Really Dumb Question

Ok since I know little to nothing about Cichlids, I have to ask if it's possible that someone could keep Cichlids in a saltwater (not brackish) tank?

I'm in a debate with my dad who SWEARS he kept Cichlids in his SW tanks! I've never heard of marine Cichlids...but then, like I said...I don't really know much about them.

No you can't keep cichlids in SW. Freshwater and saltwater process water differently. Groupers look like cichlids but are not. You win.

HA! Thank you good Doctor! :)

You can put Cichlids in SW... they just won't last long. I will say this though, it can be done on bigger fish over long periods of time. I've never experimented with smaller fish, but I used to have a channel cat that I caught out of a river and over a period of about 2 years I very slowly introduced salt into the tank. After a little more then 2 years it was a fully functional saltwater fish. It got to big so I donated to a LFS, and the owner thought it was the coolest thing ever. It's now in a 400+ gallon tank with some rare Triggers... I don't think you would be able to do this with a smaller fish or smaller cichlids though.

That is really cool haha.

I didn't know if it would be possible or not. I know of some animals like the bull shark that can transverse into freshwater because they are able to stop the release of salt from their bodies and use urea to help maintain what they lose.

I guess if it was over an long enough period of time and the fish could adapt it would be possible but I don't think many fish would be able to survive that osmotic change. Like you said a larger fish might be better able to handle the change but it would seem like most other fish would have a tipping point even if done slowly.

Yes your correct that there are some fish that go back and forth. Thats not rule of thumb.

here's a site that explains cichlids:


http://cichlidresearch.com/introducingcichlids.html

Basically the family Cichlidae is a branch off the order Perciformes that includes many marine fish, like damselfish and wrasses. However the family Cichlidae is practically exclusive to freshwater and some brackish environments.

Some fish like salmon are born in FW but live in SW, and freshwater eels are born in SW but live in FW. Not many can switch because it takes a lot of adaptation of many organs to function differently to deal with ion exchange in the body when the salinity is different. For example, gills needs to be able to exchange gases without giving off too much of its own fluid into the saltwater, and kidneys need to work harder to filter out the extra salts in the body to maintain normal ion levels. The fish's skin must really work differently to keep water in and salt out.

Most fish would just literally dehydrate in water that gets salty enough. We humans wouldn't have diet related high blood pressure if it were that easy.

GodChannel: your catfish passed the "survival of the fittest" test!