My lfs has an archer fish in freshwater since novemeber 05. I am thinking about adding it to my comunity 55. (see sig.) I know these are brakish fish but might i get away with having it in my 55?
archer fish
- Thread starter reichebrown
- Start date
Roland
worlds last gunslinger
I live in thailand, and see archer fish in the river by my home all the time. Being as the sea is about 100ks away, they definatley in freshwater.
Maybe they breed in esturies and the juviniles migrate upstream, returning to the esturies when they themselves are to spawn.
There are a lot of misconceptions about brackish fish and they are poorley understood, but in my opinion your archers will be ok in freshwater.
Just remember they are voracious predators and will eat any fish they can cram into their considerable mouths.
Maybe they breed in esturies and the juviniles migrate upstream, returning to the esturies when they themselves are to spawn.
There are a lot of misconceptions about brackish fish and they are poorley understood, but in my opinion your archers will be ok in freshwater.
Just remember they are voracious predators and will eat any fish they can cram into their considerable mouths.
Roland said:
Just be sure to find out what it is currently in...taking a fish directly from brackish and dumping it into fresh will likely kill the fish...it will need slow acclimation.
And with a fish that can approach 10" long, that counts for a lot of fish.
for now i will just go to my lfs and dream... i have way to many tetras right now to make them all a meal for archers.
Roland
worlds last gunslinger
Toirtis said:
'true' brackishfish have both means of osmoregulation at hand (or fin).
Seawater fish have chloride cells in the gills (thus metabolizing and dispencing unwanted salt) and also drink and pee a lot (to expell the rest of the salt),
Freshwater fish never deliberatley consume freshwater, and so hold on to their salt content (and pee).
The point is that certain brackish fish are highly adaptable and can cope with sudden changes in salinity/hardness/temperature... when the tide comes in the fish is capable of dealing with fluctuating parameters that would kill most other fish. If they couldnt cope with it, they would not have exploited the niche, and so would be either fresh or saltwater fish. But not both.
Roland said:
Yes, but sudden (as in a tidal area in a swamp) verus sudden (as in being dumped directly from 1.010 to 1.000 water) is quite different....a few hours acclimation are required.
Roland
worlds last gunslinger
In an estury or mangrove (tidal area in a swamp) certain (brackish)fish do encounter drastic and very sudden salinity (also hardness and pH) changes between standard freshwater and standard seawater, and it affects them minimumly... as they have evolved to cope with this (otherwise they wouldnt be there, right?). Infact some species deliberatley migrate between one and the other hourly. I studied it at uni, very interesting.
Toirtis is correct. I no longer keep brackish tanks but I once had two and although I thought their salinity was the same (I only had a hobby hydrometer), it was impossible to transfer fish directly from one to the other without them floating belly up. The point is that tidal fluxes and migratory travel take place over an extended time and an instant change in salinity, even a small one, is not the same.
Roland said:
But while the fish are migrating from salt to freshwater they are slowly being exposed to a different salt content as they swim along. Even in tidewaters it still is not a complete sudden change. Nothing in nature can compare to dumping a fish in freshwater from saltwater.
Its like the aquarium here a few years back. They had this thermostat type thing that controled the salt content for a tank with a sturgeon in it. The "thermostat" accidently got bumped and the water went from true freshwater to true marine in only a few hours. The acclimation was too quick and the sturgeon died as a result.
Roland said:
Some species...and hourly is not instantly...perhaps you should have studied more carefully at uni, hmm?