Fish Availability

[MojoDex]

i was just wondering if anyone else has problems stocking brackish tanks? ive been trying to stock mine for weeks now and i cant find anything at all!

im having so much trouble finding fish im thinking of stripping it down and forgetting brackish all together which i dont want to do but if i cant find fish whats the point i went to 6 shops yesterday and the only brackish fish i found were scats way to big for my tank!

does anyone know any mail order places that do brackish fish by chance?

 

[mlawson]

I know what you mean, most fish stores don't stock brackish fish altogether. When I asked my LFS they said they weren't exciting enough, I then had a long argument about it and I've persuaded them to stock more brackish fish. I also think most fish stores don't realise the variety of brackish water fish are available. Just keep nagging your LFS to order some in for you.

 

[nmonks]

There are lots and lots of nice fish out there... the tricky bit is being in the right place at the right time. Only *some* stores regularly get them in. BAS, Wildwoods, Trimar, Wholesale Tropicals, those are the sorts of place you need to look. Although it doesn't cover every store, The Tropical Fish Finder web site database is pretty good and has a lot of important shops. Search for your fish, and then click the 'stock' button to see which stores have it. Or else look over the stock lists of the stores near home.

Wholesale Tropicals apparently is doing mail order on fish, and Trimar has for a while. Both are good for oddballs.

Wildwoods has a wish list on their web site -- basically you tell Keith what you want, and he'll see if he can it. They don't do mail order, but on the other hand if Wildwoods can't get something, it probably isn't in the trade anyway.

Hope this helps,

Neale

does anyone know any mail order places that do brackish fish by chance?

 

[MojoDex]

one of the shops i went to was BAS actually they had the scats, i dont drive so places like wildwoods r well out of my reach im afraid. i emailed trimar and they told me they dont do brackish.... im between a rock and a hard place with this i just dont know what to do!

 

[nmonks]

Don't say "brackish" when enquiring. Almost all these fish are sold as freshwater fish or marines, so just name your fish and ask if they get them.

Hogchoker soles, violet gobies, clay gobies, butterfy-goby waspfish, Awaous flavus, Rhinogobius 'wui', figure-8 puffers, glassfish, bumblebees, orange chromides, black-chin tilapia, black-belt cichlids, Hoplo catfish, wrestling halfbeaks, mollies, Ameca splendens, Florida flagfish, Asian killifish, guppies, needlefish, gar, jewel cichlids, Tilapia mariae, kribs, morays, spaghetti eels -- all these are good brackish water fish (to some degree) that are traded as freshwater fish.

On the marines front, there are Arothron spp., several Lutjanus, green eel-blennies, stripeys, at least one Canthigaster puffer, some batfish, some damselfish, and eel catfishes that can be kept in mid- to high-end brackish depending on the species.

If you ask for brackish specifically the guys in the store will get freaked out, so forget about them. Just pick the Latin name of the fishes you're interested, and ask if they can get them. Once you have them at home, adapt them over an hour to the salinity of your aquarium, and problem solved.

Cheers, Neale