Mangrove Forest Brackish Riparium

[hydrophyte]

Finally got back to work on this thing...

I decided to moove it all into a 65G and I think I like this better. This setup has some really cool plants in it. There are fish in there too!

 

[Funlad3]

I was wondering why all of the plants were so small until I read that they were in a 65 gallon! Very cool, but what fish did you get? You can't just say you ordered fish and show a picture of the tank! :LOL:

 

[hydrophyte]

Yep this is a pretty roomy tank. I'll work on getting the fish pictures.

 

[hydrophyte]

Still working on the fish....

I have a couple shots of the black mangrove pneumatophores kicking around here. I moved this tree for the 65 into my 50G for better picture-taking. Here you can better see those fibrous roots that started growing from them.

They make a neat effect from the top too.

 

[hydrophyte]

I didn't have this tank set up right during the wintertime and I lost a number of the plants because it got too cold.

I am trying to fix it up now. I got some new plants and they are growing well. I was also able to track down a couple of brackish water fish, a trio of Cyprinodon variegatus and a little group of Jordanella floridae. I hope to find one more brackish killi to introduce.

I should get some pictures soon.

 

[lbiminiblue]

Where do you live Frankie if you don't mind my asking? I hope to track down some other possibilities. I'd really like to get some buttonwood.

Does anybody have any fish suggestions? There are a lot of cool possibilities for brackish water. I have thought that it would be cool to push the envelope a bit and shoot for some kind of true marine fish that could live (happily) in brackish water. I was reading a while back about three spot damselfish as a potential choice for a brackish tank.

archer fish. Plus you get to watch them blast bugs off the leaves. Of course if you don't mind them wetting whatever interests them

 

[SubRosa]

Good timing finding this thread! I have some really cool brackish Killies from FL. I just hatched a bunch of Kryptolebias marmoratus that I plan on building a very similar set up for.

 

[hydrophyte]

archer fish. Plus you get to watch them blast bugs off the leaves. Of course if you don't mind them wetting whatever interests them

Scroll down a bit further I already pretty much figured out what to use in here. I have two species of brackish killies already and I plan to add one or two more.

Good timing finding this thread! I have some really cool brackish Killies from FL. I just hatched a bunch of Kryptolebias marmoratus that I plan on building a very similar set up for.

Wow that K. marmoratus is a cool fish. I have always wondered about keeping those. I've seen any reference to aquarium keeping for them before(?).

Could you use any mangrove trees? I have a few extra red, white and black mangroves here. I have one or two extra leather ferns too.

 

[SubRosa]

Scroll down a bit further I already pretty much figured out what to use in here. I have two species of brackish killies already and I plan to add one or two more.



Wow that K. marmoratus is a cool fish. I have always wondered about keeping those. I've seen any reference to aquarium keeping for them before(?).

Could you use any mangrove trees? I have a few extra red, white and black mangroves here. I have one or two extra leather ferns too.

I was hoping you had some Mangroves left! I recalled a thread elsewhere where you were offering them. I'm definitely interested in a couple of Mangroves, but I'm not too familiar with the fern. How salt tolerant is it? The marmoratus aren't too difficult according to what I've heard and from my own still limited experience. They've been easy to raise so far, are very tolerant of less than ideal conditions and tolerate a wide range of salinity. I've kept a few Rivulus species which are very similar (the marmoratus were considered a Rivulus for a long time) and as a rule they're very cannibalistic and jump like crazy so I expect the same from these. If you're interested I hope to have a few to trade/sell. They're less than a week old, and from my experience with Rivs I figure they should be an inch or so in about 6 - 8 weeks, at which time I'd fell ok about shipping them. Lmk!

 

[hydrophyte]

The mangroves are all in riparium planters, which is the easiest way to keep them. I currently have them all in either freshwater, or lower specific gravity brackish, so depending upon how salty your setup is they would need gradual acclimation periods.

I would keep the leather fern at lower specific gravity. When setting this tank I actually killed off a couple of black mangroves while upping the salt too fast, but surprisingly the leather fern was unaffected, so it's a pretty tough plant.

It's too bad I don't have any extra Pandanus tectorius left. That is another really cool plant and grows well in brackish too. I have a couple of them going in this tank, but I want to hang onto them. P. tectorius grows these awesome stilt roots...

Yeah I would be interested to get some of those marmoratus if you might have extra in a couple of months.

 

[SubRosa]

Have you ever seen the technique of growing mangroves on a pole to encourage aerial roots? Mangroves for the Marine Aquarium by Anthony Calfo - Reefkeeping.com Looks interesting!
When I actually start construction I'll get back to you regarding the mangroves and the fern, as it seems that it will work with what I have in mind. I have progress threads on AC and the NANFA forum if you want to keep abreast of the marmoratus, and I'll definitely reach out if/when they're ready.

 

[hydrophyte]

Have you ever seen the technique of growing mangroves on a pole to encourage aerial roots? Mangroves for the Marine Aquarium by Anthony Calfo - Reefkeeping.com Looks interesting!
When I actually start construction I'll get back to you regarding the mangroves and the fern, as it seems that it will work with what I have in mind. I have progress threads on AC and the NANFA forum if you want to keep abreast of the marmoratus, and I'll definitely reach out if/when they're ready.

I have seen that A. Calfo article. I haven't seen any stilt roots on my red magnroves yet, but my black mangroves do grow those pneumatophores, which are pretty cool. My Pandanus tectorius have also grown little stilt rooots. This shot shows stilt roots just starting from the base of the P. tectorius.

If you think of it please link your thread about the marmoratus. I would be really interested to see that.

I have a Facebook friend who has caught a lot of different Florida/Gulf area brackish killis and other fish. He sells them on Aquabid too. They include some really cool, under-appreciated species

 

[hydrophyte]

I was working on this some more last night and it's looking a lot better. I might have some pictures to post later on.

 

[SubRosa]

I just saw something about a guy who made his own floating island out of empty soda bottles near Cancun. He actually carries over loads of sand by boat and has built quite a neat little place with a beach and everything. He uses Mangroves for landscaping and to help hold it together, and he showed some of the ones he planted and mentioned how long ago he planted them. The bigger ones were supposedly less than a year old and were 4'-5' high bushes! Too bad they can't grow like that indoors!

 

[hydrophyte]

I just saw something about a guy who made his own floating island out of empty soda bottles near Cancun. He actually carries over loads of sand by boat and has built quite a neat little place with a beach and everything. He uses Mangroves for landscaping and to help hold it together, and he showed some of the ones he planted and mentioned how long ago he planted them. The bigger ones were supposedly less than a year old and were 4'-5' high bushes! Too bad they can't grow like that indoors!

Yeah they really are cool plants. I have found that if you keep it happy with plenty of light and ferts black mangrove will grow pretty fast in a fish tank.

There are quite a few intriguing mangrove-associated plants other than trees too. I have Cryptocoryne ciliata, an aroid family plant from India and Southeast Asia, going in this tank as well. It blooms with this crazy-looking spathe (leaflike flower hood) that has a strong aroma of pumpkins!

 

[SubRosa]

I keep ciliata submerged in FW. Never had it bloom though!

 

[hydrophyte]

It blooms readily if you keep it abovewater with good light and ferts for the roots. The flower spathe really is an amazing sight.

 

[hydrophyte]

Finally after all this time I have a new photo update.

This tank was semi-neglected for a long time, but I fixed it up and now it looks better.

This shot shows the foliage pretty well. There are six different mangrove species (four trees and two herbaceous plants) in there.

 

[hydrophyte]

Here are a couple more quick pictures.

Here is foliage on the new Rhizophora mangle.

 

[BigAl07]

Tank looks GREAT! I really want to get into this in our new house one day!!

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