My brackish tank

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Silver Surfer

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Jan 24, 2005
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Well, I just joined this board a few days ago and I never showed anyone pics of my tank or its inhibitants....

I just took this pic after a thorough cleaning and water change so it lost its more natural look. Red algae was taking over. I have the mangrove style look with white sand bottom and black river rock. Plants are all fake.

36 Gallon Bowfront All-Glass
(Soon to be upgraded to a 46 gallon All-Glass bowfront)
The tank is way overfiltered, enough filtering for a 90 gallon tank.
The filters are a Magnum 30 with Biowheel and Fluval 204 Canister.
Water is at 1.008 salinity

Mono Argenteus
Archer Fish
Green Spotted Puffer
Orange Chromide
Orange spotted chromide
Fan Dancer Goby
Black Goby
Pictus Catfish

These fish are doing quite well and my favorite is my mono. I used him to cycle the tank back when he was little. He is now huge and beautiful, the showpiece of my tank.

brackish.JPG
 
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cdawson

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Monos and GSPs need full marine during their adult years, and the pictus cat is a softwater fish. You're going to have serious problems in the future unless you correct these problems.
 

Pufferpunk

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Nice looking tank though. Monos are schooling fish.
 

Silver Surfer

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cdawson said:
Monos and GSPs need full marine during their adult years, and the pictus cat is a softwater fish. You're going to have serious problems in the future unless you correct these problems.
I've had the pictus cat well over a year and he's doing great. I've been old by several people that they do well in brackish conditions. As far as the mono he will ideally need to go to full saltwater but I've never heard of a GSP absolutely needing full salt when adults....... My mono runs the tank and does well on his own.......he is the boss in there.
 

cdawson

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Silver Surfer said:
I've had the pictus cat well over a year and he's doing great. I've been old by several people that they do well in brackish conditions. As far as the mono he will ideally need to go to full saltwater but I've never heard of a GSP absolutely needing full salt when adults....... My mono runs the tank and does well on his own.......he is the boss in there.
The mono is the boss until the GSP inherits the business....

Pictus cats are NOT BW and have never been found in it in the wild.

Are you even using marine salt?

A Pictus cat is a softwater fish from the amazon, not a BW fish.

As for never hearing a GSP needing SW when an adult you obviously never done any actual research on the GSP otherwise you'd have already known that.
 

Pufferpunk

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My 2 are have been living in SW coming on 2 years now. Here's the article recently published in TFH magazine: GSPs
 

Silver Surfer

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cdawson said:
The mono is the boss until the GSP inherits the business....

Pictus cats are NOT BW and have never been found in it in the wild.

Are you even using marine salt?

A Pictus cat is a softwater fish from the amazon, not a BW fish.

As for never hearing a GSP needing SW when an adult you obviously never done any actual research on the GSP otherwise you'd have already known that.
I can see you are the resident pessimist, know -it-all here even though I've only been here a week, but lets go over some stuff.....

Yes I am using marine salt.

To say a pictus cat has never been found in brackish water in the wild is absurd...... they can be found in the amazon river which last time I checked dumped into the ocean...in fact is is said that if you scoup up a glass of water 2 miles in the Ocean from the mouth of the Amazon river you will still get fresh water...To think these animals have never frequented these brackish estuaries is rediculous.

I agree that a pictus cat is ideally kept in pure fresh water, but I've heard from several reputable Fish stores that they have a high tolerance for salty conditions and they do quite well. I had a Columbian Shark since he was little but he grew up so fast and outgrew my tank... I needed a catfish to keep the bottom of my tank clean and my pictus has done a great job and seems to be doing great.... he eats normally and gets along great with the other fish in my tank. I didn't want another Columbian shark in there to outgrow it again. The pictus is growing much slower than a CS and this is good for the size of my tank. I'll put a picture below of him and his big belly after chowing down on some mysis shrimp.

Nowhere have I read that you MUST keep GSPs in a full saltwater tank when they get older. It is a recommendation. Yes I have seen them kept in a full marine condition but it is not a must do thing. I've unfortunately seen Adult 4"+ GSPs in full freshwater conditions many times, and they looked fine. I would not choose to keep mine in freshwater but i think they will be fine in water with a salinity of 1.008-1.010 their whole lives. If they don't do well in brackish water when they are older I'll give them away to someone else with a saltwater tank.

I've tried to give my GSPs snails on several occasions and they refuse to eat them....They love mysis shrimp and they love guppies, rosies, and ghost shrimp. I have had mine over a year and they don't have the tooth problem I so often see others have. I don't know why?
 
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PumaWard

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Actually, Pictus are from Peru and Columbia acording to Planetcatfish.com and according to fishbase.org, the are only freshwater. Peru and Columbia are at the beginning of the Amazon and no where near where it empties into the ocean, so, no, Pictus do not occur naturally in brackish water. And those that do wander into it most likely return to fresh water or die a premature death.

A year is not enough to say whether the fish is doing fine or not. You may very well be halfing it's lifespan or more by doing this. A year after constant exposure to low-level radiation might not cause problems, but 3 years may make your internal organs have a complete meltdown.


All fish should be kept in nearly ideal situations if your goal is for them to be healthy.
 

tricksterpup

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cdawson said:
Monos and GSPs need full marine during their adult years, and the pictus cat is a softwater fish. You're going to have serious problems in the future unless you correct these problems.
I also agree to this. Eventually you will have to move those fish to a larger saltwater tank.


I can see you are the resident pessimist, know -it-all here even though I've only been here a week, but lets go over some stuff.....
I have been coming to this site for a few years now, and post on and off. cdawson knows his stuff, I would give him a listen to. Being a resident pessimist just means he follows strict rules and doesn't fudge with his fish.
 
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