Hypothesizing On A Brackish Tank.

[Mettle]

I have an empty 40 gallon tank (36x18x15) and was thinking about finally taking the leap and doing a brackish set-up. I've been doing lots of reading and research on everything from appropriate substrates to different types of fish and so forth. I was actually quite surprised to see that there are a lot more fish than I was previously aware of that are considered brackish.

The one that amazed the most is probably kribs. I had no idea they could do into a brackish set-up.

And this lead me to start thinking.

Would it be possible to mix figure 8 puffers and kribs in the same tank? Or would this just be homocidal - and if so in regards to which side? I know quite a bit on the behaviour of puffers and how at times they can simply be mean. Depends on the personality. Same with kribs - especially if dealing with a breeding pair. I've seen a pair of kribs wipe out the better part of a 60 gallon tank. But by that same token I also know a lot of people who've bred kribs in 20 gallon community tanks with no problems and who've kept figure 8 puffers in groups and with gobies and such.

So any opinions on this matter? Is it worth a try or should I just not bother at all? And if this is a go - is there anything else I can add to the mix? Gobies?

Thanks for any opinions.

 

[nmonks]

Hello,

I prefer to think of kribs as "brackish tolerant" than truly brackish water cichlids. They do best in neutral, slightly soft to moderately hard water. What I mean by this is that you get broods of equal numbers of males and females at pH 7; at lower or higher pH values you get predominantly one sex over the other.

Kribs do occur in the Niger delta, and this has been transmogrified into classifying them as brackish water fish. But also found in the delta are ropefish and Synodontis catfish. It's probably best to think of them as fish that inhabit an environment that periodically gets inundated with slightly salty water. A specific gravity of 1.005 -- what you need for figure-8 puffers -- is the upper limit of comfort for kribs, and they do a lot better at 1.003 or less. As such, they're more like spiny eels, aspredinine banjo catfish, and so on rather than truly euryhaline cihclids like chromides and tilapia able to tolerate a wide range of salinities.

If you want cichlids in the brackish water tank, there are some much better choices such as the black chin tilapia, Sarotherodon melanotheron. It's well able to handle high salinities, and in the wild occurs primarily in brackish, not fresh, water. Probably a bit big for a 40 gal. tank though.

Cheers,

Neale

The one that amazed the most is probably kribs. I had no idea they could do into a brackish set-up.

 

[Pufferpunk]

If you could find them, orange/green cromides would work.

 

[Mettle]

If you could find them, orange/green cromides would work.

Do you mean with f8 puffers?

I'm not looking specifically for cichlids here. If I wanted that, I could simply do a variety in any type of fw setup. I was just thinking the kribs would be interesting, as I've never owned them before, and this might be a chance to 'work them in'. But it sounds like it probably wouldn't be the best for them to be in the bw, so I'll pass.

Thanks for the info.

 

[chris_1127]

i've just added an orange chromide to my figure 8's and knight gobies - early days yet but seems to be ok so far - the chromide has claimed a cave and other than occasionally chasing fish away from the cave ignores everything else and is ignored itself. have to say the most aggressive thing in the tank seems to be my male knight goby, hands down, especially when it comes to food. i do have the sneaky suspicion though that the knights have snacked out on my smaller xanthozona bumblebee gobies - the doriaes are all still there but two xanthozonas, which are a fair bit smaller have disappeared...

I've had the knights and the figure 8's together for about 6-7 months now, and they seem to work pretty well together.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Yup, knights will eat anything they can fit into their BIG mouths! Even have eaten full grown crickets!

 

[penguinpimp1990]

Yup, knights will eat anything they can fit into their BIG mouths! Even have eaten full grown crickets!

wow, i know knights had big mouths but i doubt that they can swallow a full grown cricket

 

[Pufferpunk]

Believe it or not... mine did!