Brackish companions

[madhippoz]

My new 77gal Brackish tank is in the process of cycling. I'll be moving my 3 Colombian sharks into it in about a week. I was wondering if there are any species of Cory that do well in Brackish water, or any other bottom feeders that are Brackish. I've heard most Cory's don't much like Brackish water, but they'd be the preferred bottom feeders for me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dana307]

Great question, and I am curious myself. I will add a question on..... Can a pleco common variety tolerate slightly brackish? I am going to slowly turn my turtle and molly/ swordtail tank into a brackish tank.

 

[madhippoz]

Heh interesting you should add that, the only other fish currently in my 10gal tank with my 3 Colombians, is a common pleco. The tank has been setup since January and has been moved more and more towards Brackish. He seems to be fine at this point. But I wanted to know for sure to either move him to the new 77gal Brackish tank, or get another 50gal tank or so for him and another assortment of Freshwater fish.

 

[adamj]

your gobys should be able to take care of picking up unwanted scraps of food off the bottom, mine do that, as well as the striped goby i have...

 

[dana307]

madhippoz -- thanks for the common pleco info re: brackish. Makes me feel better about having him in there. Never want to purposefully harm a fish, ya know?

 

[Lai Liu Ha]

i dunno, lots of people tried acclimatizing common plecos to full brackish and failed, hopefully u'll have more luck

 

[madhippoz]

Lai Lui Ha is right actually. I was one of those dupes that was putting "Aquarium Salt" the tonic stuff, into his tank, thinking he was making it more brackish. Adamj set me straight. Now I've gotten real Marine salt, and have bought a hydrometer and have actually made my tank brackish. So my previous experience with my pleco doing well in brackish is not the case. Everything I've read about them now, says they do not do well. Perhaps only if you kept it very very light on the brackish side. like 1.004 or 1.005, but then it wouldn't be as beneficial to your Colombians. You can try it, but make sure you have a spare freshwater tank to move him into the minute you see him not doing well.

Also you're right about the Gobies Adamj, they do a great job of picking the gravel clean. Hungry little buggers .

 

[Lai Liu Ha]

how do u get rid of the algae growing in ur brackish tank? without any algae eaters, i have to manually scrub it down

 

[madhippoz]

Is it that Brownish Red algae that tends to grow on the glass? My tank is just in the middle of its cycle, and I'm starting to get spots of that stuff on my glass. I won't bother scrubbing it until my cycle is done, but I'm wondering too if its a common occurance for Brackish tanks. Adamj? Any ideas?

 

[SoulFish]

ive had a brackish tank setup for bout a year and a half, the algae growth is generally not that bad, i clean the glass every other month and take the plants out and wipe them off, and if the rocks need it do them also but they rarely do

 

[Lai Liu Ha]

once i put the rocks and plastic plant from the brackish tank into my pleco tank, and after one night, everything is spotless haha

but then of course u get the poop

 

[madhippoz]

Is it best just to get a normal algea scraper? My gf has one of those magnet deally's that you pull around on the glass, and I have one as well, mostly because the magnet is fun to play with . But I'm not convinced it does a very good job. What do y'all use?

 

[SoulFish]

i use mag floats, scouring pads, my hands

 

[gwarzig]

I'm new to this board and was looking for a little help. I've got a 15 Gal long tank with a green spotted puffer in it. My wife heard that mollies are brackish fish and wanted to give them a try. So I bought 3 of the little buggers and they died after 3 weeks. I tried another three; after about a month and a batch of young they too died. My pH is fine and I do reg water changes. Any ideas why I can't kept these algae eating buggers alive? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[adamj]

hands are the best in my opinon. gives you a reason to get down and dirty in the tank

hippoz - ask me stuff on msn ya boob haha

gwarzig - whats your salinity levels? how big is that puffer, puffers can be VERY mean. What are your water levels like?

 

[SoulFish]

i would definately look into the direction of the pufferfish for the cause of the mollies deaht, they are very agressive, my green puffer has bitten through the bag and killed fish before

 

[madhippoz]

You were indisposed at the time on MSN. Now what you could have possibly been off doing besides sitting around to answer my every beck and call about fishkeeping I'll never know. Make sure it doesn't happen again!!

Heh I tried out that magnet scraper thing and it worked ok, you had to rub over the same spot several times for it to work. By hand is probably the most thorough I agree. Heh I just have to take my shirt off though. Being its a 77gal, on a stand, I have to stand on a chair, and then the water comes up to my armpit. Wheee . Fortunately my fingers or armpit hairs don't seem that tasty looking to my Gobies .

Oh and hey, they love those frozen tubifex worms. Went apesh*t for the things. Which is good, my Colombians wouldn't have anything to do with em.

 

[Lai Liu Ha]

actually i think the mollies will be ok as long as u dont get the mollies with the long fins, cuz they might get nipped

 

[gwarzig]

First thanks for the responses. Second, the salinity level of the tank is 1.005 and I don't think the deaths were do to my little 2 iinch puffer because I've never seen him make a move against the mollies. Also before they died they were doing the "I'm hammered and don't know which way is up thing". I think I'm gonna try on more time but I don't want to torture more fish by experimenting.

 

[Fishman24]

If you are still looking for another fish to put with the sharkcats, I would look into scats. Now there are a couple of different kinds and some get larger then other. They are a very very cool looking fish when they get bigger. I have actually taken scats from saltwater tanks and slowly dripped them to freshwater so they are an amazing fish.