Brackish Question!

[pufferlover]

Can anyone tell me what salinity (if salinity is even involved) brackish would be considered. In other words does brackish even register on a salinity gauge or is it lower then the min reading. Can't remember ever seeing that addressed. Reason for question is I intend to pick up some figure 8"s tomorrow at lfs and they are fresh (of course they are any other time he has them salt now I have to switch them). I have re set qt to .1009 tonight and will have to drip them anyway but am wondering is .1009 slighty higher then brackish to start them going salt. Went back in search and found we discussed this at length in july and august but never got into readings involved.

 

[templar]

I had a small brackish tank a looooong time ago with a really cool puffer in it. It's just been to long tho but I really don't remember ever testing the salt level with a hydrometer. I'm pretty sure brackish waters can vary a lot in the salinity levels...just can't remember what I had mine at, doh, maybe it'll come back to me...

 

[kdlbem]

I have a tank with 4 spotted puffers, and I love them. When I bought them over a year ago, the LFS told me to add a teaspoon of salt per gallon of water. Sometimes at water change time I add a little more, or a little less to the new water(I read somewhere that brackish water fluctuates). They seem to be doing great, never any problems with that tank.
HTH,
B

 

[heath]

pufferlover-
there's lots of conflicting info on brackish puffers. (ian west has a good website about fresh/brackish puffs- can't remember the link, but am sure if you search the web it'll pop up)
i'm also registered on a puffer group, mainly concentrates on the fresh/brackish versus salt.
from my experience and other poster's references- the figure 8's technically are classified as freshwater. i've had a figure 8 in brackish, but as they age they do better in fresh.
spotted green are brackish to salt.
brackish waters fluctuate from 1.000 to 1.009. i kept mine at 1.003.
as you probably know, with the fluxs in salinity make sure the ph stays the same.
hth some,
heather

 

[lionfish]

LionFish says.......
I have been in the brackish tanks for a long time. Anyone who knows me well enough knows I have a brackish tank up right now with my Archerfish. I have kept puffers with them but those nasty little critters nipped my Archers fins. They had to go. Puffers are the easiest of all the brackish fish I have kept and Archers are the hardest. I have never actually worried about the salinity. I use a brand of brackish water salt that just tells how much to keep brackish fish happy. Never had one fish die and they are completely healthy. The box tells me how much to add after I clean the tank and it has worked well. It also helps keep clear water in my Cichlid tank. But basically most people keep their tanks at 1.009 but I keep mine at 1.007 as I last tested, which was about a year ago.

 

[pufferlover]

Thanks all I picked the 2 baby's up and dripped them into .1009 salt from FW. I had found some info on them on a brackish puff site and they said regarding Figure 8's "the general consensus is that they can survive in FW, SW, and brackish water if correctly conditioned although they tend to do slightly better in brackish conditions" With that plus your help I think I will do these 2 at brackish for now and not worry about trying to raise them as I originally planned to do. Since you all seem to agree .1009 is brackish then I guessed right when I set the tank down last night from .1020 (the fish in it passed its qt time and was moved elsewhere).