# Marine livestock for a brackish tank?



## redchigh (Jan 20, 2010)

So far, the only things I've found that can be acclimated to mid-level brackish is:

Caulurpa Algae
Chaeto Algae
Bumblebee Goby (depends on exact species)
Sailfin Molly/Molly
Fiddler Crabs
Sheepshead Minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus)
Aplocheilus Lineatus (Striped Panchax, Golden Wonder Killifish) (unfortunately too large)


Puffers are ruled out because this will be a PERMENTANTLY brackish tank, and I'm not interested in phasing it to full marine.

It will also be planted, but I know the fish will probably nibble the plants. I already raised the salinity in one of my planted tanks up to approximately 1.5 tablespoons per gallon of table salt. Many plants slowed, a couple died, but I was suprised at the number of survivors. 

I wanted this tank to be a 10 gallon with an emersed area, so I'm really just looking for 1-2 nice small fish, and 4-5 fiddler crabs. Any ideas?

(btw, if anyone's interested, I'm going to try to make Caulerpa carpet the substrate, with some crypts, Crinum, and echinodorus var Vesuvious for contrast. In the emersed area, it will be mostly sand, a tiny waterfall, and saltwort planted out of the water.)


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

it would be so cool to have archer fish but may not be realistic. im not sure about these but how about some sort of sea grass or mangrove?

i think you want to add sea salt, and not table salt. i would pre-mix the saltwater in a seperate container or bucket atleast 24 hours in advance and then add that to the tank and not add salt directly to the tank.


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## redchigh (Jan 20, 2010)

I plan on using marine salt before I add any truly brackish inhabitants, I just wanted to test my plant's salinity tolerance.


Archers would be nice, but they def. get too big. Even if I got a bigger tank, I bet they'd eat my fiddlers at max size...


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## SEAWEED54 (Mar 8, 2012)

the bumble bee loach can also be acclimated to brackish 
when I got him he was a inch long now he is 9 inches he is brackish now 
if he was still fresh water he probably only would have got 6 inches
he is 5 years old


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## redchigh (Jan 20, 2010)

That actually gets a bit large (since this tank will only have about 5 gallons in the water area, but excellent filtration)

I'm thinking about bumblebee goby and/or halfbeaks... any idea if they'd coexist?


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

i dont know tank size requirements but seeing you will have a "land area" what about mudskippers?

i believe ive heard of halfbeaks being nasty. not sure, ive never kept a brackish setup. i would see if you could get a few mangroves to grow though. with the dry/wet setup they would look especially cool IMO.


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