Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater and fresh water together, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers. The word comes from the Middle Dutch root brak. Certain human activities can produce brackish water, in particular civil engineering projects such as dikes and the flooding of coastal marshland to produce brackish water pools for freshwater prawn farming. Brackish water is also the primary waste product of the salinity gradient power process. Because brackish water is hostile to the growth of most terrestrial plant species, without appropriate management it can be damaging to the environment.
A flatfish is a member of the ray-finned demersal fish order Pleuronectiformes, also called the Heterosomata, sometimes classified as a suborder of Perciformes. In many species, both eyes lie on one side of the head, one or the other migrating through or around the head during development. Some species face their left sides upward, some face their right sides upward, and others face either side upward.
The true soles are a family, Soleidae, of flatfishes. It includes saltwater and brackish water species in the East Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and West and Central Pacific Ocean. Freshwater species are found in Africa, southern Asia, New Guinea, and Australia.
The sailfin molly is a livebearer fish typically found in both freshwater and brackish waterways along the East Coast of the United States, from North Carolina south to Florida, and around the Gulf of Mexico to Texas, and south to the Yucatán Peninsula of México. Given their preference for more brackish water conditions, mollies are often found within just a few yards or miles of the ocean, inhabiting coastal estuaries, lagoons, river deltas and swamps, as well as tidal areas with a regular inflow of oceanic minerals and nutrients mixing with inland freshwater sources.
The Atlantic silverside, also known as spearing in the northeastern United States, is a small species of fish that is one of the most abundant fish species present in estuarine habitats along the Atlantic coast of North America. It is a common subject of scientific research because of its sensitivity to environmental changes. According to the IUCN Red List, this species is stable and has no major threats to its populations, so it is marked Least Concern. Despite being an extremely common species, most individuals die after one year once they migrate offshore, but a few will make it to two years. The fish is mostly translucent, with white coloring on the anterior end of the body and brown speckling on the top of the head, posterior scales on the back, and near the jaw. A distinctive silver band runs the length of the fish, next to the lateral line. Their mouths are large compared to other Menidia species, and their first dorsal fin are placed more posteriorly than other silversides.
The round whitefish is a freshwater species of fish that is found in North American drainages from Alaska to New England, including the Great Lakes except for Lake Erie, and in Arctic tributaries of northeast Asia, as well as northern Kamchatka Peninsula and the northern coasts of the Sea of Okhotsk. It has an olive-brown back with light silvery sides and underside and its length is generally between 9 and 19 inches. They are bottom feeders, feeding mostly on invertebrates, such as crustaceans, insect larvae, and fish eggs. Some other fish species, like white sucker in turn eat their eggs. Lake trout, northern pike and burbot are natural predators. Other common names of the round whitefish are Menominee, pilot fish, frost fish, round-fish, and Menominee whitefish. The common name "round whitefish" is also sometimes used to describe Coregonus huntsmani, a salmonid more commonly known as the Atlantic whitefish.
The Pacific staghorn sculpin is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Cottidae, the typical sculpins. This species is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is the only species in the monospecific genus Lepidocottus.
The yellowbelly flounder is a flatfish of the genus Rhombosolea, found around New Zealand. A different species from the genus Rhombosolea is found in Australia and also goes by the name yellow-belly flounder. The Māori people have commonly fished for R. leporina, and many other species of flatfish, throughout New Zealand's coastal waters for hundreds of years. The Māori name for this species is pātiki tōtara.
The New Zealand sand flounder is a righteye flounder of the genus Rhombosolea, found around New Zealand in shallow waters down to depths of 100 m.
The Pacific ladyfish, also known as the Pacific tenpounder and machete, is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus Elops, the only genus in the monotypic family Elopidae. The Pacific ladyfish can be found throughout the southwest U.S. and other areas in the Pacific Ocean.
A brackish-water aquarium is an aquarium where the water is brackish (semi-salty). The range of "saltiness" varies greatly, from near freshwater to near marine and is often referred to as specific gravity (SG) or salinity. Brackish water aquaria is a popular specialization within the fishkeeping hobby. Many species of fish traded as freshwater species are actually true brackish species, for example mollies, Florida flagfish, and some cichlids such as chromides and black-chin tilapia. There are also several popular species traded purely as brackish water fish, including monos, scats, archerfish, and various species of pufferfish, goby, flatfish, and gar. Generally, aquarists need to maintain a specific gravity of around 1.005 to 1.010 depending on the species being kept, but practically all brackish water fish tolerate variations in salinity well, and some aquarists maintain that regularly fluctuating the salinity in the aquarium actually keeps the fish healthy and free of parasites.
The orange chromide is a species of cichlid fish that is endemic to freshwater and brackish streams, lagoons and estuaries in southern India and Sri Lanka. It is also known as pallathi in Malayalam. The species is popular with fishkeeping hobbyists, and is kept frequently in aquariums. The species is part of the family Cichlidae and is included in subfamily Etroplinae. The orange chromide reaches a length of up to 8 cm (3.1 in).
The European flounder is a flatfish of European coastal waters from the White Sea in the north to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea in the south. It has been introduced into the United States and Canada accidentally through transport in ballast water. It is caught and used for human consumption.
The lined sole is a ray-finned flatfish found in the Western Atlantic. Its common length is 17 cm. Often considered a trash fish in commercial trawling, it is of little or no economic value.
Paralichthys lethostigma, the southern flounder, is a species of large-tooth flounder native to the East Coast of the United States and the northern Gulf of Mexico. It is a popular sport fish and is the largest and most commercially valuable flounder in the western North Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. It is a "left-eyed flounder", meaning the left side is pigmented and is the "up side".
The violet goby is a species of goby native to marine, fresh and brackish waters near the Atlantic coast of North and South America from South Carolina in the United States of America, to northern Brazil. It prefers bays, estuaries and river mouths with muddy substrates. It is often marketed as the dragon goby or dragon fish.
Coastal fish, also called inshore fish or neritic fish, inhabit the sea between the shoreline and the edge of the continental shelf. Since the continental shelf is usually less than 200 metres (660 ft) deep, it follows that pelagic coastal fish are generally epipelagic fish, inhabiting the sunlit epipelagic zone. Coastal fish can be contrasted with oceanic fish or offshore fish, which inhabit the deep seas beyond the continental shelves.
Toxotes chatareus, sometimes known by the common names common archerfish, seven-spot archerfish or largescale archerfish, is a species of perciform fish in the archerfish genus Toxotes.
Trinectes is a genus of American soles native to the Americas. Most species are coastal, occurring in both salt and brackish water, but several may enter fresh water and one, T. hubbsbollinger, is restricted to rivers. They are fairly small, with the largest species only reaching 25 cm (9.8 in) in length.
Achirus achirus, the drab sole, is a brackish water-dwelling sole of the genus Achirus native to the waters of South America, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. The drab sole is also commonly used by humans as an aquarium fish.
