Brackish Water

[a1wonder]

Can anyone recomend a either a barbs or tetra or loach that will take to brackish water and that can be well placed in a 10gal with mollies

 

[Ruby Shark]

Hi Alwonder

I know that Tetras in general are extremely sensitive to any amounts of salt so no. As far as the other two species I'm pretty sure it's a no as well.

Also, your tank is not big enough for any of those fish. Barbs and tetras(not including the cherry barb) should and like to be kept in groups. In a ten gallon there isn't enough room for that.

I'm sure Lateral Line can give you more help/suggestions on this topic. He knows a lot more than I do. lol

 

[Lateral Line]

Cyprinids, (Loaches Barbs etc), and Characins, (Tetras etc), evolved in salt free environments. To them salt is a pollutant.

Some species can tolerate small quantities of salt, but generally even these live shorter lives. The fishes kidney has to work hard to keep the blood/eletrolytes balanced - this extra workload causes it to fail much sooner then it otherwise would, and when that happens, the fish dies.

Loaches, (and other scaleless fish), are much more affected by salt then others - ion exchange through the skin.

I am not aware of any small commonly available Cyprinid or Characin that will tolerate brackish conditions. There are some large Cyprinids that frequent the lower reaches of rivers and venture into the saltier brackish environs from time to time, (Some Tor sp. for example), but even the smallest of these are half metre fish.

The comment about the shoaling habits and your tank size is also valid. In a tank that size even with optimum water for this type of fish, you are not going to be able to keep many.

 

[CFC]

The biggest question is why do you want fish for brackish water and do you actually fully understand what brackish water is?

This artical will give you a better understanding of what brackish water is http/fish.orbust.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=42435, just adding a couple of tablespoons of salt to a 10g tank doesnt make it brackish, however salt should still never be added to tanks containing scaleless fish like tetras or loaches.

 

[silver]

CFC......

are you meaning to tell me that tetras are SCALELESS!!!!!!?

Is this seriously true???

Are Silver Dollars scaleless???

 

[Lateral Line]

Characins have scales.

 

[CFC]

Do all characins have scales? I have always thought that tetras such as neons, glowlights, cardinals etc were scaleless or at least partly scaleless

Silver dollars are not tetras, characins yes but not tetras.

 

[MAM]

okay, i see why you want to know about bw fish. but do you have these mollies yet? were tehy kept bw at the shop you bought them from? i know any research you do on mollies will say they are bw, but these days, most are raised as fw fish for the hobby and should be kept fw (though a little salt won't hurt them of course). repeat, not all mollies are bw fish these days. mine are entirely fw and doing swimmingly. check with your shops to see how they get and keep them. if they do indeed keep them strictly bw, then look into a larger tank or look into something other than these bw mollies. its pretty rare to find true bw ones these days.........................................

 

[wrs]

nevermind this...MAM said what i said, i must of skipped that post

 

[a1wonder]

Well currently there are two mollies in the 10 gal fresh water tank by themselves. I was rather confused when I saw at the store neon tetras in a supposedly brackish water tank so I figured I'd ask here about them. I was previously considering, until I saw the info sticker in the tank, get 5 of them for my 10 gal and then upgrading the tank if there was a problem latter on. The associate at my LFS told me that some barbs, tetra, loach can be slowly conditioned into a slightly brackish water tank, as I was confused I decided to post here online.

Note to Self: Perhapes I should post more information in inital message to avoid being jumped upon in the futar.

 

[Ruby Shark]

Note to Self: Perhapes I should post more information in inital message to avoid being jumped upon in the futar.

I'm sorry if you thought that I was jumping on you.

I was just trying to give you some info.

 

[silver]

Ahhhhh......I get it!!!

But do you think that the Silver Dollars have a different type of scales than regular fish.....because mine SURE seem to be sensitive to temperature......meds and other things.......

How about your SDs CFC!

 

[CFC]

I believe that fish with smaller scales that appear to look scaleless like silver dollars, spiney eels, mono's etc are more sensative to water chemistry than large scaled fish like cichlids and barbs, why i do not know but these types of fish certainly do seem to react to poor water quality faster and are more prone tp parasites like ICH and velvet.

 

[Lateral Line]

>>> Do all characins have scales?

I am not aware of any Characins that do not have scales, however, that does not, of course, mean there aren't any. I spent some time looking for any examples, but couldn't find any.

Gery in Characoids of the World states in the early chapters that they are a group of scaled fish several times.

I'm going away tonight, but will do a more thorough research job when I get back.

 

[silver]

Cool......

we will be waiting!!