It's a nano!

dksart

Member
Originally Posted by reefernana
Yeah, I haven't had a scum problem. I have been doing weekly 4gal water changes, tho, so that probably has been helping.
No scum problem here!
 

clay12340

Member
It sort of reminds me of a majano, but I'm no anemone expert. IMO if you didn't buy it purposefully just get rid of it. The little anemones that tend to spring up will spread like mad and be a real pain since they can sting your corals. However, it may be harmless and I know nothing about anemone identification, so I'd get a second opinion and probably a third.
With regards to your fish selection in an earlier post:
"So, we would eventually like to have a few mushrooms, some zoa's, a few feather dusters, a gorgonian, a sponge, a pair of ocellaris, a firefish, a yellow watchman, a pom-pom crab, a couple of emerald crabs, some snails, a camel and a peppermint shrimp, and another very small fish (?)."
.........I also said I wanted a long-nose hawkfish and a flame angel. Those two would only be temporary, until we get our 105 gal (some day)
Would the hawk pick on my shrimp?
I really wanted to know the order in which I should get them. I will be patient and not try to get too many at once. They will be spaced out properly.
The emerald crabs will probably kill your other shrimp and potentially kill your fish. The camel shrimp will eat your corals and dusters. The peppermint shrimp is fine and will eat pest anemones and rarely bothers corals. The pom pom crabs have been reported as hard to keep by some, but I've got no experience with them.
The mushrooms, zoas, and dusters are all great choices. You've got lots of options and they are easy to maintain. Research the gorgonian you choose VERY carefully. Some of them are next to impossible to keep even for experts.
Give your tank some time and you'll probably end up with a few little sponges for free. These are your best bet for sponges. Buying sponges to add to a tank is a chancy thing.
Most sponges have very particular diets and no one really knows what they are. Deep water sponges have no means of removing air from their structure and if they are not constantly submerged they can slowly die from the trapped air, which will pollute your tank and could potentially do so for months before you notice the problem. The other possibility is that the sponge may completely change shape or color based on your tank conditions. Google Ron Shimek and sponge for a great article.
Fish are a pesky thing to pick out for a nano. With each fish you add the tank gets exponentially harder to maintain. The Yellow Watchman, Occellaris, and Firefish are all great choices. I'd add the two gobies first and give them time to settle in. If you want the clowns to pair, then add them together and get one smaller than the other.
I would skip out on the one other very small fish until you are sure that your tank can support the extra bio-load. Having a balanced tank is a beautiful thing. Squeezing in one more fish and having to fight an uphill battle with algae is not. The hawkfish will kill just about any ornamental shrimp and it will get too large.
In the opinion of many experts a fish shouldn't be kept in a tank smaller than it needs for its adult size at any point in its life. The reasoning is that it is stressful as the young fish will travel just as much as the adult would in the wild. This is especially true for tangs who swim for miles and miles in the wild.
I would say it is best to say no to the flame angel for now and wait on the 105. They are a common fish and you'll easily be able to get one then. Waiting also gives you the chance to change your mind later and is a safety net in the case of a financial hardship etc.
When it comes to snails there are a lot of choices and a lot of them arn't good ones. Google Ron Shimek and snails for some good articles. Ron Shimek is one of if not the most knowledgeable person out there when it comes to the creepy crawlies in a tank. His articles are a bit deep, but they are full of information and definitely worth the time.
I'm personally partial to the tiny pea sized nassarius snails(maybe 8-10 in your tank) and the astreas(maybe 2 or 3). It is better to under stock, than overstock and have the snails starve and rot.
However, be aware that with 10 hermits in a tank that size there is a good potential for conflict between the hermits and the snails. The hermits always seem to win this fight leaving behind a dead snail. If the dead snails arn't eaten quickly they can foul a small tank very rapidly.
I've got one dwarf blue legged hermit in my nano and he has claimed his fair share of my shelled friends despite my leaving him more than enough empty shells. It is rather annoying as he will kill the snail, try the shell on and end up changing his mind and getting back in the original shell.
Anyhow, thanks for reading my novel if you got this far!
 

dksart

Member
Originally Posted by Clay12340
It sort of reminds me of a majano, but I'm no anemone expert. IMO if you didn't buy it purposefully just get rid of it. The little anemones that tend to spring up will spread like mad and be a real pain since they can sting your corals. However, it may be harmless and I know nothing about anemone identification, so I'd get a second opinion and probably a third.
With regards to your fish selection in an earlier post:
The emerald crabs will probably kill your other shrimp and potentially kill your fish. The camel shrimp will eat your corals and dusters. The peppermint shrimp is fine and will eat pest anemones and rarely bothers corals. The pom pom crabs have been reported as hard to keep by some, but I've got no experience with them.
The mushrooms, zoas, and dusters are all great choices. You've got lots of options and they are easy to maintain. Research the gorgonian you choose VERY carefully. Some of them are next to impossible to keep even for experts.
Give your tank some time and you'll probably end up with a few little sponges for free. These are your best bet for sponges. Buying sponges to add to a tank is a chancy thing.
Most sponges have very particular diets and no one really knows what they are. Deep water sponges have no means of removing air from their structure and if they are not constantly submerged they can slowly die from the trapped air, which will pollute your tank and could potentially do so for months before you notice the problem. The other possibility is that the sponge may completely change shape or color based on your tank conditions. Google Ron Shimek and sponge for a great article.
Fish are a pesky thing to pick out for a nano. With each fish you add the tank gets exponentially harder to maintain. The Yellow Watchman, Occellaris, and Firefish are all great choices. I'd add the two gobies first and give them time to settle in. If you want the clowns to pair, then add them together and get one smaller than the other.
I would skip out on the one other very small fish until you are sure that your tank can support the extra bio-load. Having a balanced tank is a beautiful thing. Squeezing in one more fish and having to fight an uphill battle with algae is not. The hawkfish will kill just about any ornamental shrimp and it will get too large.
In the opinion of many experts a fish shouldn't be kept in a tank smaller than it needs for its adult size at any point in its life. The reasoning is that it is stressful as the young fish will travel just as much as the adult would in the wild. This is especially true for tangs who swim for miles and miles in the wild.
I would say it is best to say no to the flame angel for now and wait on the 105. They are a common fish and you'll easily be able to get one then. Waiting also gives you the chance to change your mind later and is a safety net in the case of a financial hardship etc.
When it comes to snails there are a lot of choices and a lot of them arn't good ones. Google Ron Shimek and snails for some good articles. Ron Shimek is one of if not the most knowledgeable person out there when it comes to the creepy crawlies in a tank. His articles are a bit deep, but they are full of information and definitely worth the time.
I'm personally partial to the tiny pea sized nassarius snails(maybe 8-10 in your tank) and the astreas(maybe 2 or 3). It is better to under stock, than overstock and have the snails starve and rot.
However, be aware that with 10 hermits in a tank that size there is a good potential for conflict between the hermits and the snails. The hermits always seem to win this fight leaving behind a dead snail. If the dead snails arn't eaten quickly they can foul a small tank very rapidly.
I've got one dwarf blue legged hermit in my nano and he has claimed his fair share of my shelled friends despite my leaving him more than enough empty shells. It is rather annoying as he will kill the snail, try the shell on and end up changing his mind and getting back in the original shell.
Anyhow, thanks for reading my novel if you got this far!
Wow! What an informative post. Thanks for your input.
 

dksart

Member
Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Here are some pics of our newest additions to the family.............the pair of clowns and the cardinal are each about 1"long or less. The Yellow watchman is the smallest one I've ever seen (same size as the grass shrimp next to him) and the firefish is about 1 3/4". They are such a cute and tiny bunch! We got a little pistol shrimp for the goby, but haven't seen him since! Except for an antenna sticking out of a rock from time to time, but I've heard him snap a few times!



 

clay12340

Member
They look good. Keep a close eye on your water quality. That is a lot of fish all at once for a small tank, but as long as you don't see any degrading water quality you should be fine.
 
Awsome fish!
That's alot of fish to add at once, just check your water quality weekly, then I am sure everything would be fine.
 

dksart

Member
Hey y'all!
Yeah, I check my levels constantly and always make sure my water quality is impeccable. All of our fish are teeny-tiny as well.
The only problem we ran into was some brown algae on the rocks and sand, but it's fine now.
We have copopods and/or isopods everywhere. Also, there's a mini zoa that was attached to a piece of live rock. I've been trying to watch that the hermits don't bully him.
I just placed an order on this site for some additional cleaning crew. I got a few emerald crabs, 5 peppermint shrimp, nassarius and cerith snails. I only have 1 turbo and 2 astraeas along with some grass shrimp and blue-legged hermits.
 

dksart

Member
New pictures!
I got a couple of mushrooms from this site and two more from a LFS (all were $5.00-$7.99) also they had a super deal on a small gonoipora (I know!) and it was so beautiful that I couldn't pass it up. I have made a full comittment to daily spot feedings and constant checks of water parameters etc. and now my two clowns are paying a lot of attention to it!




 

dksart

Member
More pics....oh, the last pic is the pistol shrimp we got for the yellow watchman (with the gorgeous blue spots in the fourth pic and they still haven't found each other) I think he's building a fort..............




 

luca brasi

Member
My cleaner shrimp died! I think the pistol shrimp got him. I keep hearing that little popping bas%*#d! Grass shrimp and Hermit crabs have gone missing before, but when a sweet cute little $20.00 critter bites it.......it's time to take action.
I'm trying to convince the hubby that we need a new tank to put him in, he wants to trade him back to the LFS. I say a nice small tank big enough for the pistol (and that dwarf fuzzy lion I want so much) would be a great idea!
 

dksart

Member
Do y'all think the same as I do? I hear popping sounds all night, I used to think the pistol was 'defending' his territory, but now my cleaner shrimp is dead.
Is it the pistol? I was missing a few grass shrimp and hermits before, but now my cute little cleaner!
RIP little guy.
 

jbrownacu

New Member
i would think the pistol could be the reason. they will attack other shrimp especially if you arent target feeding them. in such a small tank you might have a problem with the pistol picking off anything that comes near his spot. ive wanted to put a pistol shrimp in my 75g reef, but im not willing to risk it killing some of my fish and inverts if they get too close. ill probably set up a nano just for a pistol/goby pair eventually if i can talk the wife into it

they are definitely a cool thing to have in a tank!
 

dksart

Member
Originally Posted by jbrownacu
i would think the pistol could be the reason. they will attack other shrimp especially if you arent target feeding them. in such a small tank you might have a problem with the pistol picking off anything that comes near his spot. ive wanted to put a pistol shrimp in my 75g reef, but im not willing to risk it killing some of my fish and inverts if they get too close. ill probably set up a nano just for a pistol/goby pair eventually if i can talk the wife into it

they are definitely a cool thing to have in a tank!
I got him for my Yellow Watchman and they have never even seen each other! They live on opposite sides of the tank.
Last week, the pistol almost caused a cave in. He has dug out so much sand that the live rock settled into one of the supports (PVC pipe pieces) underneath. Now he's living inside the circle of pipe and only sticks out his antennae and occasionally a claw unless I'm feeding him.
I spot feed my coral and anemone and I always put the tube down there by the pistol to entice him out. It's so funny because sometimes he'll snap at the tube before he starts gathering up the bits of dinner like he's stunning his prey.
p.s. He has never bothered my peppermints, but out of 16 originals there are no grass shrimp left!
 

dksart

Member
I just got a few frags today and will post the new pics tonight.
I can't wait for them to open up! I got some great zoa's, about 7-10 each of Pink Panthers, Yellow & Blue and Radioactive Dragon Eyes.
 

dksart

Member
Originally Posted by ric maniac
ahhhh! this thread is back from the dead!
and as the wise words of borat go: very nice! high five.
ha-ha
 
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