Brackish Water Aquarium FAQ
© Neale Monks 2012
Over the years I've written a good deal about brackish water fishkeeping, mostly because very little tends to get written about brackish water fishes in the aquarium literature! That has changed somewhat in recent years, with the major magazines now featuring articles about brackish water fishkeeping on a fairly regular basis.
Why bother setting up a brackish water aquarium? The main reason is that some of the most interesting fish in the hobby need a brackish water aquarium to survive.
Admittedly, there isn't a vast diversity of brackish water fishes being traded, but any halfway decent aquarium shop is likely to carry half a dozen species at any one time, including such favourites as Figure-8 and Green Spotted Puffers, Archerfish, Monos, Scats, 'Freshwater' Moray Eels, Bumblebee Gobies, Knight Gobies and Violet Gobies.
Alongside these regulars are oddball species that turn up from sufficiently frequently that the serious aquarist is likely to see them at least once every few months. These include things like Mudskippers, Shark Catfish, 'Freshwater' Flounders and Wrestling Halfbeaks.
And then there are the über-oddballs, the fish you see only very rarely, but when you do see them, you'll be sorely tempted to keep them! Butterfly-Goby Waspfish exemplify this type, but others in this category might include Black-Chin Tilapia, Green Chromides, Four-Eyed Fish, Spaghetti Eels and Pike-Conger Eels.
The job of my Brackish FAQ is to collect information I've learned directly or from others into one place. To some degree it's been supplemented by the book I edited for TFH on the subject, imaginatively entitled Brackish Water Fishes. But new information is being added to the FAQ all the time, and I'm heartened to know how much people enjoy and use this pet project of mine.
To keep things simple, I'm maintaining my Brackish Water FAQ on my personal webspace, but I've put an index here to make browsing that bit easier. If you need to ask a question about brackish water fishkeeping, you can usually get hold of me answering the Daily FAQ questions at WetWebMedia.
Over the years I've written a good deal about brackish water fishkeeping, mostly because very little tends to get written about brackish water fishes in the aquarium literature! That has changed somewhat in recent years, with the major magazines now featuring articles about brackish water fishkeeping on a fairly regular basis.
Why bother setting up a brackish water aquarium? The main reason is that some of the most interesting fish in the hobby need a brackish water aquarium to survive.
Admittedly, there isn't a vast diversity of brackish water fishes being traded, but any halfway decent aquarium shop is likely to carry half a dozen species at any one time, including such favourites as Figure-8 and Green Spotted Puffers, Archerfish, Monos, Scats, 'Freshwater' Moray Eels, Bumblebee Gobies, Knight Gobies and Violet Gobies.
Alongside these regulars are oddball species that turn up from sufficiently frequently that the serious aquarist is likely to see them at least once every few months. These include things like Mudskippers, Shark Catfish, 'Freshwater' Flounders and Wrestling Halfbeaks.
And then there are the über-oddballs, the fish you see only very rarely, but when you do see them, you'll be sorely tempted to keep them! Butterfly-Goby Waspfish exemplify this type, but others in this category might include Black-Chin Tilapia, Green Chromides, Four-Eyed Fish, Spaghetti Eels and Pike-Conger Eels.
The job of my Brackish FAQ is to collect information I've learned directly or from others into one place. To some degree it's been supplemented by the book I edited for TFH on the subject, imaginatively entitled Brackish Water Fishes. But new information is being added to the FAQ all the time, and I'm heartened to know how much people enjoy and use this pet project of mine.
To keep things simple, I'm maintaining my Brackish Water FAQ on my personal webspace, but I've put an index here to make browsing that bit easier. If you need to ask a question about brackish water fishkeeping, you can usually get hold of me answering the Daily FAQ questions at WetWebMedia.
(1) Introduction
- What is brackish water?
- Estuarine and low salinity environments and habitats
- The basic equipment for a brackish aquarium
- Common and not so common brackish water fishes
- What fish can’t be kept in a brackish water aquarium
- Are there any books on the subject?
(2) Setting up the brackish water aquarium
- Artificial sea water and measuring salinity
- Water chemistry and temperature
- Substrates and tank decor
- Planting the brackish water aquarium
- Healthcare and medication
- Breeding brackish water fishes
(3) Commonly available fishes
- Monos (Monodactylus spp.)
- Scats and Argusfishes (Scatophagus and Selenotoca spp.)
- Archerfishes (Toxotes spp.)
- Targetfish (Terapon jarbua)
- Brackish Water Pufferfish (family Tetraodontidae)
- Cichlids (family Cichlidae)
- Mollies (Mollienesia or Poecilia)
- Rainbowfishes (family Melanotaeniidae)
- Silversides (family Atherinidae)
(4) Predatory fish
- Gar (Lepisosteus and Atractosteus spp.)
- Colombian shark catfishes (family Ariidae)
- Sleeper gobies (family Eleotridae)
- Siamese tiger fish (Coius or Datnioides spp.)
- Ropefishes (Erpetoichthys calabaricus)
- Freshwater moray eel (family Muraenidae)
- Bullrouts (Notesthes robusta)
- Flatfishes and soles (family Soleidae and others)
- Spiny eels (family Mastacembelidae)
- Needlefish (family Belonidae)
- Butterfly-goby waspfish (Neovespicular depressifrons)
(5) Oddball fish
- Four-eyed fish (Anableps spp.)
- False four-eyed fish (Rhinomugil corsula)
- Mudskippers (Periophthalmus and Boleophthalmus)
(6) Small fish
- Killifish (family Cyprinodontidae)
- Bumblebee and other gobies (family Gobiidae)
- Glassfish (family Ambassidae, formerly Chandidae)
- Pipefishes (family Syngnathidae)
- Livebearers (family Poecilidae)
- Halfbeaks (families Zenarchopteridae)
- Blennies (family Blennidae)
- Spaghetti Eels (Moringua spp)
- Glass Eels and Rice Paddy Eels (Pisodonophis spp)
(7) Marine fish
- Introducing marine fish to brackish water aquaria
- Marine puffers (Arothron hispidus and others)
- Batfishes (Platax spp.)
- Snappers and Sea Breams (Lutjanidae/Sparidae)
- Damselfishes (family Pomacentridae)
- Eel-catfishes (Plotosus spp.)
- Seahorses (Hippocampus spp.)
- Pike-conger eels (Congresox talabonoides)
- Bar-tailed flathead (Platycephalus indicus)
(8) Invertebrates and native brackish water fish
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