Aquarist Atlas
Aquarist Atlas · oddballs & brackish

Oddballs & Brackish

Fish that the aquarium trade sells but that belong to no larger family section on the atlas. Seven groups: badids (Badis and Dario), small predators of South and Southeast Asia; glassfish, the transparent Ambassidae; archerfish (Toxotes), which shoot insects down with jets of water; leaf fish, ambush predators that mimic dead leaves; freshwater pipefish, whose males brood the eggs; brackish fish such as scats, monos and tigerfish; and odd families, including lungfish and several small African and Asian lineages. The range covers rivers and floodplains, mangroves and tidal rivers across Asia, Africa, South America, Australasia and North America. Each account is researched and cited to the same standard as the rest of the atlas, with no Wikipedia and no invented facts.

© Aquarist Atlas

This is a mixed set, so check the species page before buying. A few points hold widely. Salinity: several of the brackish species do best with marine salt added, and some need more of it as they mature, so find out where a fish was collected and how it was kept. Food: badids, leaf fish, archerfish and many of the brackish fish are predators that take live or frozen food, and some will not accept dry food at all. Tankmates: anything that fits in a leaf fish’s mouth is food, and small badids are easily outcompeted by active fish. Cover and lids: many of these fish jump or need open air above the water. Some species are rarely bred in captivity, so wild-caught stock is common, and a captive-bred line is the better buy where one exists.

56 species in the atlas

This section collects the oddball and brackish-water fish that partner stores list but that have no family section of their own, so it is a growing roster and not a complete family revision. Names follow the Catalog of Fishes. Each species page states whether its size is given as standard length or total length.

Species

56 of 56 species

Badids · 12

Badis and Dario (Badidae): small South and Southeast Asian predators of streams and pools in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand. They take live and frozen food.

Glassfish · 7

The Asiatic glassfishes (Ambassidae: Chanda, Pseudambassis, Gymnochanda): transparent-bodied schooling fish of the fresh and brackish waters of South and Southeast Asia.

Archerfish · 3

Toxotes (Toxotidae): fish of mangroves and river mouths in Asia and Australasia that shoot down insects with jets of water.

Leaf fish · 4

Nandidae (Nandus, South and Southeast Asia) and Polycentridae (Polycentropsis in West Africa, Monocirrhus in South America): ambush predators that mimic dead leaves.

Freshwater pipefish · 9

Syngnathidae living in fresh and brackish water (Microphis, Hippichthys, Enneacampus). The male broods the eggs.

Brackish fish · 10

Scats (Scatophagus), monos (Monodactylus), Datnioides tigerfish (Lobotidae), threadfins (Polynemus), Lates, soles (Brachirus) and freshwater-tolerant morays (Gymnothorax): fish of estuaries, mangroves and tidal rivers.

Odd families · 11

Small families with no other home on the atlas: lungfish (Protopterus), Indostomus (Indostomidae), kneriids (Parakneria), Phractolaemus, grunters (Hephaestus, Terapontidae), mouth-almighty (Glossamia, Apogonidae) and the blackbanded sunfish (Enneacanthus).

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