Hey All!

[MonoSebaelover]

Hey guys, its been kinda slow here lately so figured I would see who all is still around and what brackish fish you have currently. I have an Anablep Anablep, Mono Argenteus, Tiger Datnoide, 2 Figure 8 Puffers, 3 Blue Spot Gobies, and that is it for now. Am always looking for 4 Mono Sebaes, some more Argents, and more Anableps. Anyway, hope everyone is doing well and just wanted to check in to see how everyone is doing.

[brackishdude]

Still around. It has beeen kinda slow, so here goes. . .

110 gal Brackish Tank, currently 1.004, 2 VHO 4' tubes powered by icecap ballast 8" over waterline with enclosed wooden hood.

Undergravel filter and 2 eheim 1113 canisters discharging over biowheels. The substrate is 2-3 mm gravel and crushed coral (3:1) aobut 3-4' thick.

Fire eel (2 feet)
Crazy fish (4")
Mono a (4")
Mono s (2")
Fig 8 (1.5")
Glass fish x 5 (1-1.5")
Krib, pair (2 and 2.5")
Flag fish (2 male, 1 female, 1.5-2.5")
Tiger Dat (2.5")
Candy stripe goby (3")
Knight gobies x 3 (2.5")

My only plants are appogen(sp?) bulbs from wal-mart. I love these things. 6 bulbs for about $2.50, send in the ones that don't sprout for free replacements. Full green plants that thrive in my tank. The only ohter plant i've had consistent luck with is water sprite.

Lots of driftwood and 6 mangroves attached.

I have a digital camera now, any tips on posting photos?

[ChilDawg]

I think they're called Aponogeton spp. plants.

I'm still around, but no BW fish yet...

[cdawson]

I'm still around

135g w/ aquaclear 500, and rena xp3

3" play/silica sand substrate with coral mixed in
-2 silver scats
-2 mono argentus
-1 Green spotted puffer
-2 lyretail mollies

15g w/ fluval 1

2" coral substrate and big al's bulk pre-used gravel

-1 saffron molly
- soon to be home to two african mudskippers in two weeks time.

Brackishdude: where'd you get the mangrove plants?

[brackishdude]

type in 'mangrove' and 'brackish' into google and you'll find tons of great info and a few sites that sell them. Most charge aobut 5-10 bucks per plant.

I bought mine off ebay, 10 for 15-20$ a few years back. This guy usually has a few auctions going at once, many go unbid on.

My only advice: have plenty of room above the water line, at least 6-8", inside your hood below the flourescent tubes, and have a lot of light.

[Dangerdoll]

I'm still around.... no brackish yet either, but will be getting there soon enough ;)

[andruboz]

- wont the tiger dats get huge and eat everything else?

- i thought flag fish were freshwater for the longest time. my lfs recently corrected me.

BD - you dont have a plexiglass cover tween the lights and the tank for reducing the evaporation?

and i am still confused on kribs. some tell me freshwater some say salt.

i have a 29g not set up yet that may go brackish. it would be in a cooler room of my house. any suggestions on braks that would be happier at 70 then 78?

[Nippy]

20 gallon brackish:
2 Anableps anableps
2 Knight Gobies
1 Flounder
1 Glassfish
2 Bumblebee Gobies

I also have a Tiger Dat & 3 Orange Chromides in another 20 gallon, lightly salted.

[olaf]

Tank 1 - 150 Gal. SG. 1.012
5 Argentine Monos 4"
5 Sebae Monos 4" (6" head-tail)
2 Red Scats 2.75"
1 Green Scat 4.5"
1 Silver Scat 4.5"
1 Green Spotted Puffer 3.25"
1 Figure 8 Puffer 2.75"
1 Orange Chromide 3.5"
2 Green Chromides 4"
1 Archer 4.25"
1 Tiger Fish Coius undecimradiatus "Dat" 4"
1 Silver Tiger Fish Coius quadrifasciatus "Silver Dat" 3.25"
2 Leaf goblinfish Vespicula depressifrons 2.75"
1 Mangrove Red Snapper 2.75"
Salinity is at 1.012 (at the moment)
I change the Salinity over the year to minic the change of seasons. The wet season the Salinity is lower and the dry season the salinity is higher. The range is from 1.005 to 1.018.
All of my fish are healthy and spoiled. Live top quality healthy food when I can get it and frooze when I can't.
The tank is very well balanced.

Tank 2 - Salinity is at 1.016
3 Silver Shark Catfish 5.5"
1 Target Fish 3.5"

Tank 3 - Salinity is at 1.017
2 Hermit Crabs .25"
1 Orange Turbo Snail .75"
3 Margarita Snail .5"
1 Cerith Snail .75" Burrows in the sand 90% of the time.
I also have 4 flounders 1"

[Nippy]

olaf, how long have you had your Vespiculas? I have tried 4 times to keep this fish with no luck! The longest they've lastest is 2 weeks. Is there a certain salinity for them because the only site I ever found on them said they can live in anything from fresh to salt. :confused:

[olaf]

Around about three year. I did have three at one time but one got sick and died. Problem with the swim blader(?).

[brackishdude]

This arrangement only has to last one more year, then I finish residency and start to earn the rewards for 13 years education after high school!!! Then I will get 2 large tanks, one peaceful and one more predatory, both brackish on the same large wet-dry filter system. I hope this is a short enough time to avoid the obvious incompatability between dats and glassfish, etc. All the fish are content at their current size!

I'll divide them as so:


I hope to have about 250 gal for the bigger, more predatory tank (with crude estimates of greatest size included below). I would like to add vespiculata depressifrons, anableps, orange chromides, an archer, and a target fish.

Fire eel (2 feet) 2' 6" ?
Crazy fish (4") 6"
Mono a (4") 8"
Mono s (2") 8"
Fig 8 (1.5") 4"
Tiger Dat (2.5") >12"

I'll probably use my current tank for the smaller-fish/peaceful set-up. I'd like to add a dozen glassfish, 6 celese rainbows (3 pair), and a mudskipper (remember I have considerable above-eater space to make room for the mangroves - btw, I have no barrier between the tubes and the water. I have water-proof end capps and a well-sealed hood (moisture-wise, it does get saturated when the timer has the lights out!)).

Glass fish x 5 (1-1.5") 3"
Krib, pair (2 and 2.5") 4"
Flag fish (2 male, 1 female, 1.5-2.5") 3"
Candy stripe goby (3") 5"
Knight gobies x 3 (2.5") 3"

Oh, yeah. I also have about 8 nerite snails, which I also got off of ebay. I have have them for well over 2 yrs, and have lost about 5 over that time to unknown causes . These guys do a great job of controlling the algae. My only concern is the ocmpetition between them and the flagfish, who are also voracious algae scrapers.

[olaf]

Target fish are a schooling fish and are skiddish and will attach other fish if not in a small school. (3 min. more the better) I have learned this from experience.
They will schred scaled fish like a paper schedder if not fed well and if they are not intimidated.

[olaf]

My dream tank and plans for the future have been put on hold.
I was laid-off from HP/Compaq and I seem not to be able to find any designer jobs around here. So my plan has to be put on the back burner.

[cdawson]

I feel for your loss olaf, I work for a major company (daisytek intl) that distributes HP products to the large office product distributors in canada. We almost lost our jobs recently as our entire international company went up except for the canada and mexico divisions. I'm not sure how much HP my company distributed in the states but it was alot I'm sure. I guess the market is dwindling due to such a bad economy. Good luck finding more work.

[bksmith]

Sorry for your loss Olaf.

I still check in here every so often. My tank specs:

135G RR Oceanic w/ Wet Dry
sg ~1.015
running for over 2 years now - no fish have been added in over a year (and no deaths :) )

2 Tetracanthus Scats
1 Red Scat
2 Silver Scats
1 "Striped" Scat (microcanthus strigatus)
5 Mono Argentus
1 Mono Sebae
3 Archers (2 different kinds though)
4 Columbian Shark Catfish
1 Knight Goby
1 Green Spotted Puffer

[olaf]

OOPS!

[olaf]

___________________________________________

"1 "Striped" Scat (microcanthus strigatus)"
___________________________________________

I have not ever heard of one of these in brackish water.
Doesn't it belong to the butterfly fish family?
How long have you had this and how much did it cost?

What are the sizes of your fish?
OK OK I'll stop with the twenty questions! :D

[olaf]

When I hear Striped Scat I think of Scatophagus tetracanthus
http://www.ohiexchange.com/armke/images/scatophagus_tetracanthus.jpg

[cdawson]

That would be it, I did a search with the scientific name. Very nice version of the scat, and yes they are the same as the other species. The vancouver aquarium used to have a scat and mono species tank with every species of scat. I wish they still had it, now they've got an african cichlid display. Kind of boring to me, as the tanks don't really look that nice although I'm sure some people come from far away just to see it.

[olaf]

bksmith is this what you have?
microcanthus strigatus Stipey
http://filaman.uni-kiel.de/images/Mistr_u0.jpg

[bksmith]

Yes, I have a "Stripey" ( along with 2 Tetracanthus). I know the stripey is not technically in the Scat family, but my LFS called him a striped scat when I was first looking at him. I did research on FishBase which lists it as sometimes found in Brackish so I trusted my LFS. He behaves pretty much like a scat. except he doesn't eat spinach.

My log book is at home but I have had him definitely over 1 year, more likely 18 months. When I first got him my sg was ~1.010 and now I keep it in the vicinity of 1.015.

I really like this fish! I had two at one point, but one day the smaller one just up and died. My red scat loves to chase these guys endlessly. At one point I was really worried because Red would literally chase him (them) constantly. However, there are enough scats in the tank now who chase Red and spread out the aggression. If for some reason I lose some of my other scats, I would definitely get a few more Stripey's.

Answers to other questions: Stripey cost $29.99. My biggest 3 fish are a Tetracanthus, Mono Sebae, and a shark cat which are about 5-6". The rest of the scats, monos are between 3.5 and 5". My archers are about 4". My knight is full grown, ~3.5" and my GSP is growing amazingly slow, had him for between 12&18 months and he's about 2-2.5".

[mkpeters6]

I just picked up two stone fish (i.e. toadfish, lionfish, brackish water) They are not very active but they are very different looking.

also have a big fat green spotted puffer

[cdawson]

They're actually just called a toadfish, a stonefish is SW and VERY poisonous. They resemble a stonefish , but don't get them confused it may be a fatal mistake. I don't think I would mix it with a GSP either. In case you missed all the posts on this board about GSPs, they're very aggressive and not recommended to keep with tankmates. Let alone tankmates that don't really move. That toadfish is a sitting target, come night time your puffer is going to be cruising for food. Anything that moves will be fair game.