Pinfish in a brackish tank?

[Reefmonkey]

Pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides) have always been my favorite little fish in Galveston Bay. They are colorful and attractive, ubiquitous and easy to catch almost all year long, and proved themselves hardy, gregarious, and peaceful in the temporary observation aquariums I have been putting them in for years when I spend time down at the family bay house.

I have over 25 years experience with brackish tanks, despite forays into Rift Valley cichlids, brackish has always been my favorite setup, I've seemed to be able to defy conventional wisdom on brackish by having very successful 10 and 20 gallon setups, and even a 2.5 gallon with one figure 8 puffer and 3 bumblebee gobies back in college. I recently converted my 55 gallon from a Rift Valley cichlid setup to a brackish, right now with a couple Mono sebae and 3 Australian rainbowfish. I've been doing some research on pinfish and found they quite often inhabit brackish environments, so I have decided next time I'm down in Galveston I am going to catch a couple smaller ones and transport them back to my tank up here in Houston. I have searched the internet, and apart from one Youtube video, have not found anyone who has kept them in brackish tanks. Anyone here have some experience with this you can share?

[mredman]

I have caught pinfish as far north as Kirby's marina, which is about four or five miles north of the jetties in Freeport. This water is normally very high in specific gravity but heavy rains should create brackish conditions. I don't know if pinfish can tolerate long-term brackish water. Pinfish do like some water movement. I would think that a 55-gallon tank should be the minimum size. These fish will grow fast. Please note they are the best scamp grouper bait...

Mike

[mnemenoi]

I have seen some in brackish native tanks, have never seen them work in a long term set up though. Could be their size or just aquarists that grew bored after a few months. Definitely let us know. I imagine they are doable in a higher end brackish.

[Reefmonkey]

After publishing this post, I vacillated back and forth on whether or not to try this, concerned that to really do this experiment right, I would need to get the salinity up higher than it was, and then was worried the Australian rainbows couldn't handle those higher salinities long term. I had the specific gravity up to 1.008 when the rainbows died one by one, which led to some research that as much as some of the older books tout them as being brackish fish, it seems the truth is they are really not, they can just tolerate low level brackish for periods of time.

The monos and the scat are doing fine, as are the Yucatan mollies, and I've crept the specific gravity up to 1.015 for these true high brackish fish, so getting to the point where it's not such a gamble for the pinfish. Of course, this time of year, finding pinfish in West Bay is not easy, so I guess this experiment will have to wait until late spring. I think one day I may just organically find that I have crossed over from high brackish into saltwater, which I think would suit the monos and scat, and even the mollies just fine, and be perfect for the pinfish.

mnemenoi, Thanks for the confirmation that they have been housed in brackish, I can imagine a natives-only brackish would get a little boring after a while, and/or the size of the fish gets to be an issue as they grow.

mredman, I hear your points as well on the size these guys can reach, I've definitely caught some big ones in my time. My thought was to start with juveniles, and if they get too big, I can always use them as bait, I'm already accustomed to using large ones, alive and dead, for offshore bait.

I should have an update with pictures by early summer.

[Reefmonkey]

Found an old but informative article on pinfish survival in freshwater:

http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jeffrey_Carrier/publication/22120308_The_role_of_environmental_calcium_in_freshwater_survival_of_the_marine_teleost_Lagodon_rhomboides/links/00b4952a892ef8c7e2000000.pdf

Seems their survival in freshwater depends on calcium content of the water. The article doesn't directly translate to what I plan to do as they were basically putting these fish in distilled water and then seeing how long it took them to die, while adding some calcium to the distilled water helped them survive longer. A pretty extreme experience for the fish either way, but after reading the article I have more confidence that a high brackish environment is something pinfish can adapt to long term, especially since Instant Ocean does have a decent calcium content.

Also, I looked up the salinity of the part of West Galveston Bay where I'd be catching these pinfish, it runs 20 to 25 ppt, which at home aquarium temps is roughly 1.0175 to 1.0205, and if I catch these fish as soon as they are available in the Spring, that's when the bay is at its lowest temperature. I'd be catching them on a Saturday morning, and wouldn't be leaving for my home in Houston where they'll be living until Sunday afternoon, so I could slowly lower the SG of the holding tank they are in until it is at the same level as that of my tank at home, would really reduce their stress.

[mredman]

Now hardhead cats can definitely survive in brackish water and as most fisherman know, they are in extremely high demand (choking)...

Mike

[Reefmonkey]

Now hardhead cats can definitely survive in brackish water and as most fisherman know, they are in extremely high demand (choking)...

Mike

I wouldn't be surprised if you told me hardheads can survive in pure battery acid.

Oyster toads as well. Though if an oyster toad could thrive it brackish, it might be an interesting oddball. Though that big mouth and generally grumpy demeanor don't recommend it well for tank life with smaller fish.

Also wondering if a native least puffer is brackish tolerant and more congenial than F8 or GSP. Maybe could handle the brackish, but probably even worse than GSPs and F8s in nippiness.

[Reefmonkey]

A new datapoint on this ongoing investigation into whether pinfish can be kept in a high-brackish aquarium with monos and scats - I was down at my house in Galveston, on West Bay, and "happened" to have the same hydrometer I use for my brackish aquarium with me. I caught a full-sized adult pinfish, about 6", in the canal, where they are common year-round. I measured the specific gravity of the canal, and it was 1.014, the same as my brackish aquarium back home. This was a surface SG, but given the shallow depth of the canal, I doubt there is much SG variability with depth in this canal. This would qualify as a late winter-early spring specific gravity (as proxy for salinity) and I expect salinity to rise during the summertime, however it bodes well for pinfish and other year-round denizens of the Galveston Bay system being able to thrive in high-brackish aquaria. It also may indicate that at least juveniles of other species can handle high brackish (I saw a juvenile sheepshead swimming under the same dock where I caught the pinfish).

Here is a list of common species of the Galveston Bay system I think would make good brackish aquarium inhabitants:

Thinstripe hermit crab
Pinfish
Sheepshead (as juv.)
Tripletail (as juv.)
Spadefish (as juv.)
Sheepshead minnow
Gulf kilifish
Longnose kilifish
Saltmarsh topminnow
Pipefish
Naked goby
Skilletfish
Least puffer

[Reefmonkey]

I'm now 3 weeks into the grand pinfish in brackish tank experiment, after 2 weeks of quarantine. I caught a small (~1.5-inch) pinfish in West Bay. With all the rain we've had this late spring/early summer, the specific gravity in the bay was actually a little lower than that in my tank (1.012 vs 1.014). While I quarantined the pinfish in a 5 gallon aquarium, I did a daily 15% water change of the quarantine tank's water with show tank water over the first week, and then a daily 50% change over the second week. The pinfish has now been in the show tank for the past 3 weeks, doing great. No aggression problems between him and the other fish, he eats all food I place in there (frozen bloodworm and flake), and within the first day of being in the tank with the other fish, learned to swim up and beg for food whenever I walk up to the tank. He looks great, is active and gregarious, though he's still too little for his full colors to be readily apparent.

[Reefmonkey]

It's been about 10, almost 11 months now and my pinfish is doing great. He's grown some, but still a manageable size for my tank, and his colors have gotten somewhat more vivid. He eats well, is active, and still no problems with him getting along with the other fish in the tank (two silver monos, two African monos, and a male short-finned molly, wild type). I would call the experiment a great success at this point and say that pinfish make an ideal fish for a high-brackish tank.

[fuse92]

Great to hear about the success.

[Fancyfish]

It's been about 10, almost 11 months now and my pinfish is doing great. He's grown some, but still a manageable size for my tank, and his colors have gotten somewhat more vivid. He eats well, is active, and still no problems with him getting along with the other fish in the tank (two silver monos, two African monos, and a male short-finned molly, wild type). I would call the experiment a great success at this point and say that pinfish make an ideal fish for a high-brackish tank.

Do have pictures?

[Reefmonkey]

I'll see if I can get some soon. We aren't big shutter bugs at my house, rely on our iphones for all our photography, and my 4s's camera isn't great. Fine for run of the mill snapshots, but when I try to take pics through glass and water, not so great.

[Reefmonkey]

The experiment has ended. The pinfish was, I guess, going through adolescence, and had become very aggressive, was constantly harrying one of my silver monos.

So, to wrap up my assessment of pinfish as a brackish tank occupant, they acclimate to high brackish tanks (1.012-1.016) quite easily, will eat whatever you give them, including flake. They are too rambunctious for slow, timid fish like monos, but do fine with mollies, and would probably do well with scats.