54 Litre

[AdAndrews]

what brackish fish could i stock a 54 litre in, is it just bumble bee gobies?

 

[nmonks]

BBGs would certainly be a good start, as would any other small goby species, such as Redigobius balteatus or Chlamydogobius eremius.

There are also small livebearers that can work well; wrestling halfbeaks for example, don't mind small aquaria provided they aren't crowded. So one or maybe two specimens could work fine in a tank this size. Among the poecilids, Micropoecilia picta are lively fish that work well in brackish tanks, or failing that, Endler guppies can work too. Limia are small and not particularly aggressive, so a trio of Limia nigrofasciata would make an interesting addition. If you can find them, Heterandria formosa are always an option.

Many invertebrates do at least as well in brackish water as fresh, particularly nerites such as Clithon spp. Amano shrimps tolerate slightly brackish water very well. At higher salinities, there are marine aquarium options, such as blue-legged hermits and zebra nerites that thrive at SG 1.010 upwards.

A properly constructed brackish water aquarium this size with lots of shells, oyster reefs, barnacle clusters and so on could look a lot like a rock pool, and with the addition of gobies, shrimps and snails would be lots of fun. Alternatively, getting some low salinity tolerant plants and letting the tank turn into an overgrown swamp would be a fun way to keep gobies and livebearers, particularly if you wanted to see them breed.

So, not, you're not limited to BBGs!

Cheers, Neale

 

[AdAndrews]

ok thanks nmonks, i was reading one of your threads that said that bumblebee gobies are perhaps fw?

coz my lfs had them in stock and they were treating them as fw fish-

if so what can go with bumblebee's?

thanks for the help

 

[nmonks]

BBGs are usually freshwater fish in the wild, even occurring in soft/acid water habitats, but for a variety of reasons they are often kept in brackish water.

The main reason (I feel) that people fail with BBGs is nothing to do with water though, but rather feeding: they are finicky, slow feeders. So while they can in theory mixed with all kinds of stuff, you do need to choose tankmates that won't steal their food. Surface feeding fish like halfbeaks and small livebearers are ideal, or else slow-moving catfish such as whiptails. They compete poorly with aggressive or fast feeders: Corydoras, swordtails, barbs and the like.

Cheers, Neale

ok thanks nmonks, i was reading one of your threads that said that bumblebee gobies are perhaps fw?

coz my lfs had them in stock and they were treating them as fw fish-

if so what can go with bumblebee's?

thanks for the help

 

[AdAndrews]

ok thanks mate, i will look into it, i really like the look of the archer fish, what size tank do these require?

 

[nmonks]

The smallest species of archer in the trade is the freshwater species Toxotes microlepis that gets to about 12-15 cm, and needs a good 200 litres to feel happy. The other archer species (both brackish water species) are much larger and need something like twice that amount of space.

Archers are shy but territorial, and though schooling fish in the wild, they tend to be bullies in captivity. So unless you can keep a big group (5+ specimens) they're best kept as singletons, even though such a specimen will be somewhat shy.

Cheers, Neale

ok thanks mate, i will look into it, i really like the look of the archer fish, what size tank do these require?

 

[AdAndrews]

ok thanks again, its coz i plan to get a 125 litre 33usg so was wondering, but its too small

 

[LauraFrog]

Yeah, unfortunately still too small but if you can ever get a big enough tank archers are fantastic. My LFS is currently planning a MAJOR tank upgrade, they're thinking 6x2x3... they have two neosilurus (eeltail cats), six half-grown archers (the 45cm species) and a leichhardtii saratoga in a 350 litre. They want somewhere they can put the saratoga when it grows up (at 1.5') and they're planning on keeping the other fish as well. But yeah, they have archers, I'm in there all the time and tehy are amazing fish, very active, in a school of six no bullying at all and they will eat anything. It's quite funny to watch them feeding...

 

[AdAndrews]

nice, i saw some mono's at my lfs, i guess they are way to big for my tank though