Starting Up A Brackish Tropical Tank "120 Litres"

[aquamanA]

hi guys I am wanting to buy a tank an aquarium tank and I have wanted to for months I am doing all sorts of changes all because I am a great big fish lover and I decided to buy the tank a few months back but I didnt have the cash or the payment or the income to do it, so I am planning to keep these variety of fish I have already got........


1 green severum medium sized

3 congo tetras

1 chinese barb

2 pearl gourami (male and female)

I lost a few tetras and they just vanished so I am going to buy some fish that wont vanish so I gave up the idea on buying tetras..... here are the fish that i am going to buy for the samll trank as I researched my calculations...

6 guppies

5 platyss

3 mollies

2 sharks (ruby 1 male 1 female)

2 medium sized oscars

3 loaches smaller ones

2 discuss fish

and probley catfish the pleco type after i get these first ones settled in , its for a 120 litre tank...

 

[nmonks]

With the exception of the mollies, all those fish are freshwater, and either don't need salt or are actually intolerant of salt.

Possibly you'd be better posting in one of the other forums?

Cheers,

Neale

 

[phlawed]

agree w/ nmonks 100% research more

 

[AMS]

Unless you want a tank full of dead fish dont attempt it. Not only are none of those fish salt tolerant (exception of mollies and possibly platy's and guppies) , none of those fish will live together for long. Are you aware that oscars grow to 12 inches a piece?

Dont just throw in fish that look nice, research beofre you buy.

 

[nmonks]

Following on what the others have said here, it's worth making this statement: While you have latitude with regard to freshwater fish that need soft or hard water, you cannot play fast and loose with brackish water. Brackish water has the potential to kill freshwater fish very quickly.

In other words, you can keep soft water fish like discus in hard water and likely have no problems at all. Usually, the question of water chemistry only matters for breeding purposes. Brackish water is different, because the salt draws water out of the fish, and unless a fish can deal with it, they will eventually die.

There are quite a lot of brackish-tolerant freshwater fish, that because they had marine ancestors, still have the hardware to survive in salty water, if they must. Most livebearers and halfbeaks, for example, are salt tolerant, and so are many killifish and cichlids. By contrast, freshwater fish that have evolved from freshwater ancestors -- like tetras, barbs, cyprinid 'sharks', (most) catfish, gouramis, and loaches -- have no adaptations for salty water and cannot survive in brackish water.

A brackish water aquarium is fun and worthwhile, and gives you plenty of scope for keeping really neat and interesting fishes. But it isn't an aquarium to set up on a whim, and it's a good idea to read a little before hand. Brackish isn't difficult; quite the reverse really, brackish fish are usually amazingly hardy and easy to please. There are plenty of experienced aquarists on this forum, so any questions, ask away!

Cheers,

Neale