This Is What I Have My Heart Set On..

[Anthony!]

Alright, I am sooo excited I finally will have the money wednesday for a 75 gallon set up tank, will probably buy it Thursday or Friday. It will be brackish, and (assuredly) house my GSP as soon as he gets bigger ( he is about the size of your thumbnail--so small I thought he was a DP in the store, and that's what I bought it as) and I really would like a shoal of monos. Saying they'll work, what is a safe (not maximum, safe) number to have? It will be awhile until I have them-- want the puffer to grow bigger (by the way, how big should I let it go before he goes into the 75? he is about an inch long now)and I'll try fishless cycling again... it's never worked for me, I guess because I get excited and add to much ammonia Thanks for the help everyone!

 

[nmonks]

Monos and GSPs are a gamble.

I have seen monos kept with sharks in public aquaria, and they get along fine. I refuse to believe a shark is less dangerous than a GSP. But, and it's a big but, those tanks are huge, and the monos use their speed and schooling behaviour to avoid trouble.

In a small tank, a territorial GSP can corner a mono and do serious damage. Since monos don't have regular fins, and bit is going to take some skin and muscle, too. This makes them more sensitive to infections. So, I'd be very wary about the combination.

On the other hand, I have kept a dog-faced puffer with four monos in a 200 gallon brackish water tank, and they got along fine.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[AMS]

Of the 3 species of Mono available in the aquarium trade, Monodactylus sebae would be your best bet with a Green Spotted Puffer. Monodactylus sebae is the largest and deepest of the 3 species, and would probably hold it's own better than the other 2 species.

 

[kanzaris]

Of the 3 species of Mono available in the aquarium trade, Monodactylus sebae would be your best bet with a Green Spotted Puffer. Monodactylus sebae is the largest and deepest of the 3 species, and would probably hold it's own better than the other 2 species.

I inherited a Mono when I first started my Brackish Tank. The Mono is about 5 inch & my GSP is about 3 inch. So far so good. I have to see when the GSP gets bigger.

Sabby

 

[Anthony!]

Thinking on this... maybe my best bet is to have a 30 gallon for the puffer, and not even try it out with the monos... maybe not. It all depends on room available and, more importantly, funds available . In this case, would two diffrent species of monos (argentius and sebae) live together? If they would, what kind of #'s are we talking about for them?

 

[AMS]

In this case, would two diffrent species of monos (argentius and sebae) live together? If they would, what kind of #'s are we talking about for them?

Different Monos will school together regardless of species. Monos are a schooling fish, and feel more comfortable in a group of at least 4, preferably more.

 

[nmonks]

I definitely agree, and would actually go further and say that very often mixing different mono and scat species works astonishingly well. They "calm" each other as far as schooling goes, while avoiding the aggression sometimes seen when just small groups of monos are kept.

Cheers,

Neale

Different Monos will school together regardless of species. Monos are a schooling fish, and feel more comfortable in a group of at least 4, preferably more.

 

[CFC]

I actually tried keeping 4 M.argenteus and 2 M.sebae together and the result was that the sebae refused to shoal with the argenteus to the point that they would attack the argenteus if they tried to get too near, they also picked and pecked at each other continually until the slightly smaller of the two died. The remaining single sebae became so agressive toward all the fish in the tank including 2 foot plus moray eels that it had to be removed.

 

[nmonks]

Interesting. Schaefer, in the aqualog book, says much the same thing about monos, saying that even if you buy a bunch, you'll end up with just one.

This has not been my experience. I kept 3 common monos, 1 M. sebae, and 1 Selenotoca sp. in a 200 gallon tank and they all schooled nicely. They lived with an archer, three shark catfish, and a spotted gar, and everyone got along peacefully.

Cheers,

Neale

I actually tried keeping 4 M.argenteus and 2 M.sebae together and the result was that the sebae refused to shoal with the argenteus to the point that they would attack the argenteus if they tried to get too near, they also picked and pecked at each other continually until the slightly smaller of the two died. The remaining single sebae became so agressive toward all the fish in the tank including 2 foot plus moray eels that it had to be removed.

 

[CFC]

I had/have the same mixture (excluding the gar) and everything got along well apart from the M.sebae which were relentless little terrors picking and pecking at anything that moved and caught their eye. In a larger tank (the one at the time was a 80 gallon) then 2 seperate schools of monos with sufficient numbers to spread aggression between themselves could work but i wouldn't want to try this in less than 200 gallons of water. The argenteus are fine and apart from the odd quarrel between themselves are peacefull schooling fish.

 

[nmonks]

Thanks CFC. I guess I'll have to revise my comments along the lines of "in really big tanks, 200 gallons+" you can mix the two species, but in smaller tanks, best go with just common monos or M. kottelati.

Were all your fish of similar size? I found archers to be absolute terrors when kept at different sizes or in twos, whereas others have found big groups of similar sized specimens to be just fine.

Oddly, the Colombian sharks were all different sizes, and got along very well. They're absolute pussy cats.

The gar is a nice touch in a big brackish aquarium. They're very common in brackish habitats in the US, but no-one seemed to talk about that in aquairum books (this was back in 1990). So I tried it out, and it worked fine. He wasn't so happy in seawater, but it certainly didn't do him any harm, but at 1.010, he did really well, and ate everything on offer, from squid through to mackeral guts.

Cheers,

Neale

I had/have the same mixture (excluding the gar) and everything got along well apart from the M.sebae which were relentless little terrors picking and pecking at anything that moved and caught their eye. In a larger tank (the one at the time was a 80 gallon) then 2 seperate schools of monos with sufficient numbers to spread aggression between themselves could work but i wouldn't want to try this in less than 200 gallons of water. The argenteus are fine and apart from the odd quarrel between themselves are peacefull schooling fish.

 

[CFC]

The two mono sebae were the smallest fish in the tank at around 5cm tall, so small that on first adding them i was afraid they might become food for the morays or toadfish but almost from the word go they were aggressive and generally unfriendly towards the other occupants of the tank. The argenteus were a good 12cm tall and already well established in the tank but seemed terrified of the two new smaller sebae, even the scats which were 15cm+ were driven to take refuge behind the rock work.