Almost Done, A Little More Help.

[Markwjr]

I am about to cycle a 55gal tank to set up my brackish aquarium. The tank inhabitants will consist of a large colony of bumblebee gobies, some flounders, some peacefull livebearers like guppies and/or mollies, and 3 or 4 indian mudskippers. I plan to have alot of inverts also. The tank will be planted. With what, i dont know yet. I will keep the SG at around 1.005-1.007 and the substrate will be Pavestone: High Desert Pay Sand. The mudskippers will be able to get out of the water through the use of wood and turtle floating docks. For filtration, i will be using the Rena Filstar xP4 canister filter. I do have a few questions, though. My first question is: in what order should I add things and what goes in during the cycling process? I know the substrate and decorations can be in there while it cycles, but how about plants? I didnt think they could, but I figured Id ask. After the tank has cycled, in what order do you add the livestock?

1. Plants, Inverts, Fish
2. Plants, Fish, Inverts
3. Fish, Inverts, Plants
4. Fish, Plants, Inverts
5. Inverts, Fish, Plants
6. Inverts, Plants, Fish

My next question is I know I can feed the mollies flakes, but I need to know what the best food would be for the bumblebees and flounders to make sure they get enough food and nuitrition. I hear blackworms work well for both species, but how do I know how much to feed? How do you feed these foods? Just drop some in? Should I feed at night to make sure the mollies dont eat it all? Do I feed eery day? I wanted to make sure I get all this down before I even start cycling the tank.

The mudskippers will be the last thing that I will add to the tank so I can make sure I get ample information on them. I cant find good information anywhere, so any good info you could offer or point me to on the Indian Mudskippers would be amazing.

Any revisions to any of my plans would be grealy appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Mark

 

[Colin_T]

Hi & Welcome

Most plants don’t do well in brackish tanks. Java Fern, Vallis and Bolbitis might but if the salinity gets too high they will fall apart. Plastic plants are normally used instead.

If you want to try plants they can go in the tank straight away and will be fine while it is cycling.
Decorations, etc can all be in the tank during the cycling process too. Once the tank has cycled you can add fish and if everything is ok after a few weeks, add the inverts. You will have to do some research into what invertebrates can live in brackish water. Some shrimp and crabs will be fine, but crabs will usually eat fish. And flounder and mudskippers will often eat small shrimp.

Mudskippers, bumblebee (bb) gobies and flounders/ flatfish will eat marine mix. This usually consists of prawn, fish, squid, spinach, etc mixed up and kept frozen, (you don’t have to use marine mix as such, instead just feed prawn one day and fish the next). Then a small amount is taken out and offered to them once or twice a day. The amount and frequency you feed them will determine how much work you do on the tank afterwards. The more food going into the tank, the more water changes you need to do to keep the water clean. Once a day is normally fine for most fish.
Mudskippers might eat the bb gobies and guppies. Mudskippers will usually tame down and take food from your hand after a short time. The other fish can be fed by dropping small amounts of food into the tank and they should quickly eat it. Any uneaten food should be removed within a few minutes to prevent ammonia problems.
Eventually the mudskippers and flounder might take dry pellet foods but they don’t always.

Blackworms should only be offered occasionally and aren’t that nutritious.

 

[nmonks]

Echoing to some degree what Colin said above, plants really only work well in brackish tanks at or below SG 1.005. There is a pinned thread you'll find helpful. In mid to high salinity systems, plastic plants work better, but to be honest, rocks and bogwood make a more realistic choice since such habitats in the wild tend not to be dominated by plants (or if they are, by things like seagrasses and mangroves).

Now, there are some issues with your selection of fish. BBGs are finicky feeders, and contrary to what Colin reports, in my experience they favour live foods and tend to eat (wet) frozen foods grudgingly and only certain things. Frozen bloodworms for example tend to be taken, whereas "mixed" frozen food cubes (usually brine shrimps plus various other things) seem to be ignored. Both Frank Schaefer (in the Aqualog book) and myself (in the TFH book) stress this issue, and Frank believes keeping BBGs in brackish water is only really advantageous compared to maintaining BBGs in freshwater because you can keep live brine shrimps with them 24/7. In my recent experience, an established colony of cherry shrimps in a freshwater setting seems to provide the BBGs with significant amounts of food.

Flounders are a major hassle because they are extremely reticent, usually nocturnal feeders. They are best kept alone, or with very slow moving fish (such as BBGs) or fish that wouldn't compete for food on the bottom of the tank (such as wrestling halfbeaks). I'd heartily recommend keeping them in a tank with essentially nothing on the bottom, just sand, and have them settle in a fatten up before adding anything else.

Mudskippers are not suitable for your aquarium at all; mudskippers need a tank that is 90% land and 10% water, and they need lots of rocks and bogwood branches above the waterline where they can feed and, to be frank, fight. Male mudskippers tend to be fairly boisterous fish, and with the smaller species at least, overcrowding them is useful because it reduces territoriality (though it does, of course, increase water quality issues). Mudskippers will eat small fish given the chance, but on the other hand, they are easily scared by other fish in the water bigger than they are. So large mollies for example would frighten small mudskippers, but the mudskippers certainly will eat molly fry.

So, I'd sit back and think about what you're trying to achieve. A low salinity system around 1.003 populated with gobies, figure-8 puffers, halfbeaks, glassfish etc can be viably planted with many species and would look good. A low-mid salinity system at 1.005 populated with flounders and gobies, and decorated with clumps of rocks and shells along the edges only, would also be viable. Finally, a mid salinity system at 1.005-1.010 with rocks, bogwood and a big sandbank would be viable for mudskippers.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Markwjr]

Ok, I was thinking some more and I was considering converting my 55gal idea with all these species into a mudskipper tank. If I were to do this, I am thinking I want to keep the Indian species since they are smaller and, frankly, I can have more of these guys to show off in the tank. That arises another question. If I were to do this, as a rule of thumb, how many Indian Mudskippers could I keep in this type of aquarium? I have looked far and wide and it is really hard to find any good info on this species, so a list of possible tankmates I could have in this tank with these little guys would be amazing. Also, If I were to do this, I might want to set up a 20gal long tank just as a BBG species tank. Do you think this would work? Any help with the skippers would be amazingly helpful and quick responses are appreciated. Thanks.

Mark