Can i add freshwater fish to a brackish tank?
How does the salinity affect the testing for N02, N03 and ammonia? Should i still trust the readings i get?
2007-11-05 14:35:11 · 5 answers · asked by ? 5 in Pets ➔ Fish
If I were you I would leave brackish water alone. To me, it was harder than salt water to maintain. I killed way to many fish trying to learn the ins and outs, and never learned it! I don't fool with it at all now. That doesn't mean I don't use salt. You can use 1 to1.5 cups of ice cream salt per 10 gallons and have a fine environment for puffers.
2007-11-05 16:15:50 · answer #1 · answered by Dr. Kalyfran 5 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Some freshwater fish (like mollies and guppies) enjoy a bit of salt, but a truly brackish environment is quite salty, even for them. Others could also probably take it, but they should be introduced to such a high salt concentration gradually. You would want to put the fish in a separate tank or container and add a little bit more salt every day and watch the fish for signs of distress or illness. Once the water reaches the same salinity as the brackish tank for a day and the fish seems ok, then move the fish to the brackish tank.
Your ammonia, nitrate and nitrite readings should not be affected by the salt in a brackish tank. Many testing kits are made for both fresh and saltwater and a lot of freshwater tanks have some salt in them.
2007-11-05 22:55:48 · answer #2 · answered by Ghost Shrimp Fan 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Really, you shouldn't add fish to brackish water that aren't meant for brackish water. They will just die very quickly. Mollies are actually meant for brackish water, and guppies need aquarium salt, not ocean salt. I found that out the hard way thinking that guppies and mollies are both brackish when only the mollies are. Lots of dead guppies.
Fun Fact: you could acclimate mollies to even saltwater and they'd be fine. But I would stick to brackish.
In my brackish tank I have 7 mollies, 8 celebes rainbows, 1 knight goby, and 1 Orange Chromide (brackish cichlid). I used to have 2 and a bunch of fry, but the mother went crazy and killed her mate because we removed the fry. Then the fry died in the fry tank. Just bad luck that week.
I use a freshwater kit for testing my brackish tank since they just don't make brackish kits. Since brackish water has only 1/3 the salinity of salt water, I figured freshwater kits would be better. My fish aren't dead yet after 2 years so I think my readings are reliable.
Other brackish fish are some puffers, monos, scats, four eyed fish and bumblebee gobies. The bumblebee gobies may be a challenge since they are very territorial, but so small, they get lost in a big set up and are scared easily. We had a long fight trying to keep ours happy and he just died one morning out of starvation. The mollies and the chromide just ate him out of business.
2007-11-06 11:14:22 · answer #3 · answered by Sarah H 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
All 3 testers should have 2 different color scales in there, if you're using the liquid ones
One says saltwater the other says freshwater
I would use the scale for the saltwater one, since puffers have a pretty high salinity requirement
Hope that helps
Good luck
EB
Feel free to email me
2007-11-05 23:58:32 · answer #4 · answered by Kribensis lover 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Well goldfish and catfish would do fine in any type of water, but other tropical "higher class" fish would need clean and clear water constantly
2007-11-05 22:41:53 · answer #5 · answered by dan 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋