Stocking Has Begun!

[DHJac]

Hello all.  It's been a few years since I had a tank and when I did, I made the mistake of putting fish in that needed more space than I had to offer and thought all brackish fish could tolerate the same SG conditions.  Hey, info was hard to come by on brackish fish back then

.  I learned along the way, had some great fish and enjoyed the hobby until it got too hard to manage with kids, job, etc.  Well, about 7 weeks ago I got back in the hobby.  This time I was determined to get the right tank for the brackish setup I always wanted, a handfull of scats and monos with a couple more oddballs thrown in to keep it interesting.
 
I thought I'd share the progress on my 110 gallon brackish tank.  It was a drilled tank, so I decided to remove the overflow box and go with a stealth mounted Eheim 2217 canister.  The intake and outlet are both on the far left side of the tank covered by the plants.  The heater, air stone and Koralia 1050 wave maker are all hidden behind the driftwood on the right.  Overall, it makes for a very clean installation with no visible cords or tubes.  
 

 
I started out with a couple mollies while I was cycling the tank and ended up with 4 fry as well to my surprise from the dalmatian molly that was pregnant when I got her.  The fry are growing like crazy but very hard to get decent photos of (mainly because my camera is a POS) but they are finally starting to get spots like mom.
 
3 out of 4 ain't bad

 
About a week ago, we added two Green Scats.  They have such great personalities and are the reason I love brackish fish.  They are already eating right from my hand!
 

 
How can you not love that face!

 
Here's a video of the whole happy family.

 
Now I'm just waiting for my LFS to get a Ruby Scat and some Mono Argentus in stock so we can finish the midlevel fish stocking.  I'd like to add an Archer as well but am waiting for the molly fry to get a little bigger so they don't become a snack. I don't think I have enough room to add a couple Columbian cats but my son would really like some.  What do you think?
 
The goal is to get the SG to about 1.010 eventually but I'm keeping it pretty low (1.002) at the moment since all the LFS sell their brackish fish in fresh water.  Any other recommendations for stocking?
 
Thanks for looking.
 
Dave
 
 

 

[ncguppy830]

nice,ive always wanted to do a brackish tank,hmmm.

 

[maurizio]

Looks great! Perhaps the waves are a bit too strong?

 

[DHJac]

Thanks for the input.  I think the current looks worse in the video than it really is.  None of the fish have a problem holding their ground or swimming into the current if they want to but the scats do provide a lot of surface area when they turn sideways so it will move them around a little.  From what I've read, they appreciate that.

 

[DHJac]

I added a few new tankmates today.  I went to the the LFS looking for monos but they had a bunch of orange chromides so we got two of those to go with a mono argentus.  
 
Chromides were not a fish I planned on adding but they are beautiful fish and a colorful addition.  I've read that chromides can be testy towards each other if you get two males but all of the fish they had appeared to be about the same shade of orange so I'm not sure what sex they are.  Either way, these two haven't left each others side and have settled in nicely.  Sorry for the phone pic but they weren't having any of my regular camera.  As soon as it got near the tank, they bolted.
 

 
I'll try to get some better pics tomorrow.  The tank is very active now which is really cool to see.

 

[SaltyTheFry]

You could probably afford room for only 1-2 Colombian Sharks as they grow 10 in each. And be careful they eat smaller tank mates so i dont suggest them.

 

[DHJac]

I agree Salty.  The Colombian Sharks were something my son really wanted to add but the other fish spend plenty of time scouring the bottom of the tank so I'm happy to leave them out.  Although, I think I'm going to have to start a smaller tank for him to pick out some fish now

. And so it begins...

 

[DHJac]

Well, I lost the smaller scat yesterday

 .  Not sure what happened to him.  He was doing pretty well before I added the chromides and mono except that the other scat chased him at feeding time.  After I added the new fish though he just stopped feeding and was hiding out all the time.  I thought the mono would help divert some of the aggression from the bigger scat but I guess he was already stressed.
 
Luckily, the other fish are all doing great.  I've even seen the chromides doing a little mating dance.  I'll give the rest of the fish another week or two to settle in before I add another scat.

 

[iliveinazoo]

Scats & Mono's are big schooling fish I'd add a few more of both to maybe 4 of each, you may possibly get away with 3 without aggression issues but IME you will definately have issues with just 2. With a good school of these then you arguably don't have enough space for the 8 fish this size but there definately won't be enough space for the Columbian catfish - you will need about 6 of these to keep them happy and they will do best in marine conditions as they mature.

I would keep Scats and Monos between SG1.008 and marine but wouldn't keep Orange Chromides above SG1.010.

 

[DHJac]

Since the tank was relatively new, I only added two scats to start but the LFS hasn't had any since then.  That's why I added the mono since they mix school well.  The goal is to take the tank to 1.010.  I've kept scats longterm at this SG before without issues and it will allow me to keep the other fish as well like the chromides.  Ideally, I'd like to have 3 scats and 2-3 monos.

 

[iliveinazoo]

Seems fair enough, I used to have Scats and started with 2 but upped the number to 5 because the dominant fish constantly harassed the other and once the others were added the aggression completely stopped. I'd avoid 2 Monos and go with 3 from the off for the same reason.