freshwater flounder

[Liz]

I know they do better in brackish water, but I saw one in real life for the first time at a LFS, and figured chances are someone else will pick it up and keep it in freshwater unknowingly anyways, so I went ahead and picked it up. I have him in a 10 gallon for now, with a handful of dwarf puffers. I know, impulse buy... but is there any way I could make this work for a while? What do I feed him? Would he take those little "cyclops" things?

 

[RTR]

Live blackworms would be good, and the DPs love them as well. very fine sand subtrate is best, the flounders do bury themselves other than the eyes. they won't do well in straight FW for long - any chance of species tank for them?

http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/other/flounder.html

 

[Liz]

How long do they do okay in freshwater?

No more tanks right now, I don't think. Unless I want to get rid of my betta.

 

[RTR]

I think that I started mine into BW while in QT. but i had the setup for them with pre-adapted plants (which they do not need BTW). I would not hold them in FW more than a few weeks max.

 

[Liz]

I had a BW tank but my GSP is full salt now. I might set up another one. If not, what should I do with the "freshwater" flounder? I highly doubt the next customer would put him into brackish, either...

 

[RHemady]

I have no pesonal experience with darf freshwater flounder but one of local aquarium stores have had a few in a freshwater tank for more tha a year and they seem to be doing well. Do the puffers play nice with the flounder?

 

[Dwarf Puffers]

Actually, you can google images some of these, the flounders go good with a few other creatures:

Bumblebee Gobys Butterfly fish (pretty fishy )

MANY puffers

Dragon Gobbies (little ugly)

Mollies

 

[TimmyB42386]

Not all flouders are bw. There are many species sold under that name from all over the americas and maybe the other side of the world im not sure, some require bw, some fw, and some full on seawater. Find an ID for the particular flouder you have or want and then go from there. I know quite a few people who have bought these as "Freshwater flounders" (that aren't hogchokers) who have successfully been keeping them in freshwater for years.

I personally have had one for a bout a year in freshwater with no skin infections or other such things, and continues to have a hearty appetite.

One member here, flaring shutter I think the name is found an ID site for his own flounder and others by counting the fins on the side and determined it was freshwater.

They probably have the link so you should shoot them a PM unless they see this first.

 

[Flaringshutter]

That's me. Right, I used Fishbase to ID my flounder. Here's what I said to another poster who asked about freshwater flounders.

Ah haha- not all "freshwater flounder" are brackish. Most flounders bought in chain LFSes are brackish, but mine is true freshwater. Check with these fishbase pages:

http://www.fishbase.org/identification/specieslist.cfm?famcode=440&areacode=&spines=&fins=&c_code=

http://www.fishbase.org/identification/specieslist.cfm?famcode=516&areacode=&spines=&fins=&c_code=

Click on the species that looks most like your flounder. Once you have a few species that you think are possible matches, click "Pictures" in the "More information" section to see more photos of that particular species.

When trying to ID a species, look at which side of the fish the eyes are on, where the fins stop and start, how many rays are in each fin, any strong patterns on the fish's skin... Don't pay HUGE amounts of attention to the actual color of the fish - most flounders change to match their environments, so that's not going to be particularly helpful.

If you can, take some close-up photos of your flounder, post them, and we can try to match him up with a species.

Just to note, these are common species in the aquarium trade:
http://www.fishbase.org/summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=4256
http://www.fishbase.org/summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=4260
and this is the species of my flounder:
http://www.fishbase.org/summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=57094

See if any of those help you.

He's still doing really well in freshwater. Now I have him with my betta in the 2.5 gal tank. They're so impossible to net that keeping him in a small tank makes life easier for me. He seems to be thriving.