Brackish Water Aquariums can be as interesting as its marine and freshwater counterpart. It is a unique setup of habitat that can consist of diverse and wide range of organisms that thrive in water having sanity between saltwater and freshwater. Here we will look at some of the most common brackish water fish which you can consider for your estuarine home.
Mudskippers
A
small-sized pet fish that is often mistaken as an amphibian because of its natural ability to leave the water for long period of time in order to hunt for its favorite foods. In captive care, they require a dry sand bed area for their survival and constant feed of
live foods such as prawns and insects will keep their vigorous. However, option to keep them to form a large estuarine community might not be feasible because the male species can be very territorial and often attack the smaller mudskippers.
Mummichog
Identified by its scientific name of
Fundulus heteroclitus, this interesting group of hardy and well-adjusted fish is also sometimes called
killifishes. The term killifishes include a broad range of different species and thus the name mummichog is specifically given to the fish that thrives well in this estuarine environment. In home aquariums, the fish if well-fed can reproduce quickly to form large schools of active pets and the males are extremely attractive with display of brightly colored fins especially during breeding season.
Scatophagus
Scatophagus are often kept as
community fish as in its own brackish water aquarium or they can also be mixed with other fish in a marine saltwater setup. This type of fish species should not be kept alone and they must co-exist not only together with other tank mates but also among themselves forming a large group of 5 or more. There are a number of different variants, most popular the red scatophagus which display bright coloration and a healthy specimen can be very active swimming around the tank.
Finally another brackish water fish that you shouldn’t miss out is the extremely cool
Archer fish.