Targetfish Question

[the_evil_duboisi]

On the article, and on the sites I've seen them, say that they can live in nearly any water, from hard fresh to marine.

But someone told me that although adults are okay in fresh, babies need salt water. But before I say this I had already purchased one. AT first, it ate well and had a full belly, but suddenly stopped eating and fungus grew all over it's body and it died a horrible lingering death.

There has one catch: The lady at the LFS said that she just got them, and she was not sure of their water. So is it possible that juvies live in fresh water, but the one I got was not used to it yet?

 

[nmonks]

Juvenile targetfish do indeed live in the sea. Or, to be more specific, tide pools. They are territorial (using caves) and rather mean to one another and everything else really.

Only as they mature (at around 10 cm long) do they stop being territorial and form schools, becoming open water fish (where schooling behaviour helps avoid predators). At this point, they migrate into estuaries, where they constantly swim in and out of freshwater and saltwater environments. Juveniles targetfish do fine in brackish water though. What does matter is the salinity is at least 1.005, and the KH is nice and high.

Adults are not especially aggressive and can be mixed with other fish. They remain boisterous though, and should only be kept with sizeable fish able to avoid trouble (like scats and monos). They are also very predatory, so choose tankmates with care.

Cheers, Neale

 

[the_evil_duboisi]

Thanks Neale, but what are all those articles about keeping babies in freshwater? Are they all okay, or just lucky?

Also, not to argue but as a fact, the store didn't have them for long....The lady was scared what would happen she didn't try to move them into different water. So I guess they didn't have time to settle, and mine was unlucky enough to be bought before it adjusted to fresh?

 

[nmonks]

I'm sure the young fish are very adaptable. I simply said *in the wild* the juveniles are marine fish, or at least tide pool fish. As a rule, following what a fish does in the wild is always a good plan.

These fish simply aren't kept that often: the juveniles are fairly nasty animals, and this has given them a reputation for being poor aquarium fish. I can't comment on what other web sites might suggest about them. I call them brackish -- not freshwater -- fish and so does Schaefer in the Aqualog book. But if you want to try something different, that's up to you. Just go carefully, look out for signs of trouble, and react accordingly. I would suspect keeping them at anything less than SG 1.005 would be doomed to failure, but I can't say for certain.

Cheers, Neale