Bbgs In A Freshwater Community...

[geo7x]

Hey,

As you may have seen I have unsuccessfully tried to sell my BBGs on here and I doubt that an LFS would take them because they don't stock them anymore.

I am wishing to shut down the tank because I can't cope with looking after 3 tanks anymore, so another option is putting them in my FW community tank, although I'm unsure how wise this is.

Does anyone know how successful BBGs can be kept in a FW community? Is it a stupid idea?

edit: BBG = Bumblebee goby

 

[Esfa]

Mine were in my brackish for about 2 weeks and they wouldnt eat, and just lazed around.

I moved them to my fw community, heavily planted and now they are fat, whizz around and some of the males ar eshowing breeding colours.

So I'd say go for it

 

[geo7x]

Thanks Esfa,

after searching this forum you appear to be right, and they seem to do fine in FW especially in hard alkaline conditions, which I definitely have.

Presuming I go for it, how slow should acclimatisation be into freshwater? Should I make the tank freshwater first and then acclimatise them as normal or should they just be accilimatised as you would normally but more gradually? (Bearing in mind that the s/g is 1.005 at the very most, probably lower).

 

[andywg]

A drip acclimatisation over an hour or few should be more than adequate. It's not like you are taking the fish outside of the sort of waters it liges in naturally.

 

[geo7x]

A drip acclimatisation over an hour or few should be more than adequate. It's not like you are taking the fish outside of the sort of waters it liges in naturally.

thanks andy, will do

 

[nmonks]

I'd agree with what AndyWG said above... only more so!

It's a myth brackish water fish need acclimation at all. They don't. There is plenty of lab work demonstrating you can literally dump a euryhaline fish from freshwater into salt, or vice versa, and expect the fish to do fine. It may enter a phase where the blood chemistry is a bit off, but it recovers quickly.

This applies to fish that are euryhaline throughout their lifespan -- such as monos or scats. Such fish will adapt to whatever they're in at any point in their lives. You have to remember that they're living in places where the salinity changes rapidly, and the fish might not have any choice on the matter.

It's different for fish that adjust their salt tolerance as they age because they are anadromous or catadromous. So if you took a young salmon from a freshwater stream and dumped it into the sea, that would be very bad. It needs to pass through a hormone-controlled period of modification before it switches from being a freshwater fish to a saltwater fish.

Personally, I'd adjust truly euryhaline fish between salt water and fresh in the space of 30-60 minutes just to be nice. But between fresh and low-end brackish, you can basically just dump them from one to the other.

Cheers, Neale

 

[geo7x]

Ah I see, so it really isn't unlike anything they would experience in the wild anyway. I'll prob acclimatise normally, just do it more gradually to be nice as you say.

Thanks for the input neale