I'm curious to know what aquarium-friendly fish are found in Mangrove Swamps/Forests? I've been searching online, and haven't found much related to this... Any links or personal experience would be appreciated!

Thanks.

Well, I fish mangrove shorelines about every weekend for inshore saltwater gamefish. So I'm pretty familiar with what fish are found there. Most if not all are to big for a nano. Probably a 100gal+ minimum tank size for the fish. I seem to see alot of Snook and various species of Snapper (Lane, Mangrove/Gray, Schoolmaster, and Mutton). Along with the ocassional Redfish (Red Drum), various grouper species (Goliath, Gag, and Nassau), and Spotted Sea Trout. The opnly problem is that most of these fish are illegal to keep in home aquaria with out a special permit saying that they are for educational perposes or they get to bigor can't legally be kept in small sizes.

If trying to setup a nano biotope, then I can't really help since there aren't many nano sized fish that stay nano sized that live in mangroves.

what about guppies? ive heard they are found in/around mangroves and such in the wild. and theyre brackish so you can turn them to full saltwater if you want. and the fancy ones look pretty awesome too.

Huh? I knew guppies were brackish, but never see the when I'm fishing.

There are PLENTY of nano-sized livestock that lives in the mangrove lagoon area...you just don't pay attention to them because they aren't big enough to eat

many goby species are found in the mangroves, as are mudskippers.

+1 ^^^^^^^^ I knew there some gobies that do

gobies, blennies, damsels, (seargent majors are popular), some of the smaller filefish. Any shallow water tropical can be found in the mangrove forests.

Also Banghi Cardinals are as well.

Thanks for the info. It's hard finding fish that are classified as "mangrove" fish... I guess it's probably not as popular to create a display fuge...

I'm just trying to collect some info for a future project. In the planning stages I guess, but have no idea how long before I'll be able to afford to do it. I imagine it won't turn out to be 'nano' tanks, as I'll probably need more room for the mangroves, nicer macroalgae and proper fish/inverts.

The dream continues!

yup...best info is scientific papers for that kinda stuff, and they're still difficult to get. my suggestion is to look for fish that are commonly found in lagoons...those fish will also show up in mangrove habitats since they are so intimately connected. The best starting point I've found is Singapore...lots of blogs about their lagoon inhabitants that will get you off on the right path.

You might be having problems finding fish because mangroves are typically a brackish habitat, meaning you're looking for brackish-water fish and inverts. Here are your easiest options:

Bumblebee gobies (under 1.005)
North American Flagfish (under 1.005)
Panchax Killifish (under 1.005)
Glassfish (under 1.005)
Halfbeaks (under 1.005)
Knight Goby (1.002-1.008)
Figure 8 Puffers (1.005-1.010)
Orange Chromide (1.010)
Mollies (1.005-marine)
Mudskippers (1.005-1.015)

As for inverts, fiddler and red-claw crabs do best in brackish tanks. If you bump the salinity up to 1.012 or so, blue-legs can survive in brackish water. There are brackish brittle stars and bristleworms, but they aren't traded. Your best bet for invert stock is snails like the olive nerite and malayan trumpet snail (sold as freshwater), and shrimp like the Amano, and especially Caridina gracilirostris.

If I were going for a straight-up mangrove habitat, I'd make it a (Indian) mudskipper and crab home. It would end up being essentially a wet/muddy terrarium, but it will require next to no upkeep, as they come from high nitrate environments, can handle filthy water - and with the mangroves absorbing nitrates, you wouldn't need water changes incredibly often. Putting mudskippers in with other fish would dramatically increase the amount of space you'd need however, as paludariums almost always have less than 1/4th of their area dedicated to water.

What part of the world are you interested in? I've spent most of the summer taking pictures of small mangrove fish and I might be able to help you out. PM me if you're looking in to Caribbean stuff. I know where you can order legally colected stuff.

when I was in cuba I snorkled around mangroves alot and there was just as much life as the reefs
I saw ALOT of damsels especially sergent majors, jawfish, anglefish, sharks, grouper, snook, eel, and alot of fish I dont know the names

but you have to remember that mangroves live anywhere warm pretty much and they line most rivers and shorelines in indonesia

Neale Monk's Brackish FAQ is a great source for brackish aquaria.

a mudskipper biotope would be cool! here's a good article on them:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2008/11/lines

here's an article, with other links, about keeping mangroves:
http://moon.ouhsc.edu/pwhitby/mangrove.htm

see...with fish the sky is the limit. Check out articles on the indian river lagoon. Lots of different species of "reef fish" there.

I am in the process of planning a mudskipper tank for my classroom. I will keep you all updated on progress.

+1 I've seen these on a TV show around mangroves and they look really cool when they are all together

Dont worry about brackish, I live where red mangroves grow wild and they like pure salt water better than brackish. Just keep the salinity at 1.026 and your good. Mist the leaves with RO water in a spray bottle like once a week. When I was younger I had a 100g mangrove tank in my room, I used a shop light with 48" tubes for light and hung it over the tank, it lit it and grew the mangroves just fine.

scats, monos and archers are cool fish for these tanks, they can live in salt, you have to acclimate them though because they always come in fresh water. My archers would nail vita-flys from the mangrove leaves, it was awesome.

Mollyslol

Mudskippers are the coolest fish i ever kept. Fixed a big aquarium with a land and water part, lots of sand for the skippers to dig in, and some archer fishes in the water part. Can recommend it to everyone...They became tame, could pick them up in the hand and feed them. So fun to see them hunt crickets and worms. One poor worm got caught between an archer fish and a mudskipper on land, the archer won the struggle. Sadly the aquariums bottom cracked, and i had to move them to a smaller tank. One of them escaped through a small hole in the cover, found him dead under the sofa in the livingroom.

Miss the skippers..

Would mandarins do well in a mangrove tank? I am assuming that mangroves would facilitate pods.

I JUST started a cay biotope. A cay is pretty much a shallow reef that traps sand and occasionally mangroves and costal vegetation to form a small isle. I've found that larger cays are spelled "keys". My tank is hoping to simulate a very young cay. This way I can keep some "reef" specimens and still have the different look of sandbars, exposed coral, and mangroves. My tank is a 55gal. (filled about 1/2 way. I converted it only a day or two ago (it was previously a full blown reef) and frags are laying l over the place. The pics are pretty bad but it should give an idea as to what I plan for it to be. I may start a thread for the tank a bit down the road after I trade some frags for some specifc species I'm looking for.

When cast netting bait in the Indian River Lagoon early this morning I caught a few 4-5 inch mollies just outside of a freshwater run off so I think it is brackish their most of the time. They where in very dirty water.

i dont know where you live, but if youre near any flats just run a seine through the grass, preferably near an inlet, youll be amazed



moneyman, can we not call the river a lagoon, it attracts tourists (not trying to offend by the way)

Yes flats is where its at. and throw a D.O.A. shrimp out there. redfish, trout, and snook love em...

put a snook in there

Anyone else with experience running a mangrove biotope? Suggested fish, plants, etc?

Aquaman, how is your setup coming along?

Anyone else working on a mangrove biotope of any kind? Curious if there are any build threads and/or personal experience here on N-R.

I was netting with a friend near the Sanibel Island causeway. We caught: filefish, puffers, grouper, toadfish, flounder, starfish, decorator crabs, various shrimps, pipefish, starfish and seahorses and many whatsthat. what fun. I hope to start a new tank for myself soon.

my grandparents in florida have tons of mangroves, and we find seahorses, pipefish, flounder, puffers, fiddler crabs, starfish, urchins, jellyfish, glass shrimp, arrow crabs, baby barricudas, i saw what looked like a scooter blenny but i wasnt sure, i didnt catch it, and nassasaurus snails. this was also near Sanibel

man mangroves r awesome and another thing u could keep are turnicates which r very pretty and sponges but they are difficult to care for.

Bump! I want more info also

Lots of links out there, just google, but keep in mind there are three species, white, black and red, with each tolerating different levels. Red is pure saltwater as SDT pointed out.
There are mangroves all over the world. Here is a shot in the Philippines. Note in the forground the red mangrove thicket. The darker area right behind it is the beginning of the reef. The mangroves had nearly everything the reef did, but understand the light levels are much lower so the corals were mostly lps. Fish were the same.

man...you and your nice pictures....

John, I'll save a room for you to stay in. Diving is so cheap, and snorkeling is out of this world.
Did I hear someone say they wanted a chocolate chip?


On the mangrove front, a couple of links I like:
mangroves in aquariums

Calfo

Scats, Monos, Archers. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/scatsmonosart.htm

Where was this?

Siquijor Island

In the link, note the picture with the mangrove thicket from down the beach same as in the thread above.
Real cool place, $10/night. (Dorm is $4/night.) New Zealanders own it. There are about 5 little resorts along this stretch of beach, with 10-15 people per place. Mostly European backpackers whose motto is "The less you pay, the longer you stay". Beach is always nearly deserted. Diving is superb. Voodoo witch doctors are quite exciting.

Just a few swim strokes from the mangroves

man i got to get out to that half of the tropics. damn you yardboy! I need a change in scenery!

Sounds like you and I are on the same tack. It depends on how adventurous you want to be. Some of the fish available in the Indian River Lagoon system are illegal to keep, but, "it's only illegal if you get caught"..LOL.

I have caught many "interesting species" in my cast net while trying to catch mullet.

Give me a shout.