flounders in reef tank

[Cliff]

I bought a pair cute little flounders each only 1 ¾ inches long. The only problem is that they were kept in fresh water tank when I bought them. I would like to transition them back to the saltwater tank. Does anyone have any experience with getting them back to live in saltwater? And are they reef friendly? From my personal experience of catching the bigger relatives of these flatties, they seem to like to eat worms.

If reef tank is out of the question, I still have a FOWL tank that I am setting up for some triggers, most likely humu-humu and clown trigger. Could these flatties be kept safely with the triggers?

 

[swreefer]

Are you sure these are marine flounders? There are FW ones (actually brackish) that I see in stores all the time. They may not make the transition to full marine. There are also FW puffers and a type of moray eel. Make sure you know exactly what type of flounder this is before you do anything. If it is in fact a true marine fish, you will need to acclimate it very slowly over a couple of days slowly raising the SG.

 

[Cliff]

I thought all flounders are marine by nature. Only the young ones enter the brackish water and grow up there. And the adults usually reproduce in the sea.

I've also seen small flounders kept at one lfs several years ago before the DSB was popular.

Does anyone have any long term success with keeping flounders?

I had one flounder some 20 years ago when using undergravel filters, it died jumping out of the tank.

 

[Mike02]

i thought full marine animals would drown in fresh water or anything below 1.012. i believe fresh water puffers originate from 2 big lakes in africa. the interesting thing is that they (and all life in those 2 lakes) evolved looking/acting similar to salt water fish since those lakes have a high/low tide and wave action just like the ocean does.

 

[Anonymous]

Cliff - Most likely those are freshwater flounders. They will not be able to make the transition to full strength saltwater.

 

[SPC]

Well Cliff, where did you end up putting the fresh water flounders?

Steve

 

[Cruiser]

Cliff

There are freshwater, brackish and marine flounders. As "Guy" mentioned they will not survive in a marine environment.

I have had numerous flounders in aquariums!, they are easy to keep, feed, etc.

Currently, have a voracious 8" Paralichthys califonicus - Halibut

.

 

[Quillen]

This sounds like a magic school bus kind of thing (reference to the Salmon mating for school fish bake). Even if fish do make an annual journey, etc, the difference is a problem. What mother nature does with one scoop would kill the fish if we tried the same thing. We may play God, but are not as effective. Just wanted to add my comment..

and do a plug for Magic School Bus.

 

[danmhippo]

I have just returned from a pet trade show here in LA. I have seen in one of the holding tank a group (10+) FW flounder in a 20G tank. They are all about the size of approx 3" head to tail. Very crowded looking tank (aren't them all like that at the trade show?)

Last but not the least, those flounders were fed live food.............meaining your guppy feeders.

 

[Anonymous]

Some of the flounder I have caught and eaten were 2' long. Hope your tank is big.

 

[Cliff]

Thanks for all the inputs. Sounds like they are not all marine-capable. They would make a great sand shifter, though. Right now they are in my bare bottom guppy tank - maybe I will add some silica sand to make them comfy.

 

[redpaulhus]

This depends quite a bit on the species -- I beleive most "freshwater" flounders are Trinectes maculatus , commonly refered to as the Hogchoker....these fish are comfortable in full marine, esturine/brackish, and fresh water environments.
When I was in college, these fish were found in research trawls/seines in water from about 8-36 ppm salinity....
I have taken T. maculatus from (freshwater tanks in ) petstores and kept them in full marine systems, the only limiting factor I have seen has been the availibility of live food.

As long as you don't mind them foraging on your benthic fauna, they should do fine in a tank with live rock and live sand...

I keep temperate marine tanks, and am right now experimenting with seeding live sand so I can keep some temperate flatfishes ( I got tired of going to get fresh plankton for them !)

One way to tell if these are the right flounders -- Trinectes maculatus does not have a pectoral fin, most other flounders do --

[ July 11, 2001: Message edited by: redpaulhus ]

[ July 11, 2001: Message edited by: redpaulhus ]