry about the bubbler. If you really want to maintain schooling behavior, then you'll need a bigger tank. The area of a ten gallon tank is really very small when you think about it, and fish scattered all over the tank can still consider themselves schooled. Think about that same area in an open river or pond. A cluster of fish that size would be considered tightly schooled, right?

[Feathers]

((I'm not really on-topic for the Brackish board anymore, so I might move any further Danio questions of mine over to Freshwater in a bit...))

Yeah, you're right. A ten gallon is a small enough space that they're still pretty close no matter how far they go! And man! I wish I could have a bigger tank, but the largest we're allowed to have in my dorms is a ten-gallon. I'm technically only supposed to have one, but I'm working on a loop-hole in the rules and will argue my case if they catch me and have a problem with it. >_>;;

Thanks for all your suggestions! I'll likely set the airpump up when I do a water change tonight.

I'm presently down to three Danios, as two more died. When I went to the store for my "refund" I made sure to complain about the block-head who fished the little guys out for me. He was smashing the poor things up against the wall with the net to "pin 'em down" he said, before he could net them. He also was not gentle at all carrying the bag, and shook them a fair bit before I finally made him give the freakin' bag to me. But yes, I complained very firmly about that guy. When I was back at the store, there were three more dead Danios in the tank from which I got my bunch. I'm not terribly optimistic about the three I still have, but hopefully they'll make it and Vinny the fish-killer didn't get to them, too.

The three should be okay by themselves until I can find Danios in a tank that seems to be healthy, right? I know that 5 or 6 is an ideal number, but I haven't seen any aggression from the three since they've been by themselves.

[Obsidian]

My Danios will swim in laps together around my 10 gallon tank, especially if I am standing there (because they hope that means food). So if you want to see them school tightly, stand there I have a bubble wand that covers one side of that tank, it does not bug them in the least and a few will play in it. They are all I have in the tank that swim much (the Otos mostly scavenge algae).