Harlequin Tusk with inverts?

bean 1

Member
Anyone with a harlequin tusk able to maintain a decent cleanup crew? I've been very successful at keeping my inverts alive while maintaing semi-aggressive FOWLR's. I try to keep fish that pose small or no risk to my inverts (hawks, hamlets, angels, tangs, triggers [pinktail & sargassum]...) but I really would like to have an Australian Harlequin Tusk to round things off. I know they are proficient invert feeders in the wild but so are many of the fish we all keep in our aquariums. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience keeping their tusks away from their inverts. Most of my snails are nocturnal (bumblebee, nassarus...) but I'm worried about my hermits. I don't want my kids to see their beloved hermits served up as entrees. He won't be housed with any shrimp either. His tank mates will include a male-female pair of swallowtail angels, blue hamlet, foxface, pinktail trigger, arc eye hawk, scopas tang and sailfin tang. He is the last fish for my 400g. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks Bean
 

thesamm

Member
it could work...u never know there has been way weirder things happen in this hobbie than a tusk eating hermits....i would give it a try :yes:
*i noticed all the tanks u have...are they all agressive fish, if so and u have the time i would like to know whats in them? thanks -sam
 

lion_crazz

Active Member
yeah, it could work. I have hermits and Mexican Turbo snails in my tank with my 5" puffer and he does not eat them. He only flips the snails over every once in a while when I feed him later than I usually do. :D
 

bean 1

Member
All the tanks are FOWLR's with the exception of one of the 75g that is stacked with LR that I purchased but couldn't place in the other tanks, so it is waiting for a new home. I want to condense all the tanks into 3 (the 400, a 210 and the 100).
All the tanks have roughly 1.5 - 2# of LR (fiji and tonga (slab and deepwater) mostly but I also have some tonga branch and marshall scattered about) and DSB's.
The 400g has a male (4") and female (5") swallowtail angel, pinktail trigger (5"), blue hamlet (5"), arc eye hawk (4"), scopas tang (4"), indian sailfin tang (8") and various hermits and snails.
the 100g has 2 false percs, a sixline wrasse, a foxface, saddle blenny, royal gramma, green chromis, flame angel, 2 emerald crabs, 2 sally lightfoots, and various snails and hermits.
75g has a shy hamlet, sargassum trigger, spotted hawk and an orchid dottyback. Typical snail and hermit clean up crew along with 2 emerald crabs and a sally lightfoot.
75g has a flame hawk, lamarck angel and clean up crew. Wanted to add something else since my coral beauty passed away but I'm moving in 6 months and don't want to add any more fish. I'm already worried about how I'm going to accomplish my move. The new house is under construction and only 70 miles away but I've never moved my tanks. I was going to purchase a 210g in the next 6 months and cycle it once the new house is ready but that only takes care of part of the problem. I want to break down the other tanks because I want to use the rock and the sand but haven't figured out how I'm going to accomplish this. I need my existing 400 and 100g but I don't know what to do with my fish while the tanks are cycling. Could I drain the water into 50g plastic containers with a heater, some powerheads and some LR? How long could they live like this? Sorry about straying from the topic but I'm starting to get a little nervous because I've invested alot of time and money into the hobby and don't want to make a huge mistake. My wife would kill me!
75g has about 250# of LR that was left over from some of my previous LR shipments as wall as some nice pieces of tonga slab from my LFS. No fish in this tank. The tank has some hermits and snails to keep things clean.
46g has a blue hamlet and a falco hawk
I think that is everything. I may be missing a fish somewhere in the mix but I think I've listed everything out. Any suggestions on how to move my tanks would be appreciated as well. I will only be keeping the 100, 400 and purchasing a 210 for SW. I will be keeping all the livestock and will use the 75g's for FW fish for the kids. Will probably let the kids each catch a bluegill for their tanks.
Thanks Bean
 

thesamm

Member
yea i agree get him small....thanks for taking the time to type all that about your tanks they sound sweet :yes:
 
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