I have a concept in mind for a new setup. I want to do mangrove trees and other brackish-adaptable plants as a brackish riparium.
Most of the information that I run into on the Internet regarding brackish planted tanks describes certain aquarium plants that seem to be able to withstand brackish water, such as Java fern, Anubias, Valisneria and certain others. However, I see scant references to these sorts of plants actually growing in estuaries or mangrove swamps out in nature, so it might be possible that many of them are not such good representations of that sort of habitat. In contrast, there are several riparium plants that could be grown above water in a brackish riparium that might make a more authentic representation of a mangrove swamp or estuary. I already have several such plants established in riparium planters...
black mangrove (Avicennia germinans)
white mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa)
leather fern (Acrostichum danaeifolium)
I had all three of these going in my 50-gallon tank, but I have since moved them around. Here is a quick shot showing the black mangrove and the leather fern pretty well.
These specimens that I have are all currently growing in (hard) freshwater, and I imagine that for best results I would need to slowly adapt them to brackish water. Here is a list of additional brackish species that I think I might be able to get a hold of to try in riparium planters...
red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle)
buttonwood ( Conocarpus erectus)
ciliata crypt (Cryptocoryne ciliata)
Well I'll write again later with some more ideas and information. I don't even have a tank size picked out for this project yet. I might start adapting the plants in a 15-gallon or whatever, and then move up to a 40 breeder or 50-gallon tank.
There is some fun research to do on fish selection too. There are a lot of great brackish fish possibilities.
Thanks, once I am done planting I'll post a video of my set up. the leather fern start taking off already, and the mangrove is adapting well to the water. so far I am at 1.004 SG.
I am using a simple hydrometer by InstantOcean, it reads from 1.000 to 1.032 avoid buying hydrometers that starts reading above the brackish end, or you can get a more accurate tool, the refractometer.
Alright well now I think it might end up being orange chromides (Etroplus maculatus) and/or celebes rainbows (Telmatherina ladigesi).
I ran into something kind of cool while asking around. I read that threespot damselfish (Pomacentrus tripunctatus) can live happily in brackish water. Wouldn't that be cool to have a damselfish in a planted tank?!
I ran into something kind of cool while asking around. I read that threespot damselfish (Pomacentrus tripunctatus) can live happily in brackish water. Wouldn't that be cool to have a damselfish in a planted tank?!
Never heard of that, it sounds cool though, just like having molly in reef tank.
I came across this site that shows some small fish species that can live in brackish water: http://www.seriouslyfish.com/kb.php?t=ps&s=brackish
Here is a fun observation for my little black mangrove trees that I have, still growing in fresh water.
Black mangrove trees do not develop stilt roots the way that red mangroves (Rhizophora mangle) do, but they do grow these pneumatophores.
Pneumatophores probably help the mangrove trees to improve oxygen uptake in strongly anoxic substrates. Cypress knees might have a similar function.
It takes a while for the pneumatophores to develop. I only began to see them a few months ago on my plants, but I have been growing them in riparium planters for a couple of years. You can see that the tree has a pretty substantial little trunk about 5/16" thick. At first I thought that they were just wayward roots, but they kept growing and it was clear that they were the pneumatophores.
Last night I moved some more things around to make room in the 40 breeder. I can start getting the mangroves into there soon. I am not going to add salt right away because I want to spend some time conditioning some livebearers in the first, but I can work on growing up the mangroves some more anyway in the meantime.
I would like to try to get more mangrove species too. It would be great to get some red mangrove started.
what about "freshwater" flounder?
Or lima nigrofasciatus?
And depending on the set up im sure you could also try a moray eel.... but I think I agree that a school of fish would look cool. And the eel was only a semi serious suggestion.
That's funny you mention Limia because I was just reading about those. That is an interesting idea for this setup or I might also consider some for my 50 that I am redoing.
Finally I cleared some space and got the tank set up. This is a 30 breeder.
I have these really great manzanita stumps that I am going to use in here. I have not yet had them in an aquarium and I stuck them in there to start leaching the organics out and get them to sink.
Now I need to go get some aragaonite sand for the bottom of the tank.
This is going to be a simple setup with some nice fish and plants.
Hey Devin. School has been really busy, finals are coming up in two weeks, and I go to China a week after that. Two days after I get back I start summer class :roll_eyes:, but I'll only be taking one class, so I'll have considerably more time on my hands. Nothing right now though; I'm hoping to clean out this weekend all of the overgrown emersed stauro (which is flowering) from my 3 ft. iwagumi that I never really got running fully. Probably will just have some coffeefolia in there with some fish this go around, same scape.
But yeah, school along with all of the organizations I'm in takes a lot of time, so I haven't been around here much lately. I'm really fascinated that you've gotten you mangroves to grow the pneumatophores. Pretty inspiring to see that in mangroves that are grown indoors.
It sounds like you have plenty on your plate. I am sure you will have more awesome scapes for us when you have the time and space for that again, but that is great to go out and do those other things. You should do as much of that kind of thing while you are young and don't have all kinds of obligations all over the place. What are you doing in China?
Yeah I was surprised to see those pneumatophores developing on the black mangroves too. It took a couple of years for the plants to grow to size and start developing the pneumatophores. I really want to get some red mangrove going as riparium plants and encourage their stilt roots to form. I understand that white mangrove will also develop pneumatophores. I have just one of those that's 18 months or so old and ~14" tall, but I don't see any pneumatophores yet.
...picked up a 40 lb. bag of aragonite sand tonight.
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