Salt Freshwater Tank

[grayshark1956]

Question to which I suspect I already know the answer.

Is there any scope for taking this an opportunity, or possibly a sign, to set up a separate brackish tank? Some amazing fish available once you do that, as well as crustaceans. The mollies could probably move over as well and leave the main tank for fully freshwater fish.

Well, yes, but for many reasons right now I can't do that yet. Long story, the tank I have is easy to care for and I had this tank long before I discovered crabs. I did donate many of my goldfish yesterday to a nearby goldfish pond, like other people do because pet stores have their reasons for not accepting free goldfish. I would rather have bettas and tropicals. The crabs were an unexpected find and too interesting to pass up. I would love a brackish tank!! I have spent hours rearranging my tank, removing goldfish and plastic plants, added real plant and rock cave and its really nice. I'm happy with the changes I made and the new tropical fish I bought. The cherry fiddler crabs are an added bonus that really got my interest. I like brackish tanks because they are such a natural looking habitat and would also be fun to arrange.

Update on brackish water and cherry crabs and wood: Pet store just told me in person that boiled disinfected cholla wood is okay in freshwater tank for a while, will not harm fish, will rot eventually. They said crabs will love it, they also sold Instant Ocean in industrial size and said natural sea salt without iodine would not hurt until I find either smaller size instant ocean or another substitute. I almost bought aquarium salt but didn't, maybe I should have. But all tankmates are doing fine, I added 1/8 tsp natural sea salt last night, won't add again for a month. Just wanted to update this for anyone interested.

 

[grayshark1956]

Hi again, while I have time thought I'd write again. Tank is fine, just bought 2 cory catfish, had to go to the store for dog supplies. They had 3, I chose one medium and one large, medium is a gray pearly color and large must be bronze? They're very peaceful and seem happy. I decided to not buy fish for a while now, have spent alot of time on my aquarium, it suddenly became my main focus, next week I will be busy and I'm glad I got my aquarium updated finally. I just looked and the tank is only slightly cloudy, don't want to do partial water change yet, can do it within a day or so, hope fish don't mind, they're all active, water was tested as okay, must mean time for me to sit and enjoy them now. Thought I'd post my latest progress.

 

[DrRob]

keep an eye on cories and salt, they're generally not particularly tolerant of salt.

 

[grayshark1956]

keep an eye on cories and salt, they're generally not particularly tolerant of salt.
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I will keep close watch on tank, might not even add anymore salt,I added a very small amount for the cherry crabs. Thanks for reminding me,

 

[Chad]

I don't know. I never would have thought to use jumping cactus core in a fish tank. I'm really not sure what the composition of it is. cholla cactus grow all over here in Arizona but since it's a strictly dry desert plant it's not something that ever becomes drift wood per se.

What happened was I read about people that put it in their fish tanks and fish or crabs had their fry inside. I had 2 kinds of wood from hermit crabs, both came from pet stores, I boiled them last night and the darker wood turned the water in the pan brown, so that one I would not add to tank. The other, I believe is cholla or choya or probably a type of diftwood? So it was boiled a long time time, taken out to cool and dry overnight, thismorning its in one piece! I thought crabs would like to crawl inside, good hiding place. So, I'll go to the petstore maybe today and see what the choices are. I lowered my water level, lowered the heater, they have a nice smooth rock with hornwort to crawl on. I'll investigate the wood more which must be cholla.I also added some salt, very, very small amount, fish appear normal and active today.

This is cholla wood. Is that what you have? I'm not sure I'd really call it wood as it's not from a tree or bush...but still...this stuff grows all over here in Arizona and it gets used for all sorts of things but I've honestly never seen it in a fish tank.

 

[grayshark1956]

I don't know. I never would have thought to use jumping cactus core in a fish tank. I'm really not sure what the composition of it is. cholla cactus grow all over here in Arizona but since it's a strictly dry desert plant it's not something that ever becomes drift wood per se.

What happened was I read about people that put it in their fish tanks and fish or crabs had their fry inside. I had 2 kinds of wood from hermit crabs, both came from pet stores, I boiled them last night and the darker wood turned the water in the pan brown, so that one I would not add to tank. The other, I believe is cholla or choya or probably a type of diftwood? So it was boiled a long time time, taken out to cool and dry overnight, thismorning its in one piece! I thought crabs would like to crawl inside, good hiding place. So, I'll go to the petstore maybe today and see what the choices are. I lowered my water level, lowered the heater, they have a nice smooth rock with hornwort to crawl on. I'll investigate the wood more which must be cholla.I also added some salt, very, very small amount, fish appear normal and active today.

This is cholla wood. Is that what you have? I'm not sure I'd really call it wood as it's not from a tree or bush...but still...this stuff grows all over here in Arizona and it gets used for all sorts of things but I've honestly never seen it in a fish tank.

Yes this is a picture of it and the store told me it was ok to put it on top of tank at water level with rocks and hornwort. I figured it was not wood, in fact I would not add wood because it may contain/release toxins. I was going to use it temporarily but the crab is sitting on it now in fact. I thought they'd crawl into it, its about 3" long if that.

 

[grayshark1956]

I don't know. I never would have thought to use jumping cactus core in a fish tank. I'm really not sure what the composition of it is. cholla cactus grow all over here in Arizona but since it's a strictly dry desert plant it's not something that ever becomes drift wood per se.

I never thought of using it this way either, just happened to have it and I have not looked for driftwood yet. I don't know if that is aquarium friendly or not. Do you live in Arizona? I'm in Ohio, land of too few pet stores. The tropical store that was really authentic and the best store we had closed years ago, and that store had shale I used with rocks to make a cave for my eel about 15 years ago when I had a 20 gal tank with yo-yo loaches, and a real variety of fish. My kids got to see platy babies appear in our tank many times. They also saw tadpoles turn into frogs then we turned them loose in the goldfish pond right down the road. I miss that 20 gal tank! Glad you wrote and I will eventually have more questions about brackish water.

 

[Chad]

I was born and raised here in Arizona. I love about 10 minutes drive from a proper desert. This type of cactus grows in abundance, we call it jumping cactus but the real name is cholla. My dad is from Flushing, Ohio. He came here to AZ in the Air Force and just stayed. My mom and her family came here from Kentucky.

I've used cholla in rodent, snake, lizard, frog, etc etc tanks but never aquatic tanks so I don't know. I can't imagine that it wouldn't be okay but with woods you can't tell. Some tain the water. others make it really soft...they just do stuff...I recommend some more research on the wood.

 

[grayshark1956]

I was born and raised here in Arizona. I love about 10 minutes drive from a proper desert. This type of cactus grows in abundance, we call it jumping cactus but the real name is cholla. My dad is from Flushing, Ohio. He came here to AZ in the Air Force and just stayed. My mom and her family came here from Kentucky.

I've used cholla in rodent, snake, lizard, frog, etc etc tanks but never aquatic tanks so I don't know. I can't imagine that it wouldn't be okay but with woods you can't tell. Some tain the water. others make it really soft...they just do stuff...I recommend some more research on the wood.

I've been to Arizona in the desert and the cactus was everywhere! Plus that dry bush that flows with any breeze, but I'm used to the change of seasons here, we can have nasty winters or mild ones, usually too much snow or ice for me. I'll read more about cholla and may remove it from the tank eventhough I boiled it for a long time, the crabs seem to like it. I also went white water rafting on the Colorado River and fell off raft, had to be rescued from in between boulders, good thing I'm a good swimmer, the churning water kept pulling me under, wonderful experience though. Also went to Las Vegas, this was back in the 70's, I'm sure its changed. Also went to Mesa Verde, that was really fun. I'll write later on the brackish water topic area and forgot to tell you the pet store sold plastic cholla that I could also get for the crabs, that would probably be better.

 

[grayshark1956]

Both are true after a sort. The crab can live in freshwater, brackish, and I've even seen them in marine. But they don't do well in freshwater for their entire lifespan and thrive in brackish water. Another thing people don't always consider is that these are not aquatic crabs, they need to come out of the water so need some zone above the waterline. I've kept a ton of these crabs as I would feed them to my puffer and as pets. I used the same salt as I did for my marine tank (Instant Ocean) but kept it in low salt conditions (1.008-1.010).

Most plants won't do well at that salinity and freshwater fish (with a few exceptions like molly) that much salt will kill them.

Hi, I wanted to add a few things I thought were important--I just recently read somewhere on the internet people keep fish and crabs together with success. Also, someone pointed out to me that when crabs are in pet store, the store does not add salt which might mean crabs are okay without it or can survive in small amounts of salt, they may have acclimated to water with either no salt or low salt before people buy them and they may survive in FW tank. Don't know how true this is, but I do know my fish are all fine and with past experience years ago, I learned that the cleaner I kept my tank the better the fish were. Went a long time without deaths or illness. So, I have a schedule of partial water changes and complete water changes. So, for my benefit, I am reading about salt types to help crabs molt. Hope to get 2nd tank just for them, too.

 

[Chad]

I have kept many fish and crabs together in both freshwater and marine. I have about 20 crabs in my marine tank of several different species.

There are some species of crab that eat fish so you have to be selective.

Fish stores only keep the crabs short term then sell them so what they do is not an indication of what's required for long term success.

Water changes are very important!