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I'm trying to come up with a list of brackish fish, those that specifically require brackish water This is what I have so far:

bumblebee gobies
archer fish
mono
orange chromide
scat
green spotted puffer
wrestling halfbeak
white tip/Columbian shark catfish
knight goby
glass fish

Feel free to add on

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Slight problem there...
bumblebee gobies don't need brackish water. In fact, some people say they keep them equally well in freshwater. Mostly it depends how they're kept at the store. Also GSPs (green spotted puffers) require full marine care as they grow older. So they are not brackish fish either. Here's a few for your list:
Celebs Rainbowfish
Mudskipper
Figure 8 puffers
Ceylon puffers
Siamese Tiger Fish
Targetfish
Anabelps
and
4-eyed fish

- Dj :88)

"Freshwater" waspfish
"Freshwater" stonefish/(sometimes 'scorpionfish')
"Freshwater" moray eel (typically so for most Gymnothorax spp. marketed as such)

djtj- ceylons also do best in full marine as adults...

Other than that let's see...

knight gobies
Violet gobies

archer fish-Large, active, depeding on what species, intolerant. High brackish salinity is possbibly neccesary.

mono-see above. Quite nippy as well.

scat-Peaceful, but rather large and schooling. Adults lose the attractive coloration of smaller specimens.

green spotted puffer-Aggressive and large. I know it's been said that they need nearly marine waters, most notably on the puffer forum. However, personal experience and information from fishbase (not that the site is particularly accurate in all instances)/other sites expressly stated that this was not the case; so I brought the matter to the attention of our wholesaler (who also doubles as a collector, so we recieve fish that have only been twice shipped). I was told that the larger blokes are almost always found in freshwater fed mangroves just below the mouth of the river. Otherwise, they are purchased from natives who claim to have caught them in the mangrove tangles in nearly the same general area. Also, in our local SW, they actually have a GSP who is the better part of six inches long and is kept in fresh, yes FRESH water. It's been with the facility for about two years now and still has the vibrant green coloration of younger individuals usually seen in fish stores. He is kept with cardinals in a large, heavily planted 100 gallon hex (I would assume he occasionally enjoys a characin snack). I wouldn't reccomend the latter, but I was just bringing to your attention the possibilty that GSPs, being BW fish, could probably tolerate a wide array of salinites, not necessarily restricted to heavy BW.

wrestling halfbeak-Short lived and difficult to acclimate--I would know. Of the twelve fish sold to me, 5 died straight off, the rest lingered for the better part of a year and a half.

white tip/Columbian shark catfish-Too large; intolerant.


here are my personal suggestions:

mollies, preferrably sailfins, as the colored fancies are just too gaudy. Decent algae eaters.

Tetraodon erythrotaenia-small, cute, and peaceful. It's a shame they aren't imported more often.

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 07-Apr-2005 01:52

The GSP debate is one that will go on for quite a while. Truth is we really don't know that much about how they live, and anecdotal evidence, while certainly appreciated in constructing the puzzle, shouldn't be relied on as the final word. After all, I could say that the only place to find newspapers is my front porch, and be telling the truth as I saw it. The fact that its delivered there means I don't need to go out and find a different source of them.
If you are interested go to http://puffer.proboards2.com/index.cgi and read the entire hospital forum. A long depressing read, but it does show that the amount of problems a GSP has in FW compared to SW is significantly higher.
A lot of the advice we have formed there not only comes from personal experience, but also from fielding thousands of questions from other puffer keepers. Its hard not to notice patterns show up and adjust to that.
Be that as it may, we are always interested in finding new info about our favorite little oddballs!

We now return you to the previously hijacked thread

-SteelGeek
Moderator - The Puffer Forum
http://puffer.proboards2.com/index.cgi

Jade Goby - Brackish water fish. Hard to find information about it. Beutiful Fish. Peaceful. Grows very large. The one I had was bigger than any other fish in the tank and was my favorite until a very aggressive african ciclid quarter the size of the Goby pestered the Goby and gave him no rest until the huge Jade Goby died. I even witnessed a fight between them were the Jade Goby showed the african how big his mouth was in an attempt to make him stop pestering him Obvisouly it didn't help. To make it even funnier the African was blind in one eye.

Don't worry, steel. I'm not at all trying to give the puffer forum an ill repute, as I'm often browsing through the site myself. Needless to say, it's a great site with excellent information and experience (though apparently no one is willing to part with their irrubescos ). I was just presenting some findings of my own, as possibly incorrect as they may be.

Like I said, every bit of info helps.
Truth be told, a few of us are suspecting its not the salt per se, but a high TDS environment that they need. However, trying to make a TDS DIY buffer kit would simply amount to marine mix with out the NaCl, so its really not worth the effort.
Whether or not this applies to other brackish fish is an experiment for a future date.

archerfishes
glassfish
climbing perches
shark catfish
toadfishes
freshwater needlefish
giant perches
asian cichlids chromides
freshwater flounders
spadefishes
sticlebacks
Gobioid fishes
killifish
dats
snappers
rainbowfishes
Loaches, family Cobitidae, particularly the Clown Loach is known to cruise coastal areas of its native Indonesia, venturing in and out of seawater.
monos
freshwater moray eel
leaffish
livebearing toothed carps
mudskippers
pipefish
puffers
scats
tigerfish
please add if you want

Leaf Fish? Are you referring to the saltwater Leaf Fish? I wasn't aware that fish was fine at brackish conditions... *shrug*

I can't believe I forgot about the Datnoids. People have mentioned the Siamese Tiger Fish, one of the many species of Datnoids. To note, many of the Datnoids are actually freshwater fish, although a few of them do hang out in brackish conditions. Most Datnoids enthusiasts (Datnoids are that cool, you know) keep Datnoids in freshwater conditions, not only because it's partly easier to not have to mess with salt, but also because they really do come from freshwater habitat. Regardless, the Datnoids are mostly fine in brackish conditions anyway.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Few more to add,
Glassy perchlet
Spotted butterfish
Crescent perch
Red snapper
Banded peral spot
Orange chromide
Snakeheads
Spotted flat head
Freshwater garfish...or is those written down allready..

Last edited by robby1619 at 25-Apr-2005 10:18

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