Freshwater fish in a Salt Tank

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Pablorock

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Jul 29, 2019
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Hello. New to the forum. I was thinking of setting up a 55 gallon tank and was looking for freshwater fish to try and acclimate to salt. I read Mollies, Guppies and maybe Cichlids [spl?]?

I know people will say just get salt fish, but here is the reason.

The main reason is that I am pretty much broke. I used to have like a 70 gal show that is built into the wall (marine) in my media room. One day many years ago, the edge seperated spilling into the room. My plan was to take the glass apart and build something bigger with the front and 2 sides. Sadly, never got around to it. Since then it has just sat there with coral in it (not live of course). I now have a 55 gal sitting in the living room empty that my Wife keeps complaining about (my daughter brought it in, had an axolotl in it, but she moved it to a another tank). They seem to be the same width, so I figure I would put it in that spot (just need to cover up the top portion). But would like to keep the coral in there since it looks so nice and figure it would kill any straight fresh water fish. So, with my daughter working at a pet store, I can pretty much get the tank up and running for next to nothing (even though it will be with plain ol fish).

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks. Paul.
 

Sploke

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Oct 20, 2005
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Please don't do that. If you want to keep the dead coral as decoration, soak it in a clean container with fresh water and change it every day or two, to help leach out the salt. After a week or two it should likely be fine.

Some mollies can do well in brackish water, but not full salt, long term. I've never heard of guppies being kept in brackish or salt water. The rift lake cichlids do prefer hard, alkaline water, but that is very different than brackish or marine salt water.
 

Pablorock

Registered Member
Jul 29, 2019
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Maybe I will do that. Just didn't think I would be able to get all the salt out of the coral.
 

Sploke

resident boozehound
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Oct 20, 2005
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With enough fresh water, the salt will come out just fine.
 
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