55 Gallon Bbg Tank!

[penguinpimp1990]

i have an empty 55 gallon tank and was thinking of an all bbg tank! It will be planted and have a lower sg probally never exceeding 1.003, its dimensions are 48 inches by 12.5 inches, the subtrate will fine sand and buffer the pH and some coral chips loosly scattered, it will have very good filtration, and tons of wood and rocks for territories........ i have a few questions:

1. the stock wont really be 100% bbg's. It will have 1 figure 8 puffer and about 10 platy's or 7 mollies. With the other fish how many bbg's would you estimate could live in here?
2. Platys or mollies? i want to base my decision on which would be a better algae eater and how often and how many offspring they produce. My bbg's were always housed with some sort of livebearer because their fry make excellent foods for the gobies! which has a shorter gestation period and who produces more offspring?
3. i saw a pile of branches and twigs in my yard and it would be AWESOME in this tank, it will create a million hiding places and territories. (yes ive used yard wood in my tanks before and yes i use the bleach method to clean them and no they caused no problem in my tanks before) the wood has been fallen for about 6 months now and has been under snow a few times and has been exposed to very cold temps. Do you think they will release any tannins?


thanks

 

[nmonks]

The idea of a large bumblebee goby tank sounds nice. To answer your specific questions, my opinions are as follows:

(1) You should be able to keep ~60 bumblebee gobies. A 55 US gallon tank has a surface area of 624 square inches, and at ten of those square inches per inch of small fish, you get 62 inches of fish. Round this down for larger fish. I'd allow 20 square inches for sailfin molly sized fish, for example. I wrote a Mac/Windows program called Fish Tank Tool that does this sort of thing quickly. Try it; you'll like it. The 55-gallon tank is one of the built-in options, by the way.

(2) Not sure platies are a good choice. Obviously they aren't really brackish water fish, though they usually do fine in slightly brackish water. My real concern in that they seem to get picked on by pufferfish. They are too slow moving and, frankly, too stupid to learn to get out of the way. Why not try halfbeaks instead? They are brackish water tolerant, and from the same biotope as the bumblebees. They are also fast enough to avoid most pufferfish. Admittedly, halfbeaks reproduce too slowly to be a source of food, but you don't really need live fish to feed bumblebees. These gobies aren't piscivores in the wild, and actually prefer small insects and crustaceans. I find lobster eggs an invaluable staple food; you can get them at any marine fish store. Live daphnia are useful, too.

(3) I've also used twigs (and leaves) from gardens in aquaria, and it is perfectly safe, provided you don't use stuff that's been sprayed. I don't bother with the bleach. I find fish like plecs and scats happily eat any algae and fungus that grows on the twigs. However, such materials have _always_ turned the wood brown. I don't think there is a way to stop this. The tannins will do no harm to the fish provided (a) you monitor the pH and act accordingly; and (b) you add a reasonable amount of sea salt. Marine mix salt should buffer the pH sufficiently for brackish water fish.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[penguinpimp1990]

i wanted mollies or platy's not specifically because of their fry as food but for algae. I hate algae and like most of us know it grow like crazy in brackish tanks. maybe ill skip the livebearers and go for an all bbg and glassfish tank. it will be decorated by a huge pile of twigs leaves and branches and only very loosely planted. anyway to fight algae?

 

[nmonks]

If you're going for just the gobies and glassfish, then you don't need much salt in the water. I'd argue for the glassfish at least, even no salt at all. But bumblebees at least seem to do better in slightly brackish than fresh, in captivity anyway. Anyway, at an SG of 1.003, you could keep these fish very happy, as well as all kinds of salt-tolerant plants. Bacopa, Cryptocoryne ciliata, Crinum calamistratum, Ceratophyllum, Java Fern, and Vallisneria all come to mind as plants that naturally inhabit slightly brackish water or are known to do well in it.

Once you have happy plants, you don't get algae. I've yet to see a fish that genuinely stops algae. It may help shift one kind, but the nitrates it produce will cause other problems. Plants, on the other hand, actively supress algae.

Jave ferns and Cryptocoryne ciliata would look superb in a tank with lots of twigs and wood, I would think. Glassfish love slightly tinted water. Throw in a few lamp eye panchax (Aplocheilichthys macrophthalmus) and you'd have an awesome set up!

Cheers,

Neale

 

[penguinpimp1990]

i was thinking about very sparsly planting this tank though, 3 vals, 1 or 2 java fern, and a small amount of java moss. Do you think they will fight off all the algae?

 

[nmonks]

To be honest, I don't think Java fern and Java moss will help much. They're both too slow growing, and it's my understanding that only higher plants, not mosses and ferns, that do that 'alleopathy' thing that surpresses algae. But I could very easily be wrong. Check with someone on the aquatics plant forum.

I'd plumb for adding some hornwort at the very least. It grows very fast and will scavenge up nitrates quickly and, hopefully, surpress the algae. Vallis seems to do a good job too, but I've always found vallis to be tricky. It sometimes dies off in great clumps after pruning, and this can cause oxygen and nitrate problems. But if you don't cut it back periodically, it takes over the tank!

Crinum calamistratum is more expensive than vallis but much hardier. Likewise, Cryptocoryne ciliata can be tricky to find, but since it prefers brackish to fresh water, it's actually an ideal choice.

Cheers,

Neale

i was thinking about very sparsly planting this tank though, 3 vals, 1 or 2 java fern, and a small amount of java moss. Do you think they will fight off all the algae?