Bad move, replacement help

lilegolasgurl · Aug 8, 2005

Hey, well I've found myself in a bit of a problem, I just moved into a new state and I desprately tried to move my 4 year old 65 gallon brackish tank with me, but sadly all the fish died except for my eel (he is a common "freshwater eel" aka the ones the pet stores sell to die a month later because they need salt). I used to have 3 10-inch silver scats with him and they died. The problem is my eel in about 2 feet long and will eat any fish under 4 inches and I cannot find for the life of me a scat to purchase that large. I bought the scats in my old town and they were alread about 6 inches (a lucky deal at a local petstore). How long would I have to quarinteen the 1-2 inch scats at Petco before they are eel safe? Would a divider work in this case, or would that be a bad idea because the eel is so large? I am open to any suggestions, the tank just looks so sad without my big shiny scats... :sad:

BTW: I have a pretty high spg of 1.017 and I was wondering if any low salinity marine fish (like targets) would work well because they are often sold larger than freshwater/brackish fish.

CFC · Aug 8, 2005

Target fish work well in brackish tanks if you are lucky enough to be able to buy them, ive been looking for some for a long time here in the UK and have not yet seen any.

If you can get a grow out tank going both scats and monos grow fast enough to be eel safe within 4 to 6 months, their high bodies and square shape makes them difficult to eat so they only need to be 4 inches or so to avoid becoming lunch.

Pufferpunk · Aug 9, 2005

I'm sorry for your loss, but 3 10" scats in a 65g tank is 2 too many. Monos will outgrow a 65g tank, and they need to be in a school.

lilegolasgurl · Aug 9, 2005

o... If I knew that I would have looked into upgrading when I moved. For reference, how big should a school be? Three fish or like 6 fish? And how big could the fish in this school be before I needed to upgrade? Does the same thing go monos (Sebea) ?

Pufferpunk · Aug 9, 2005

Usually 6 is a good sized school. Just for a school of adult monos, I'd say 300g min.

CFC · Aug 10, 2005

I have 3 Monodactylus argenteus in a 80 gallon tank (48x20x24) which works out fine, each fish is around 4 inches in both length and height and have not shown any signs of growing for some time, i have also never seen a captive mono grow much past this size. To say that a 300 gallon tank is needed to keep them is a bit excessive though i would say a 120 (48x24x24) would be a better sized tank.

nmonks · Aug 18, 2005

Which mono do you have? According to Frank Schafer's new brackish book (the Aqualog one) at least one extra species sneaks into the trade, Monodactlyus kottelati. According to Fishbase this species doesn't even reach 8 cm when mature. If this is true, this would be a very useful species and could work out in much smaller tanks that monos would otherwise feel comfortable with.

It's similar to the common silver mono, but has orangey fins instead of yellow ones. The anal fin is also longer than the dorsal (they're the same length in the common silver mono). To my eye, it also seems to have a thicker band through the eye. But that might not be reliable.

http

/www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?ID=59430

By the way, I looked after a big tank of monos when I was doing my mar. zool. degree, and like you found they seemed to stop growing at about 10 to 12 cm. I've only ever see them get really big (and that oval shape they can have) in public aquaria. There are some whoppers at the London Aquarium, for example.

Cheers,

Neale

CFC said:
I have 3 Monodactylus argenteus in a 80 gallon tank (48x20x24) which works out fine, each fish is around 4 inches in both length and height and have not shown any signs of growing for some time, i have also never seen a captive mono grow much past this size. To say that a 300 gallon tank is needed to keep them is a bit excessive though i would say a 120 (48x24x24) would be a better sized tank.

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Pufferpunk · Aug 20, 2005

I looked after a big tank of monos when I was doing my mar. zool. degree, and like you found they seemed to stop growing at about 10 to 12 cm. I've only ever see them get really big (and that oval shape they can have) in public aquaria. There are some whoppers at the London Aquarium, for example.

Which goes to show, that monos indeed will be stunted in a tank too small for them...

nmonks · Aug 21, 2005

... Unless many people have been keeping the "dwarf mono" without realising it. It grows to less than 8 cm in the wild, and maybe it gets bigger in captivity because we feed them so well. I'm pretty sure I've seen quite a few of this species over the years.

Cheers,

Neale