looking for suggestions for a 3 gal

[leigh]

hey all...i'm currently cycling a 3 gal eclipse nano at my office. i'm retrofitting in a 13 watt 50/50 pc bulb and it's got a cc bed and about 4-5 lbs of live rock (taken straight out of my reef/invert system)...the numbers are already testing at zero (after one week)...but i want to play it safe and let pod populations build so all it has in it now are 1 snail and caulerpa. so, i'm not looking to add any fish for a month or so, but i'm a planning kinda gal and would love input. my initial hope was to do an sps tank, but no luck with being able to retrofit in sufficient light. my second idea was to do a seahorse tank, but i think as an office tank this would be too daunting. i plan to put in low light mushrooms--just wondering if anyone has any other suggestions for interesting livestock. maybe a pair of neon gobies? or some harlequin shrimp (i always thought they ate starfish but someone recently told me otherwise...)? any ideas--I am very open to any (even the craziest) suggestion...

 

[bdhough]

2 catalina gobies would work. They are 2 inches max at full size. Catch is the water needs to be 72-76. Or maybe 2 fire fish since they don't swim around a whole lot. Just make sure you have no openings and they have cave structures to hide in.

 

[bdhough]

oh yeah. Clown gobies too....
Bi color blenny too....

 

[reefnut]

Xenia farm ...

 

[leigh]

Xenia eh? I seem to have bad luck with that stuff--but it may be a shroom or ricordia farm Is 3 gal big enough for 2 firefish? And I need something fairly resiliant to temp fluctuations (we seem to have a/c on the fritz a lot in our building...) it doesn't get HOT--but brief periods in the lower to mid 80's need to be tolerable for the fish.

 

[justinx]

3 gallons = no fish. That would simply be cruel to a fish to give it so little swimming room. JMO
Harlequins only eat starfish and would probably not survive in a 30 gallon, let alone a 3 gallon.
I think that under that light, most soft corals would do quite well. I would stick to a couple snails and hermits, a cleaner or blood shrimp for some real nice flare, or a CBS for some attitude. Maybe an emerald crab. I think that you could put several inverts in there, but no fish. If it were me, I would go with a coral species tank. IE, all zoos, or shrooms, or xenia as mentioned. A single coral species dominating a small tank makes quite an impressive tank IMO.
HTH
Justin

 

[leigh]

cool, thanks for the input--yeah i think i was thinking of sexy shrimp--not sure what i was thinking when i wrote harlequin shrimp! thanks again

 

[laudluvr]

I know nuthing (said in my best schultz voice), but.......
For your entertainment during the day, wouldn't a clown hosted in something be quite a great separation from reality for a moment?
They seem to hang in one place and tight spaces seem to not be an issue with them.
Michael

 

[overanalyzer]

I too think that 3 Gallons is awfully small. Maybe one clown goby or a pistol shrimp with a shrimp goby - as they will dig into the sand and live in one very small area. Of course you would have to get rid of the CC and go with about 4 or 5 inches of sand ..... then you decrease your water volume .... so I'd get a CBS or maybe possibly a decorator crab .....

 

[leigh]

cool, thanks for the input everyone--i'm now debating between a pair of neon gobies or a pair of sexy shrimp...any thoughts?

 

[justinx]

For sure the shrimp if you can find them.

 

[overanalyzer]

Originally posted by JustinX
For sure the shrimp if you can find them.
ditto

 

[craig_08]

You could do a mantis tank. They seem to be the new popular trend. Just make sure you have thick enough glass .

 

[leigh]

I'm not confident I can 100% tell the difference visually between sexy shrimp and harlequin shrimp. (However I am quite confident my LFS's would mislabel them). I want to be careful not to get harlequin shrimp for obvious reasons. Can someone give me the low down on easy ways to ID them? (I've done searches and can't really turn up anything specific--if someone knows of a previous thread please point me towards that...)
Thanks!
-leigh

 

[justinx]

there is a huge difference between the two. A sexy shrimp i BELIEVE has a translucent body where as a harlequin has an opaque body that is white with pink spots. Also the harlequins have very large flat front claws. They are VERY pretty IMO.
HTH
Justin
(did I just say pretty? . . . . I need to go pound a few beers and throw back some shots after that comment.)