I have been interning at Dan's Fish this summer, and when they told me you bought the Ocelot Gobies, I just knew you were going to set up a brackish tank. I sent a shared link of your video to Dan. Congratulations on your new tank set up. I have 3 freshwater bumble gobies, and I love them.
The puffer would most definitely try to eat the snails or shrimp, and mudskippers need a place to get out of the water to be happy and thrive :) I know you’ve done them before, but have you considered mollies?😁
Beautiful setup! I love Dans fish, you cannot go wrong getting fish from him. The secret to catching shell dwellers, leave the shells in the tank and they hid in them, just take out the shells.
Really curious to see if your nerites lay viable eggs in this set up! I know "baby snails" is usually not what you want, but i think it would be cool to see that new behavior/life stage!
I am excited to see what you pick! I know if it was me, I would probably go with the Mudskipper simply because basically all you have to do is give them a spot out of the water. The Peapuffer would be cool though. Of course, bye bye snails and shrimp. 🐌🐌🐌 Gina
You could add a gorgeous male lyretail or sail fin mollie as your centerpiece? Less problematic than the two you mentioned. Bonus they eat algae, too. Have you considered a Marimo mossball or any brackish macroalgae? Depending on the specific gravity, maybe Udotea as a backdrop or Chaetomorpha like any moss? I need to plant my salted hospital tank with something WAY faster growing then Java fern to handle nitrates. Hopefully I can source some Chaetomorpha affordably. Have fun, I can't wait to see what you decide!! (Have you seen some of those lyretails? Stunning! Not as cutesy and bug eyed as the other two, but....)
I say go with the puffer. I have a large colony of cherry shrimp and quite a few horned nerite snails in a tank with an avocado puffer. He won't bother with the nerite snails, probably because of their size. He also won't bother with larger ramshorn snails I periodically put in but happily goes after the smaller ones. He may pick off a few shrimp here and there, but they breed faster than he can decimate their population. That's just my experience though.
Have you considered mollies? They do well in brackish water. I’ve kept them in full marine before. You wouldn’t have to change your scape at all and you would have so many different colors and patterns to chooss from.
The tanks looks wonderful, but rescape it and get the mudskipper. I've always thought the look awesome, and would love to hear your opinion of them in a review.
Yay I absolutely LOVE dansfish! After receiving two perfect orders (no DOAs at all among orange Venezuelan and Pygmy cories, rainbowfish and white clouds) I’m never buying from another online store again. He quarantines for at least two weeks with meds, individually packages every single fish, and personally only buys from suppliers who don’t overcrowd or mistreat fish!
Very cool! I had a tank with bumblebee gobies and a figure 8 once and I LOVED it! I’ve also kept dwarf Indian mudskippers which I also loved. I think I got all of them from Aqua Imports which is in Boulder, and had a good experience with them. The puffer was definitely more aggressive so that’s something to think about. You’ll love both of them though! Another “plant” you can look into is chaetomorpha which is actually a saltwater macroalgae that can withstand brackish conditions. I kept mine at around 1.013 SG and it did great in the long term! It kept my nitrates super low. Good luck with the tank!
My Puffer 8 leaves the Nerite snails alone. They do have their own personalities though, mine is very laid back, I mean he's on one long holiday and enjoys his snails slightly crushed!
Something to consider. Amano shrimp eggs won't hatch in fresh water but they WILL in brackish water according to my research so it may be cool to toss a few more amanos in there and see what happens. I've got about 10 or so and they are little gangsters! So much fun to watch. So my choice would be to not do the puffer and go with the muddy mudskippers!
👍I love the ocelot gobies, but the mudskippers are also sooooo cute! Maybe in your next specialty tank? 🏅 Overall, the new tank looks like a smashing success! I have a lot of admiration for Dan and his integrity so, I'm glad you sent some business his way! His mindset about caring for his fish AND his clients seems to mirror Cory's (from Aquarium Co-op, of course!)
I have a bumblebee gobi and he has been doing great in my fully fresh water aquarium. Although I have heard they are brackish as well but I think the local shop I got him from had them acclimated to fresh water. Also your videos have been super helpful thank you
Mud skippers!!! You would really only need to reduce the water level and add a few tall, flat topped rocks to allow them to get to get out of the water. Your Java fern looks great. I love that plant but just can't get it to thrive for me.
Maybe you could have an orange chromide or two! They’re a beautiful orange brackish cichlid from India that max out at only 3 inches! Only thing is that they’ll be pretty hard to find
Thank you Irene! From your videos I learned about to how care for gouramis! And now I have my own power blue dwarf gourami💙 He has a red outline so I’m looking for name ideas!
You are the Best!!! I've wanted to set up a brackish tank but am too chicken. Maybe after some more experience with my freshwater tanks/fish. I say go with the mudskippers! Their eyes are sooo cool! Either way I'm looking forward to seeing what you do.
You can do it! Since I got practice using cichlid salts for the shell dwellers, brackish water was just the next gradual step. So far it's going really well and isn't that hard at all! This Aquarium Co-Op article really helped me get started: www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/brackish-aquarium
I'm going to follow up on your video and set up at least one brackish tank. I live close to the Potomac River, pretty much at the start of brackish water. I'll check on local plants like Val,and see if they will work. Last, when I am in Florida, I'll what I can find there. If I find anything interesting, I will let you know!
I appreciate this video so much! Thanks for the resources. I have been thinking about setting up a mudskipper tank but was intimidated by the brackish water.
Irene, I believe Mollies can live in brackish water also. Not sure how hard it is to convert them over. The puffer would be cool. This tank looks really good though. Where are the Shellie’s? You had?
For clarity, Cichlid salt is a GH buffer. From the MSDS it appears to be similar to equilibrium product from seachem. I have no idea if shell dwellers can be kept brackish at all, but at first it seemed like you were using salt in place of cichlid salt. That being said, I would have goby species over mudskippers.
Your tank looks amazing! Some other fish that you can also try which you might not be aware are mollies and guppies, since they both can be found on nature living in brackish water.
three-spined stickleback is found only in the Northern Hemisphere, where it usually inhabits coastal waters or freshwater bodies. It can live in either fresh, brackish, or salt water. Just saying.
'Tropica' and ' Philippines' are the Java fern cvs. that would be the best adapted to a brackish tank .Zenzo has the former. Mudskippers would be my preference but you'd need at least a 40br The Zen Ginger has a most excellent video on them. I'd choose Pseudomugil cyanodorsalis a beautiful little fish that your big boss has seen at Gary Lange's fishroom.
I am the aquatic specialist at a Petco and we enjoy selling brackish water fish to customers! I special order bumblebee gobies regularly as well as things like archerfish, Scats and monos. You should be able to find a regular bumblebee gobies at any PETCO, or having them special order it for you.!! my brackish water tank is half land, half water, with mudskippers, knight gobies, and mollies :)
You mentioned in one of your video a light from Costco....i have rewatched almost all you videos again and i could not find it. can you please remind me what video is it? thanks!
Yeaaaah getting into niche hobbies is fun until you realize how hard it is to source them XD that's why I've gotten into the habit of checking out what the availability is actually like before I go getting my heart set on something really cool that just isn't available because you have to be super rich or super well connected to afford it or have access to it
i like plants in my fish tank but my god i wasted so much money on them they never ever do good always die just have some that i’m surprised are doing ok it’s like there never growing though
