Changing To Brackish Fish

[snowwolf]

Hi All.... New to this forum and it looks good so thought I better join

I have a Trigon 190 juwel corner tank that I have had now for 18 months, I have decided I would like a change to Brackish water fish, there are some fish I would still like to keep that are in the tank now, like the 3" clown loaches, 3" Bala sharks, neon tetras, and I have three 4" long very colourfull fish, I don't know their name, they have a black stripe the length of the body with a red stripe just above the black, on the tail there is a yellow and black stripe, I was told they were a barb but have searched and not found them.

So do you think I can have all these fish in brackish water? do I gradually turn the water brackish or can it be done instantly......any help will be appreciated.....regards Mick.

 

[AMS]

No. Not all fish can survive in brackish conditions. Think of it like this, there are 3 kinds of water, fresh, salt, and brackish. Converting a freshwater fish (who lives its whole life in FW) to saltwater would kill the fish. Converting a saltwater fish (who lives its whole life in SW) to freshwater would kill the fish. The same goes for brackish water. There are certain freshwater fish such as x-ray tetras that naturally inhabit brackish waters, so they are fine in a brackish water aquarium. Unfortunately, none of the fish you listed are brackish tolerant.

 

[nmonks]

AMS gave good advice, but I'd expand this point a little if I might. There really isn't any one thing as "brackish water". While x-ray tetras might tolerate 5% seawater, anything higher will kill them. Conversely, monos and scats need brackish water around 50% seawater, and anything less isn't very healthy for them. Mollies will take anything from 0 to 100% seawater. With brackish water fish, you need to decide on what fish you want, and then tailor the community and the water conditions around them. In some cases, you can't keep the fish you'd like.

The other way of looking at your aquarium is asking if it's possible to keep brackish-looking fish in a freshwater tank. There are numerous gobies, glassfish, halfbeaks, spiny eels, and puffers considered (or similar to) brackish water fish that will do fine, even better, in freshwater tanks. The South American puffer, for example, is a reasonable community fish kept with fast-moving species. Questions about these sorts of fish are best asked in the Oddballs section.

Cheers,

Neale

There are certain freshwater fish such as x-ray tetras that naturally inhabit brackish waters, so they are fine in a brackish water aquarium.

 

[snowwolf]

I am very sorry for making this confusing, I was getting a little muddled up when writing the topic, what I was meant to say, that I want to change to "soft water" tank so I can have Discus, catfish etc and was wondering if you have to gradually change over to soft water and how long is that change over time.

 

[nmonks]

If you aren't talking about brackish, then this is probably the wrong forum to ask about discus or catfish!

But generally, yes, water chemistry changes are best done gradually. While you can take water from soft/acid to hard/alkaline quickly (I've done it within an hour) the safest approach is to do the change over a few days, with a 20% change of the water with each water change. A few fish (e.g., halfbeaks and Tanganyikans) are exceptionally intolerant of sudden water chemistry changes.

Cheers,

Neale

I am very sorry for making this confusing, I was getting a little muddled up when writing the topic, what I was meant to say, that I want to change to "soft water" tank so I can have Discus, catfish etc and was wondering if you have to gradually change over to soft water and how long is that change over time.