acclimate a freshwater fish?

[ecoman]

I read someone's post about acclimating some freshwater mollies into saltwater and it worked. Are there any other fish that can adapt like that?

 

[ecoman]

i imagine if this is done in a very very slow process, any fish could adapt.. anyone have experience working with this? I have a fish that I kind of want to get rid of and maybe I can do a 2 day acclimation to make him saltwater and allow him to cycle my tank..?? any comments, questions, or concerns?

 

[quads4_lif]

I think you can slowly acclimate any brakish fish but not for sure on all FW

 

[ecoman]

well i am trying with a small suckerfish, i forget the strain, but I figure if there will be a spike in ammonia in the water, they could handle it...

 

[coachklm]

My 3 marbled mollies were fully acclimated to saltwater in a little over 3 hrs. and they have been in my tank for 4 months so...they love the algae (sp)
use a very slow drip and remove method

i think only works on brackish fish though....my scat also was acclimated fully to saltwater but i did a 6 hr. drip on him just in case.

 

[ecoman]

he is a small species of sucker fish. i forget the name. i filled a 1 gallon jug half way with the freshwater tanks water and poured one bathroom cup in every hour.. I figure the slower the better.
Its been overnight now and he is almost at a 50/50 mix and looks to be as happy as possible in a jug.. Im gonna keep goin slow, or should I speed things up?

 

[chipmaker]

I have had guppies in a SW tank for many months and they did fine......

 

[coachklm]

Originally Posted by ecoman
he is a small species of sucker fish. i forget the name. i filled a 1 gallon jug half way with the freshwater tanks water and poured one bathroom cup in every hour.. I figure the slower the better.
Its been overnight now and he is almost at a 50/50 mix and looks to be as happy as possible in a jug.. Im gonna keep goin slow, or should I speed things up?
just like your drip acclimateing a new addition to the SW tank thats it..are you talking about a plecostamus??? FW those things get way big (dont know about SW but mines growing fast. and my mollies are getting fat and big.

 

[ecoman]

its not the type that gets big.. hes been about the same size since i bought him like 6 months ago or more.. Its the small strand.

 

[uberlink]

Originally Posted by ecoman
i imagine if this is done in a very very slow process, any fish could adapt.. anyone have experience working with this? I have a fish that I kind of want to get rid of and maybe I can do a 2 day acclimation to make him saltwater and allow him to cycle my tank..?? any comments, questions, or concerns?
I don't mean to start a war, but this seems rather cruel to me. You're going to cycle your tank with a live fish that you know full well may die in the process? Why not take it to a local LFS and let them have it, and then cycle your tank with a dead shrimp?

 

[lion_crazz]

I totally agree. A strictly "freshwater" fish should not be acclimated to saltwater. They are not going to live very long. If you took it to the LFS and cycled your tank with a dead cocktail shrimp, everyone could be happy and no animal needs to die unneccessarily.
The only fish that can adjust to saltwater are brackish fish such as mollies, guppies, puffer, scats, monos, blackfin sharks, etc.

 

[alyssia]

You can put guppies in saltwater?
What kind of mollies can you adapt to saltwater, I thought I heard once that you can only do it to a certain kind.

 

[smoney]

Well, from what I understand freshwater fish, are somewhat brackish fish. They do require some salt in the water anyways, even if they are freshwater only. My lfs has some molleys that are a pair, they have them in a tank to feed some saltwater fish that eat the eggs.

 

[jacknjill]

mollies are brackish fish so they can be aclimated to fully saltwater with no problem from what i understand......

 

[oreo12]

I quess that shrimp was born dead. I bet it is real happy rotten away in someones fish tank. come on lion get a life

 

[kelly shaw]

just to let you know, mollies do not lay eggs, they are live bearing. guppies can live happy lives in salt water if acclamaited properly. i fed feeder guppies to my grouper and what he didn't eat right of way, he would save for later. they lived just fine. i just don't understand why you would want fresh water fish in your salt tank. i started a salt tank because i like the types of fish alot better. alot more colorful. fresh water gets pretty dull.
(the part on the mollies, i know this because i breed them, and im breeding guppies).

 

[lion_crazz]

Wow, you're back. I thought you were done searching out my posts to criticize my advice. Do you have nothing better to do? What I implied was that no animal has to die because of this aquarist cycling a tank. That shrimp was dead anyway and if it was not used to cycle a tank, it would be eaten anyway. I don't think it is going to suffer being used to cycle a tank, whereas the freshwater fish would suffer. Why do you have to argue with me? You are always wrong anyway, so why not just not say anything?

 

[tommygun8]

figer 8 puffer can be truned to salt right?

 

[lion_crazz]

Originally Posted by TommyGun8
figer 8 puffer can be truned to salt right?
yes. That is a brackfish fish, as opposed to a freshwater one

 

[tommygun8]

i got 3 of them .... so is this what i do i put them in a contaner and then slowly add salt water... for like 3 hours