I have a 125g brackish tank with Columbian Sharks, Archer fish, Silver Needlenose Gar, a Freshwater Flounder and blue legged hermit crabs. What exactly should my sg be? I've been told everything from 1.015 - 1.025 - this is a broad range... Can someone help narrow it down a bit? Or is anywhere in this range ok? This is my first brackish setup and I don't want to cause harm to anything. Thanks!
Brackish sg?
- Thread starter yummyopossum
- Start date
get a hydrometer first, use marine salt and with those fish 1.015 is a good bet. I'd ditch the blue legged hermit crabs, they're SW and won't live long in a SG that low.
whoever told you 1.025 doesn't know what they're talking about, SW hobbyists don't even go that high. Brackish is 1.001-1.019, anything after that is SW.
whoever told you 1.025 doesn't know what they're talking about, SW hobbyists don't even go that high. Brackish is 1.001-1.019, anything after that is SW.
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Thank you so much! Finally, it's narrowed down
Any suggestions on a "clean up crew"? I've had no success finding any brackish tank cleaners.... just the hermit crabs but now I know that information was wrong. Are there any other crabs that would be safe with my fish that can survive in brackish? There will be ghost shrimp for the fish to eat but I doubt they'll be in there long enough to clean anything. Any info on hermits/crabs, crayfish, snails, clams, etc. will be very appreciated Thanks again!
Any suggestions on a "clean up crew"? I've had no success finding any brackish tank cleaners.... just the hermit crabs but now I know that information was wrong. Are there any other crabs that would be safe with my fish that can survive in brackish? There will be ghost shrimp for the fish to eat but I doubt they'll be in there long enough to clean anything. Any info on hermits/crabs, crayfish, snails, clams, etc. will be very appreciated Thanks again!
sorry, but you're going to have to do your own maid service. The only brackish cleaners there are come in fiddler crabs and they need a species only tank with very special requirements. That's why I decided to start with a young GSP, young monos and two young silver scats. 3 species that end up in SW as adults, I'm currently setting up a refugium for the switch from high end brackish to SW.
I have had much success with regular old run of the mill $.99 crawfish in my 55 gallon tank. The only problems I had was when one of my archers ate one (5" archer and a 1 inch crawfish)
I just went out and bought a larger feeder crawfish.
I also set up the entire bottom of the tank with slate and made a bunch of small crevices, and dumped in 48 ghost shrimp.
3/4 of them were eaten within 48 hours and the smart ones are still in there over a month later hiding in the cracks ( i presume they are coming out at night to eat....)
untill I added the crawfish and ghosties my tank was a mess, but they seem to do a good job.
This may or may not work for you because I keep my tank on the lighter side of brackish (.04-.10)
hth
I just went out and bought a larger feeder crawfish.
I also set up the entire bottom of the tank with slate and made a bunch of small crevices, and dumped in 48 ghost shrimp.
3/4 of them were eaten within 48 hours and the smart ones are still in there over a month later hiding in the cracks ( i presume they are coming out at night to eat....)
untill I added the crawfish and ghosties my tank was a mess, but they seem to do a good job.
This may or may not work for you because I keep my tank on the lighter side of brackish (.04-.10)
hth
crayfish are FW , they cannot tolerate BW in any way. The marine salt would kill them. Of course they're fine for feeders, I'd break off their claws for insurance.
Ive kept them in my BW tank since I set it up, about a year ago, had numerous scared with a "dead" Crawfish, only to find out it had molted and left the old skeleton in the front of the tank