[Wip] Starting A New Brackish Tank

[theBRACKISHguy]

Just signed up on TFF as it was at the top of Google at the time. Upon arriving on this forum I saw that Neale Monks seemed to frequent this website - I happen to love the book of his 'Brackish Water Fishes'. I am planning to start a new large brackish tank in the style of a mangrove on a back wall in my basement. I'd ideally like to house targetfish, scats, monos, jaculatrix archers, mollies, columbian shark cats, four eyed fish, violet gobies, green chromides, possible some brackish tilapias, ceylon puffers, tigerfish, possibly some soles - if you have any suggestions or objections please state them in a reply as this is quite a risky sounding setup.


I am aware that ceylon puffers are quite aggressive fish and some of the other fish I am planning to keep are very placid, but I was hoping the aggression would dissipate in such a large tank, and as I've not built the tank yet, I can easily extend the capacity if required, and if green spotted puffers can survive in this tank without becoming food, I'll take them as an alternative. I also know that mollies will end up food in an aquarium like this, but I've seen brackish public aquaria where there are self sustaining populations of mollies alongside large predators, I am planning to go for something similar to that. I also like the effect of having large numbers of small fish alongside a few much larger fish. I am also aware that scats, chromides and monos are greedy fish and will not hesitate to deny other fish the chance to feed, but then again, I've seen lots of public aquaria (albeit tanks about twice the volume of my intended size) where four eyed fish and violet gobies have done fine alongside them, and even much smaller 200-500 gallon tanks with these fish being mixed with archers. Another of my queries is the I plan on having this tank at SG 1.010.

As per tank layout, I'd like to have it relatively barren underwater a few rocks, some branches and a few scattered java ferns. I also hope to have a few mangrove species growing out of the tank (it is going to be a fairly high paludarium.)

So anyway, suggestions would be good. Links to videos or photos of large brackish setups would also be helpful.

Thanks

 

[nmonks]

Upon arriving on this forum I saw that Neale Monks seemed to frequent this website - I happen to love the book of his 'Brackish Water Fishes'.

Glad you enjoyed the book!

I am planning to start a new large brackish tank in the style of a mangrove on a back wall in my basement. I'd ideally like to house targetfish, scats, monos, jaculatrix archers, mollies, columbian shark cats, four eyed fish, violet gobies, green chromides, possible some brackish tilapias, ceylon puffers, tigerfish, possibly some soles - if you have any suggestions or objections please state them in a reply as this is quite a risky sounding setup.

Hmm… scats, monos, archers, catfish and chromides should all get along. Of the tilapias, there's some variation, but Sarotherodon melanotheron is a very pretty fish well worth keeping on account of its unusual breeding behaviour. It's a hardy but not too aggressive species that shouldn't cause serious problems when kept with robust companions. Now, targetfish can be trouble because they're known fin-biters, and violet gobies can sometimes be difficult to feed in mixed species set-ups. I wouldn't recommend keeping soles in mixed species set-ups at all because they're so very difficult to keep adequately fed. Puffers are unpredictable, and while some specimens work okay, others are nasty fin-biters. The London Aquarium has four-eyed fish mixed with mollies, and they're probably the best sort of tankmates to keep them with in mixed species set-ups. But I will observe that I've seen large four-eyed fish that are quite boisterous and readily take pellet food, so given space, it might be possible to keep them with things like scats and monos. I wouldn't recommend it though.

Cheers, Neale

Edit: I wouldn't bother with the Java ferns. Scats will destroy them, and if they don't, the sort of salinity you want here will kill them anyway.