Hello Everyone,
I have been searching the forum for as much information as possible and trying to do my due diligence as far as researching, and I will continue to do so on my own, but I also thought that the best way to gather some information would be to go ahead and make a thread as well. I am incredibly grateful for anyone's input.
I am familiar with freshwater tropical fish keeping (store bought) but have never kept salt or brackish water fish and have never caught and kept native fish before. But I am very interested in doing so.
I want to start two different tanks.
In one tank I am hoping to put some Golden Topminnow, Least Killifish, Melanisitic mosquitofish, and sailfin mollys. Maybe some Bluefin Killifish and some darter species as well.
In the other tank I am hoping to put some slightly larger and more aggressive species such as Pirate Perch, Dollar Sunfish, Tadpole Madtom, and Fat Sleeper Goby. The idea being that I can feed them small Eastern Mosquitofish from the local ditches.
I plan to collect substrate from the locations where I collect the fish from. I am not going to treat it or anything (unless someone convinces me too). I have read that other people on here have luck doing exactly that.
I plan to collect some plants, rocks, and sticks from the locations where I collect the fish from as well.
No heater, just room temp water. Standard filter system. Treated tap water.
Feeding - Flakes for the first tank. Small eastern mosquitofish for the second tank. There are plenty of them around here that I can collect.
Can anyone give me info, or point me in the right direction for what the salinity should be for both tanks? And how do I get it right?
If there are any issues/red flags with anything that I have said here please set me straight.
I am excited to get started.
Thanks a bunch for any help!