# what fish can be converted to marine ?



## Acipenser (Apr 21, 2010)

I was shocked to see mollies at JL the other day, and began to wonder if I could get my guppies converted ?


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

Doubt guppies will. But Mayan cichlids apparently like salty conditions


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Why would anyone convert FW fish to SW ? If anything, I would like it the other way around. I know you can do that with clown fish - never tried.


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

lol Gordon, agreed! I know there are several SW species I'd like to have in my FW tank lol


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## Timbits (Nov 15, 2010)

just convert to SW!


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## Ursus sapien (Apr 21, 2010)

mollies and wild guppies can both live in full salt - their natural range extends into salt water estuaries.

A member at CAC has mollies breeding in his sw set up.


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## Pamelajo (Feb 9, 2011)

Malayasian Trumphet snails can also be converted to salt and will continue to breed like crazy.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Orange Chromides (SE Asian species of cichlids). They like a bit of salt in their water & I've converted a pair to near full strength sw in the distant past before.

On the flip side, in the 80s, I slowly (over 8+ months) converted my seahorse to brackish (less than half strength sw).


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

snowflake eel, bumble bee grouper, molly, guppies, to name a few.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

:lol: It may be far cheaper to restock my SW with guppies and mollies.

 But why


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## Radiance (Apr 22, 2010)

snowflake eel can be FW??!? 

** CHARGES OUT TO BUY ONE **


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

snowflake is salt, but when young, they will be fresh, then brackish, then full salt.


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## Ursus sapien (Apr 21, 2010)

gklaw said:


> :lol: It may be far cheaper to restock my SW with guppies and mollies.
> 
> But why


the change over needs to be gradual, but it would be cool to see guppies playing in the corals


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## Chewie (Jul 21, 2010)

*full salt*

Yes, mollies can go full salt. Have 1 male with 2 females and they are faithfully birthing every month. Went from 3 to 20+ in the last few months. Anybody wanna buy some? Green spotted puffers also go from brackish to full salt.


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## Nanokid (May 18, 2010)

its true guppies and mollies can handle full salt but i think the question is for how long

i have swam with wild mollies in estuary's in mexico, and i did find many in full salinity, but they were constantly swimming from almost full concentration to almost none at all. (up and down stream), and none of them lived in saltwater permanently - if they did, im sure they would have taken over the whole ocean by now 

i havent heard of guppies lasting longer then a two years in full saltwater - they aren't a saltwater fish - they can tolerate the salt, but there systems are not designed for it. but hey, maybe after some selective breeding and some time they can develop them!


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## alexafg (Oct 31, 2011)

black mollies love salty water, u can put a black mollie in ur tank


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## BaoBeiZhu (Apr 24, 2010)

meh.. this is nothing special..
if fish could live on land then THATS something special hehe


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## King-eL (Apr 21, 2010)

Tried guppies in salt water before as I used them as feeders for my lionfish back when I used to kept salt water fish in Asia. Those that did not get eaten died. There gills was wide open and wasn't able to handle salt at all in just 2 hours. Black mollies however did survived for 3 days before they got eaten.

Freshwater fish that can tolerate saltwater for a short while.
-Mayan cichlids
-Alligator gar
-Gold fish (Not the fancy ones)
-Some species of Tilapia
-Cromides
-Fire eel
-Some of the catfish species in Australia. Too many to list. (Actually most Australian fish do).

Salt water fish that I successfully converted to fully freshwater but will need higher ph of 8+.
-Leopard grouper
-Frog fish
-Some of the unknown grouper that I caught back in Asia.
-Some murray eel species.
-bamboo sharks

There were more other salt water fish that I converted to fully fresh water but not sure what they were. Some of them were gobies that I caught on the reef during low tides and some neon green colored looking damsel fish.

I miss my salt water fish keeping days. Can't have a salt water tank anymore though.


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## King-eL (Apr 21, 2010)

BaoBeiZhu said:


> meh.. this is nothing special..
> if fish could live on land then THATS something special hehe


A mud skipper. They like open surface of the wet mud than the open water. They spend more time there.


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## pinhead (Apr 22, 2010)

I have a Mono sebae that has been converted to marine


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## pinhead (Apr 22, 2010)

I have a mono sebae that has been converted to full strength saltwater.


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## babyreef (Nov 10, 2011)

Why are we converting?


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## Gregzz4 (Jun 25, 2010)

Timbits said:


> just convert to SW!


I AM 

Sold the 125g and lookin' for a 75g RR


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## fkshiu (Apr 22, 2010)

Radiance said:


> snowflake eel can be FW??!?
> 
> ** CHARGES OUT TO BUY ONE **


Just to clear up the confusion, there are two species of "snowflake eel" in the hobby, the usually FW/brackish one is _gymnothorax tile_ and the always SW one is _echidna nebulosa_.

E. nebulosa: Saltwater Aquarium Fish for Marine Aquariums: Snowflake Eel

G. tile: Gymnothorax tile


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## cichlid (Jul 30, 2010)

Gklaw - you mentioned clownfish can? Heres the better question.. How!


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Ursus sapien said:


> the change over needs to be gradual, but it would be cool to see guppies playing in the corals


Hahaha Storm. All that effort into a SW setup for guppies to swim around corals! No no no no  O well, may try that for an experiment one day if I ever have luck keeping a guppy alive in FW for 8 months 



cichlid said:


> Gklaw - you mentioned clownfish can? Heres the better question.. How!


I have never done it but Storm and Anthony might have answered the question: very gradually reducing salinity.

I would do it if I want a clown fish and don't want the trouble of SW system. Having said that, I think you can have a SW mini-eco system established that is way less trouble to maintain than FW. I have one clown fish, a couple LR, a little bit of sand in a bio-cube in my 10 years old's room to train her in responsibility. I may see the fish once every 3 weeks, WC with water from my main SW tank once every 3 - 6 months or longer, change phosphate / carbon pad may be once every 2 months. She does all the feeding, mom may have help her with the top up.

Not sure if I can stretch maintenance on any FW system that far. I have push my FW as much as I could but the fishies do not like that - may be one day, just a may be


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## cichlid (Jul 30, 2010)

You deffinatly push FW... i have, its risky $ hit can hit the fan pretty quick! Ikeep hearing horror stories about nano SW tanks, but IMO its a better wayto get a feel. Way less money, I dont have 1000$+ to invest to find out if I like it or not. If your looking for an easy fish, put a bettain a bowl. The best things never come easy. 

I guess you would have to do it very gradually, almost wheen them off there salt dependance. Would be amazing to see a planted tank, with tripicals and a clown lol


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