Freshwater Flounders?

[emmadrysdale]

I have four flounders in a 40l tank. The tank has a white silica sand substrate, a figure of eight puffer, a dwarf puffer, two false flying foxes and a chinese sucking loach for company. All the fishes get on famously and these 4 flounders seem to be doing really well. I feed them on bloodworm, either frozen or live and they have grown an awful lot since i bought them. It would appear, reading the other postings on here about flounders that most of them are brackish. I somehow think that mine are truly freshwater as they have lived and thrived in my tank for about a year - and it is a totally freshwater tank. I did a little research a while back and thought they might be Achirus Achirus. There was no scientific name for them where i bought them and indeed i have only seen them in the one fish store. Does anyone know what species they might be? How do i identify them? Thanks

 

[nmonks]

It's virtually impossible to identify these fish by words alone: after all, they're all flat and they can all change their colours! I've listed the species that are most widely traded in the US and UK on my Brackish FAQ, so you might want to peruse that page first.

There are a few truly freshwater species, and if yours are living and thriving a year after purchase, I wouldn't worry about them. If you wanted to add some salt, provided you kept the salinity to below 1.005, it's unlikely the freshwater species would be harmed and that would benefit brackish water species. This is an approach that works well with gobies, which are equally difficult to identify and also come in freshwater and brackish water flavours.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Esfa]

I have four flounders in a 40l tank. The tank has a white silica sand substrate, a figure of eight puffer, a dwarf puffer, two false flying foxes and a chinese sucking loach for company. All the fishes get on famously and these 4 flounders seem to be doing really well. I feed them on bloodworm, either frozen or live and they have grown an awful lot since i bought them. It would appear, reading the other postings on here about flounders that most of them are brackish. I somehow think that mine are truly freshwater as they have lived and thrived in my tank for about a year - and it is a totally freshwater tank. I did a little research a while back and thought they might be Achirus Achirus. There was no scientific name for them where i bought them and indeed i have only seen them in the one fish store. Does anyone know what species they might be? How do i identify them? Thanks

Got a pic? They're most probably Hogchokers (Trinectes maculatus), which are a brackish fish.

Also, there's a few problems with your tank. first of all, the figure 8 puffer is brackish. the dwarf puffer is an aggressive little bum. The flying foxes and sucking loaches can get huge, depending on exactly what species they are.

 

[emmadrysdale]

Got a pic? They're most probably Hogchokers (Trinectes maculatus), which are a brackish fish.

Also, there's a few problems with your tank. first of all, the figure 8 puffer is brackish. the dwarf puffer is an aggressive little bum. The flying foxes and sucking loaches can get huge, depending on exactly what species they are.
[/quote]

The figure of eight although brackish can happily live in freshwater, the loach if they get too big can be moved to my metre long tank, the dwarf puffer is fine with its tank inhabitants, indeed i used to have 5 in there but they sadly died from intestinal parasites.

 

[emmadrysdale]

I went to the fish store where i bought my flounders and on speaking to the boss he remembers them being Achirus Achirus which was exactly the species i thought they were. They are one of the few true freshwater flounders so i am really happy )

 

[nmonks]

Achirus achirus is pretty uncommon in the trade, and in any case is a freshwater/brackish/marine species. You might care to look at the Fishbase page and see if the fish there matches yours. Retailers are absolutely hopeless at getting accurate names for these animals; the exception is perhaps the Hogchoker sole.

Cheers, Neale