Need Photos Quick

[nmonks]

Hello all --

We're weeks away from press, but I still need some photos of brackish water fish for my book. While other species might be useful, the most urgent need is for:

Colombian shark catfish
Aspredo aspredo
Plotosus lineatus
Nandus nandus
Notesthes robusta
Gobies (Amoya, Acentrogobius, Glossogobius)
Snakehead gudgeon
Takifugu spp.,
Xenopterus spp.,
Colomesus psittacus

Photos need to be colour, hi-res (300 dpi works well), and about 4 inches tall, if not taller. JPEGs and TIFFs are fine.

The publisher (TFH) will pay $20 for each photo they buy, and the deadline is Monday next week. So if you want to see your puffer in print, please PM me ASAP.

Thanks,

Neale

 

[AMS]

Sorry I cant help you out Neale, but I know Sabby always takes good shots of her Columbian sharks. Can't wait for your book to hit stores! Will it be available at chain stores like Barnes and Nobles in the US?

 

[Flumpus]

Sent you a PM... Don't have any of the species listed though. Wish I did! Can't wait for the book.

 

[CFC]

I dont have any print worth pictures of my Takifugu or shark cats but i id find this one picture of a our Allenbatrachus gruniens (spelling?) which you can use for free if you like and its anay good to you.

let me know and if it is i'll try and find the original and email it.

 

[andywg]

Here are a couple more of CFC's tank. If he doesn't mind (as they are his fish) I can send you the full size ones (around 2000x1000 ish pixels IIRC). I also think I may have some of his old shark cats somewhere, so will try and dig them out (again, assuming CFC doesn't mind pics of his fish being used).

Can have my pics for free if you want.

Edit--

Just realised, CFC has already put one of mine up, oh well, can never have too many of the toadfish

 

[CFC]

i wondered how i managed to get a clear shot of the toad fish, that answers it, you took the picture

 

[nmonks]

Thanks for these! I'll PM you and explain the details. I'm desperate for a shark catfish portrait. Oddly, TFH don't have any nice ones.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[AMS]

Thats a sick brackish tank CFC. Can't wait to set-up my 140 gallon brackish tank.

 

[CFC]

Two days after that photo was taken the tank went into shock from being moved and we lost all but 5 of the fish (3 morays, jade goby and toad fish) to a massive ammonia and nitrite spike.
The mrs has now lost interest in the fish and i dont have as much time as i would like to spend on sorting it back out so the tank is a poor reflection of its past glory. We got new shark cats, monos and scats but its not the same.

After christmas i have a idea in the planning stages of adding a decent sized protein skimmer, taking the salt level right up to 1.020 and adding a few marine fish to brighten the tank back up and add some interest to it again.

 

[nmonks]

This is a good idea. I've done this at SG 1.018, and it works very well with stuff like damsels which do very well at slightly reduced salinities. Supposedly actually better for them, in captivity anyway. One combo that didn't work was triggers and shark catfish... the triggers hated the clicking noise the catfish made, and would attack the poor old cats. The cats of course were terrified, clicked even more, and the trigger became doubly irate. So had to split them up. This was a blue trigger (Odonus niger), otherwise quite a peaceable fellow, and worked fine with monos, scats, and such like.

Cheers,

Neale

After christmas i have a idea in the planning stages of adding a decent sized protein skimmer, taking the salt level right up to 1.020 and adding a few marine fish to brighten the tank back up and add some interest to it again.

 

[CFC]

I was thinking about a dog face puffer a few blue damsels and a snowflake moray or similar.

Are there any others which can happily live at the lower salinities?

 

[nmonks]

Loads and loads. The tricky bit is identifying them safely. Here's a few:

Batfish

Platax teira
Platax orbicularis
In theory Platax pinnatus too, but it's (apparently) virtually impossible to keep alive in captivity so best avoided.

Snappers

Lutjanus sebae
Lutjanus argentimaculatus
Lutjanus apodus
Shame we don't see Lutjanus maxweberi, a 15 cm, fresh/brackish water pygmy snapper! How cool would those be?

Puffers

Chelonodon patoca
Arothron hispidus
Arothron immaculatus
Arothron manilensis
Arothron reticularis
Sphaeroides maculatus
Canthigaster compressa

Damsels

Obviously all the "freshwater" damsels -- Stegastes otophorus, Pomacentrus taeniometopon, and Neopomacentrus taeniurus -- but also Abudefduf saxatilis, at SG 1.015+

Catfish

Plotosus lineatus

Stripey

Microcanthus strigatus

I'm sure there are plenty of others, but these are the ones that are most easily obtained. A lot of these fish inhabit brackish only when young, as is the case with batfish and puffers. But the catfish go the other way, being marine when young and only entering brackish once they get to a certain size. The snappers and damsels, as far as I can figure out, move in and out of brackish water simply to feed. So you'll need to do a bit of research to find out which ones will work best for you. At SG 1.015 upwards, I'd assume all of them would do well, and certainly at SG 1.018 there wouldn't be any risk at all.

I believe some of the lionfish enter brackish, too, but I don't know which species. For some reason I think it's the Dendrochirus spp., but I'm not going to stick my neck out without doing some research.

Cheers,

Neale

Are there any others which can happily live at the lower salinities?

 

[andywg]

Hmm, it seems I didn't get as many good shots of the shark cats as I thought, however, these are the best ones I can find. If the full size one is used (full size pic is 2304 x 1728 pixels) it may be possible to use a smaller part to just get the Shark Cats.

*Edit* have to say I am impressed with the standard lights on that tank, the last two photos of the four below had a shutter speed of 1/124 and 1/179 of a second respectively, yet still avoid becoming the dark blot that most tanks with standard lights do.

As to marine fish in very high end brackish tanks, I seem to recall Nav kept his fish and invertebrate life short term at 1.018SG when combatting oodinium. I believe that you can keep most marine fish at 1.018 upwards so I doubt there would be any problems with a tank at 1.020.

I have always been wary of Panchax sp. as a number of them end up between two and three feet tall from bottom of anal to top of dorsal fin, and 5 feet tall tanks cost quite the pretty penny.

Neale, brackish venturing lionfish does indeed sound very familiar, though I can find no reference to it in any literature I have nor on a brief stint on fishbase. Considering how hardy it is, I would wager that Pterois volitans could survive at that SG, and as mentioned, would be very surprised to see any fish really have any difficulties.

I would say that by 1.020 Live Rock, Live Sand, Deep Sand Beds and macro-algae will start to become viable filtration options. While the tank will be a bit heavy on bioload to just run these and try and establish 0 nitrates a la reef, one may be able to help with keeping the nitrates a little lower and thus reduce the size of the more expensive water changes.

 

[kanzaris]

Hi Neale

Don't know if they are any good. I have loads of photos.

And I don't want any money just to see the pics in your book be good enough especially as my smaller Shark cat died last weekend.

Sabby

 

[nmonks]

Thanks Sabby, I'll PM you.

Cheers, Neale