# Brackish NPT possible?



## Tsin21 (Oct 12, 2017)

I'm thinking of the possibility of a brackish NPT. No fish, maybe just some nerite & faunus snails or some brackish/freshwater shrimp. As of now, I have a spare 2.5gallon, some potting mix and sand. I also have a refractometer to test the sg. For the plants, according to this website and other sources these are all brackish tank compatible:

Anubias barteri
Bacopa monnieri
Java fern
Egeria densa
Marimo ball
Java moss
Hygrophila polysperma
Watersprite
Vallisneria spiralis or V. americana
Cryptocoryne undulate, C. wendtii
Since I already have most of these plants, I might push through with this. In hindsight, I planning to start it off as fully freshwater, let the plants be fully established and then gradually increase the salinity in a period of weeks or months. As of now, I'm researching about the salinity tolerances of each of the species of both flora and fauna and base the final salinity on the least value. The only problem that I'm foreseeing for this is that marine salt pretty pricey. LOL. Aside from that, has anyone dabbled into brackish tanks and are there any other hurdles or problems that I might encounter with this setup?

If it proves to be just a headache in the long run I might just let it remain fully freshwater.


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## gkai (May 14, 2018)

That's a nice experiment, I'm curious about your results. You could probably start with simple kitchen salt, especially if you have hard water...as far as I know, for brackish tetraodons and brackish shrimps, kitchen salt works. You could try a biocellatus, with a bigger tank...


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## Tsin21 (Oct 12, 2017)

gkai said:


> That's a nice experiment, I'm curious about your results. You could probably start with simple kitchen salt, especially if you have hard water...as far as I know, for brackish tetraodons and brackish shrimps, kitchen salt works. You could try a biocellatus, with a bigger tank...


I'm a bit doubtful about the kitchen salt and I'll just probably save up in the coming months to buy a 7kg bag of marine salt since this will be a long undertaking. I would love to have some fish in there too, but I'm already running out of space in my room for a bigger tank and my flatmates might charge me extra on the water bill if they see that I have another big tank. LOL!


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## Gerald (Mar 24, 2008)

Agree that NaCl alone in soft water would not be a good idea. Having enough other essential mineral ions (Ca, Mg, K, Fe, etc) will help them tolerate the salt better, since the Na and Cl interfere with uptake of the ions they need. Susswassertang, Najas guadalupensis, and Corkscrew Vallisneria are a few others I've kept succesfully in low-salinity brackish (2 to 3 ppt) along with coral gravel in a box filter (or mixed into substrate).


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

Sea salt at the grocery?


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## Gerald (Mar 24, 2008)

mistergreen said:


> Sea salt at the grocery?


Nope - not the same. "Sea salt" for food use is still mainly NaCl with negligible amounts of other minerals. As sea water evaporates, the NaCl precipitates out first and is harvested for food. Then the remaining salts (some are bitter tasting) are harvested sequentially in the order they precipitate and are sold for other industrial uses. Ever taste marine aquarium salt? It's horrible!


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## Tsin21 (Oct 12, 2017)

Thanks for the replies. I have made up my mind and will set it up this weekend. Let the plants get established first for about a month then increase the SG weekly by .001 till I reach SG = 1.003.


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## Gerald (Mar 24, 2008)

Will 1.003 sg be high enough salinity for Nerite snail and Amano shrimp larvae to survive through metamorphosis?


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

I've had a mouthful of sea water. It tasted like the saltiest salt.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

Gerald said:


> Will 1.003 sg be high enough salinity for Nerite snail and Amano shrimp larvae to survive through metamorphosis?


You'd need to feed the shrimp larvae with plankton for them to survive, not just live in a brackish environment.


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## Gerald (Mar 24, 2008)

mistergreen said:


> You'd need to feed the shrimp larvae with plankton for them to survive, not just live in a brackish environment.


Yes of course they need food too. I was just wondering what's the minimum salinity threshold needed for them to complete metamorphosis, assuming suitable plankton food is also provided.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

Gerald said:


> Yes of course they need food too. I was just wondering what's the minimum salinity threshold needed for them to complete metamorphosis, assuming suitable plankton food is also provided.


I've been seeing people raise the zoea in 35ppt, full salt water.


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## Tsin21 (Oct 12, 2017)

mistergreen said:


> I've been seeing people raise the zoea in 35ppt, full salt water.


Agree, most successful attempts I saw in other forums are in where the zoea are raised in 32 to 35 ppt. While others are stating that it depends on the variety of the amano shrimp; that some requires brackish and some full saltwater.



> There is some controversy surrounding what the optimal salinity is for the developing larvae. Hayashi & Hamano report total failure to survive in salinities up to and including 8.5 ppt; optimal survival at 17 ppt (80% survival rate); and suboptimal survival (11%) at salinities up to 35 ppt (full marine salinity). This is quite different from what I found, with zero survival at salinities lower than 25 ppt, suboptimal survival at 25 ppt (3 larvae, out of at least 200, survived for four weeks without metamorphosing at which point the attempt was aborted), and high survival at 30-35 ppt (an estimated 80% reaching postlarval stage).


 - source

But a big factor also in the success is actually the availability of food for the zoea (more varied = more success).

Right now, one of my amano shrimp is berried so I'm in the fence if I shall continue with the brackish setup or I'll just turn it into full saltwater for the zoea. The only hesitation that I have for it is the amount of attention that I have to put unto it.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

I bet you can feed the anamo zoea spirulina powder & yeast like fresh water daphnia, cyclops instead of seawater phytoplankton.


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## Tsin21 (Oct 12, 2017)

Spirulina ✔
Yeast ✔
Berried amano ✔
Tank ✔
Commitment ? I think I'm not ready yet for that kind of commitment. LOL!


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

you know you want to.


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