25 Gallon Brackish Tank

[demonmagus]

Hi, I have two things I want to do with my 25 gallon tank, number 1 is go brackish and something like this:




Kribensis, Pelvicachromis pulcher pair
Glass fish, Chanda ranga shoal of 6
Figure eight puffer, Tetradon biocellattus
Bumble bee goby, Brachygobius doriae, around 6

would this work out or are F8's too aggressive?

alternatively I could go fresh and do something like this:

pair of kribs
1 (more?) south american puffer OR a pair of red eye red tailed
danios and other fast moving fish

if the brackish won't happen would the fresh idea work?


thanks

 

[nmonks]

Kribensis, Pelvicachromis pulcher pair
Glass fish, Chanda ranga shoal of 6
Figure eight puffer, Tetradon biocellattus
Bumble bee goby, Brachygobius doriae, around 6

I'd skip the kribs completely or else go with orange chromides or some other true brackish water cichlids. Kribs are marginal brackish water fish at best, and when they start breeding, you get screwed up sex ratios when kept in alkaline water. Chromides can be a little waspish, but they usually handle themselves with the figure-8s. Obviously, you know figure-8s can be nippy, and there's a good argument to sticking with just them and the gobies.

pair of kribs
1 (more?) south american puffer OR a pair of red eye red tailed
danios and other fast moving fish
if the brackish won't happen would the fresh idea work?

SAPs and glassfish work fine in my experience, as do SAPs and bleeding heart tetras. Danios could be fine, but I think it would tend to depend on the size of the tank. In my aquarium (~44 US gallons) the SAPs can't corner anything because there's plenty of swimming space. In 25 gallons, there's less certainty of that. I'd be tempted to simply max the tank with SAPs -- three or four would put on a great display, and they'd be bombing about the tank like lunatic bees. With each extra SAP, they become less nervous and more fun. You could probably add something like kuhli loaches and Otocinclus on the bottom-dweller front, and these would be fast enough to avoid trouble.

SAPs and dwarf cichlids seems to work well, given space. Territorial dwarf cichlids the size of kribs could potentially harm SAPs, so approach this combo with care.

Cheers, Neale

 

[demonmagus]

OK, thanks, I have the kribs already, and I think I'll stick with the freshwater idea then, do you think I could get away with any gobies?


thanks

 

[nmonks]

With kribs? I'd recommend clay gobies (Dormitator lebretonis, also West African like the kribs) or butterfly gobies (Awaous flavus). If the tank was well oxygenated any of the Stiphodon spp would be an option, too.

Cheers, Neale

OK, thanks, I have the kribs already, and I think I'll stick with the freshwater idea then, do you think I could get away with any gobies?

 

[demonmagus]

thanks

 

[demonmagus]

oh sorry, did you mean 3 SAP's with the kribs or no kribs and a group of SAP's?


thanks