Brackish 10 Gallon Stock

[Invader Xan]

Ok, so to give a small amount of background, I was in the process of cycling a 10 gallon tank, when a large piece of mopani wood got itself a nice furry coating of water mould. Looked about the forum for a bit and realised this was a fairly common occurence. After spending a while trying to figure out the most hassle-free remedy, I decided to turn the tank brackish to kill off the mould.

Sure, it'll interrupt the cycling, but it had only been full of water for about a week, anyway. The only plants I currently have in there are val and java fern -- both of which can quite happily tolerate brackish water.


Basically, I decided that I might keep the tank mildly brackish. So my plan is this:

Tank
* 10 gallons
* Specific Gravity: 1.002 - 1.005 (I'm still reading up on how saline my water should be)

Plants
* Java Fern
* Java Moss
* Val (Tape grass)
* Marimo (Moss balls)

Animals
* Red Clawed Crab
* 4-8 Amano Shrimp
* 1-2 Triops
* 3 Glassfish

According to various posts around this forum, all of these animals should be perfectly happy in brackish water, and often are in the wild. Plus all of these are nicely small critters, so I don't think that would be overstocked -- but I'm not sure, which is why I'm posting this here.

Can anyone give me any constructive criticisms on my plan? I'd rather get advice from people than screw things up completely.
Thanks in advance...

 

[nmonks]

I would be staggered to learn Triops would survive in brackish water, let alone with other beasts. My understanding was they would only hatch in very soft water. Regardless, they'd either try to eat the fish or get eaten by the crabs.

At SG 1.005, you shouldn't be harming the filter bacteria so don't worry about that for now.

Apart from the red-claw crabs, none of the organisms listed *needs* brackish water, so I'm a bit mystified as to what's the point. The crabs aren't even aquatic, and do better in a terrarium (which is why they try to escape all the time when kept in fish tanks).

The mould on the wood will go away by itself. Plecs (and other suckermouth cats) love the mould and will eat it up in no time. Why not simply put the bogwood in a tank with a plec and let nature take its course? The mould is harmless by the way.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Invader Xan]

Thanks for your reply!
I'm just a bit confused... Responses seem to vary drastically, even across this one forum. I've read everything from 'mould is harmless and will disappear in a few days' to 'once you get mould, you'll need to throw away your bogwood'. All very confusing. All I know is it was threatening to take over my substrate (and infested one of my plants) till I added some salt to the water... Coincidence, possibly. *shrug* Oh well, no harm done.

FYI, from this thread (http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=180644), I think the jury might still be out on the crabs with triops. I was intending to have enough bogwood to give the crab (singular) somewhere dry to sit. Twas just one idea. Perhaps best abandoned.


...so glassfish are freshwater?
Sorry -- I'm trying to make sense of all the conflicting information I've read.

Thanks again.

 

[nmonks]

Not an expert on Triops. All I know from experience (T. cancriformis) is they hatch in essentially pure water.

Yes, the common glassfish in the trade are freshwater fish. Mine are in soft and acidic water and perfectly happy. They *tolerate* brackish water well, but they don't need it.

I wouldn't mix semi-terrestrial crabs with aquatic organisms. In a small tank, you're basically going to end up with too little space for either. Stick with shrimps and snails like Nerites if you want a freshwater "reef tank" look. Add a few gobies, and bang, instant rock pool. Done this myself and it's cheap and fun. I used coldwater gobies and shrimps, but you can use tropical species if they're easier to obtain.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Invader Xan]

Fantastic. Thanks a lot!

 

[Galedav]

you need the aussie triops in there theyve got a better salt tollerence and second grow your triops in a seprate tank fo a while. also one more thing i would adv ise on a few more triops, get red of the crab if you want anything else to survive.

 

[Catfish enthusiast]

monks if u kept those crabs in a terrarium theyd dry up and die after 2 hours! unless they had a little pool of water or sumthing!!

nd i thought glassfish benefit from brackish water??

well i dont c y not go for that setup....only that stock wud be the absolute max i wud put in.