Looking Into Brackish!

[JohnCS]

Hi Everyone!

My LFS happen to have Scats, Monos, and Archer fish in at the minute, i'm really interested in trying brackish. Never tried Brackish but i have a decent amount of experience in saltwater and a lot of experience in freshwater. The tank i'd keep the fish in would have to be suitable to be upstairs, so no larger than 45-50 Gallon i'd say

Archer fish interest me the most, the idea of having a deep tank, half filled with water, and plants in the dry half, i could then introduce insects onto the plants to observe the natural feeding habits of the fish. Has anyone here done this? How big a tank would i need? Are Archers communal or singular?

Monos/Scats to me look stunning, Monos are completely different to the norm, and Scats are also unusual looking, My dad has kept both but i've never tried keeping either. What sort of size tank would i need for a group of 3-4 of both/one of them?

As you can tell i've got a lot of questions, i'm a noob at Brackish!

TANK:
The tank should have a coral sand substrate.
Use wood and roots to recreate the mangrove roots of the swamp.
Use an efficient filtering system, because brackish water fish are heavy eaters, yet sensitive to water pollutants.
One popular brackish-water set-up is to leave the tank only half full with water. A sandy beach is constructed and potted mangrove seedlings grow above the water surface. Such a set-up allows an aquariast to observe unusual behavior from brackish species such as Mudskippers and Archerfish.

That idea really sounds nice to me, Any one tried this?

 

[La.La]

In theory the setup you like sounds nice, however all of the fish as far as monos, scats and archers all get to be 10in+ so you wouldn't be able to keep them in a tank only fiilled halfway. I have a 55g and ideally I would LOVE to have a few monos but even with the tank filled all the way to the brim I don't think they'd have enough space for their eventual size. Just looking through previous threads it looks like some people keep a mudskipper tank with fiddler crabs and they seem to get along nicely. Anyone can correct me if i'm wrong but depending on how big the pool of water you plan on keeping, orange chromides only get to about 3.5in as well as fig 8 puffers.

 

[nmonks]

Archers are best kept either singly or in groups of 5+ specimens. In small groups they tend to be aggressive. It's hardly worth keeping them in paludaria unless the tank is extremely tall (i.e., custom-built). Archers get so big -- even the smallest are around 12 cm long -- that you'd still need a good 150-200 litres for the small species and maybe twice that for the bigger ones. It's perfectly possible to half-empty the tank during a water change, stick shrimp meat on the glass, and have them spit that into the water.

Scats and Monos are big. You would need at least 350 litres for a group of either one species or a mix of both. Do bear in mind that while Scats are okay singly or in small groups, Monos tend to be aggressive (towards one another) unless in a large group.

Mudskippers and Fiddlers work find if of similar size; big Mudskippers view smaller crabs as food.

Orange Chromides are best kept in low salinity planted tanks (indeed, some argue they're not even brackish water cichlids at all). Figure-8 Puffers are unreliable companions, so try at your own risk, and have a plan for separating if you need to. Neither are big fish, so 100+ litres should be adequate.

Cheers, Neale

 

[maurizio]

Hello John,
and welcome. I have archers (T. microlepis) in pretty much the same environment you've mentioned, normal sand with large artificial roots and a couple of mangrove propagulae slowly growing in there. The tank is a 240 l, full up to 130-150 l, thus leaving plenty of air space to enjoy the archers antics. Info in my (b)log below, or feel free to come and ask.

You don't need a beach with archers, it's a waste of space, but surely do with skippers and fiddlers (provided you really want to keep them together...)

Shovelman is another member in the forum with the same setup.

 

[jonny5]

upstairs is an issue, but I think if you really want some archers it can be done. Sorry mono and scats out of question, they need more water. You will need a 125gallon tank and fill it to about half way to 3/4th, more than that and it will become to heavy for upstairs. You can only use two of the smaller archer species, T. microlepis and the Burmese archer, they get to about (neal may correct me) 6-8inches. Make sure you place the tank near a load bearing wall (often the outer corners of your house have more support). with these two species you can go light brackish and keep some chromides, dragon gobies, certain halfbeaks, kribensis, crazy fish, figure 8 puffer, knight gobies....and a few other species. Or you can keep them in hard freshwater and get freshwater species that are suited for harder water and higher ph 7.5-8.0. Good luck, archers are half the reason most people get into brackish.