Mono Argentus

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airborne

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Aug 27, 2005
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hi i'm new to the hobby and am looking for some advice on keeping monos. i saw them for sale at the lfs, and am conteplating on getting either 1 or 2. i know that they are supposedly a brackish fish and should be slowly acclaimated to saltwater but i have heard and seen adult sized monos kept in freshwater tanks with success. my questions are as follows. 1) can monos be kept in a freshwater environment for 1 year or so successfully? as i'm planing to get a marine set up soon. 2) are monos agressive? i've done some research and have no come across any reports of fin nipping or predation, but the lfs labels them as semi agressive, unfortunately the employees there couldn't give me satisfactory answers to my questions. plz do feel free to give any advice. thanx.
 

svtcontour

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Aug 6, 2004
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I used to have 3 monos which 2 eventually died and one lived for about 3 years in my freshwater 100 gallon tank. At the time, all my other fish were cichlids. I had a 5" long mono and believe me (no joke) that it would defend itself like no other fish i've seen. I had a 10" oscar, 8" dempsy and a 6" red devil. The oscar and dempsy were big and mellow and didnt bother anyone. The red devil wouldnt really bother the bigger cichlids but it decided the mono was a target. After getting chased around for a couple days the mono decided to hold its ground and any time the red devil would charge, it would dodge the charge and hit the RD on the side or in the back. It would actually then chase the RD because overall it was the faster fish.

I eventually got tired of the RD in my tank after a few weeks and took it a LFS. The mono lived 6 months after that and got sick one day and I could not make it any better. It was an intelligent fish and had personality and had a lot of guts going against and winning fights with my RD :) It never instigated any wars or fights against anyone else.
 

TorturedSOUL

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Apr 3, 2005
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I've had monos in freshwater

1) You need a big tank...bigger than 55 gallons. They get big and swim a lot. They spook easily and get scrapped up on stuff.

2) They will always be sort of sick or have some fungus or slime coat problem. Most usually die pretty quickly.

3) Since they aren't in their prefered environment (salt) they will start looking ugly.

I finally felt bad and found someone with a big setup and the patience to convert them to marine.

I stronly recommend NOT doing it from my own experience. It is a giant hassle and there are plenty of other fish out there just as pretty and just as nice.

Anyway that is my experience.
 

sumoschro

Gold Thunder
Aug 16, 2003
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Portland, Oregon
Brackish tanks are where Monos belong. It is, afterall, their natural habitat in the wild. Keeping a Mono in a FW tank isn't a good idea IMO, because for the "1 year or so successfully" that you keep it in there, it will not be comfortable, and a 1 year lifespan for a fish is way short. If you're looking for a Mono-like fish, try angels, they have the same deep body and size, but are meant for FW.
 

Matthew Osley

Registered Member
Aug 30, 2005
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i have kept three monos now for about 2 and a bit years in a semi freshwater tank, ie one i put 2g of salt per L. they are going great but they grow fast. i had them in a 55G tank but now they are quite happy in a 100G custom corner tank. they are aggressive and killed an archer fish the day they went in and a barramundi a week later. the barra was twice thier size. they scholled up and smashed them both shreding their fns. so they have been by them selves ever since. they will eat anything that will fit into their mouths.
 
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