From: oleg@Veritas.COM (Oleg Kiselev)
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria,rec.aquaria
Subject: Re: brackish tank info needed
Date: 23 Jul 92 23:38:23 GMT
Reply-To: oleg@veritas.com (Oleg Kiselev)
Organization: Palo Alto Killifish Loft
X-Disclaimer: I speak for myself only unless explicitly indicated otherwise

raible@cbmvax.UUCP (Bob Raible - LSI Design) writes:
>(about 0.5 TBS per gallon). Is this
>enough salt to be considered brackish

It's brackish already, but keep in mind that the brackish habitats' water 
chemistry changes with tides and rains, getting more or less saline.  One of
the books.articles I read on the subject even suggested alternatig doing 
partial water changes with full strength salt water and fresh water, creating
regular salinity shifts.

>What about plants? I seem to remember a list that Vinnie (???) printed
>here a ways back, but I neglected to save it. I seem to remember Java
>fern and Java moss, and H. polysperma, but how about top cover, like
>water sprite, riccia, etc. ?

Here are exerpts from a summary article I posted a while ago on the subject.
A list of fish that can be housed in a brackish aquarium:
>	Scats (Scatophagus spp.) 
>	Monos (Monodactilus spp)
>	Anableps 
>	Achirus species (chose the tropical brackish soles)
>	Pipefishes
>	Sailfin mollies and their relatives like mosquito 
>		fishes (Gambusia species) and pike livebearer 
>		Belonesox belizanus
>	Etroplus maculatus, Asian cichlids sold as Orange and Green Chromides
>	Malayan halfbeaks (Demorgenys pusillus)
>	Indian glassfish (Chanda ranga), get the non-painted ones!!!
>	a number of brackish water killies 
>		some African, like a lampeye Aplocheilichtys spilauchen,
>		some Middle Eastern, like Aphaniops dispar, 
>		some native to USA eastern seaboard estuaries,
>			like mummichog, Fundulus heteroclitus,
>			and American flagfish Jordanella floridae from 
>			the brackish end of Florida swamps; 
>		hermaphroditic Rivulus ocelatus from South America,
>		Wester US desert pupfishes like Cyprinodon salinus, 
>		a huge number of the nominally freshwater killies will 
>		do splendidly in water that is quite brackish -- and many 
>		of the African and South American species look as colourful
>		as marine fishes),
>	Asian Dantinoids (who get too big for small tanks), 
>	Asian and Australian Archers,
>	some Australian rainbows like Melanotenia macculochi, 
>	their compatriots Australian gudgeons (gobies) like Mogurnda mogurnda,
>	a number of other gobies, like sleeper gobies,

Plants that will survive in brackish aquaria:
>Java moss, Java fern, Elodea densa (Anacharis), Hygrophila polysperma
>As long as the water is not VERY salty: Echinodorus tenellius (pigmy chain
>swords), Sagittaria subulata, S. graminea, S. gigantea, Vallisnaria americana,
>Water sprite, Hornwort.

Many brackish water fish are partially or fully herbivorous and will shred 
and devour the plants.  Also, just about all of these plants will "melt" in 
the full-strength salt water.

>I also note that one scat seems to like to chase the other all
>around the tank, but I don't believe there is any hostile contact made. Is
>this teritorial behavior ? I was led to believe that these critters were
>fairly sociable.

They are schooling fish, aren't they?  Most schooling fish can get very 
aggressive when the school is small.  Keeping them in larger groups 
diffuses the agression.
-- 
"... i heard the droning / in the shrine
	     of the sea-monkey / palace of the brine ..." -- Pixies.
Oleg Kiselev                                             oleg@veritas.com
VERITAS Software                           ...!{apple|uunet}!veritas!oleg
From: booth@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM (George Booth)
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 14:31:29 GMT
Subject: Re: The Aquatic Gardner
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Loveland, CO