Michaels 14 Gallon Nano

[mgeraci2007]

clowns are de-facto the saltwater aquarium fish and they were long before finding nemo came out. Hobbiests have always had a love affair with the little waddling cuties. do you think I can add a six-line wrasse or would that be too high of a bio load?

 

[nissan577]

you can add the sixline. as long as you dont add another fish after him

 

[mgeraci2007]

How many crabs and Shrimp can I add? I have never heard a general rule of thumb on that matter.

 

[mgeraci2007]

Should I add more live rock? what do you guys think maybe stick some smaller pieces on top of the sandbed? Im open to new aquascaping ideas.

 

[subielover]

I think you could use more rock, maybe 4-5 more pounds. As far as crabs I don't have any in my tank. They seem to only want to take out your snails so it is kind of counteractive to the whole clean up crew. Also if you end up getting a sixline you probably won't be able to keep shrimp long term, sixlines usually will attack them and kill them. If you don't get a sixline than I think 1 fire shrimp would look great

 

[nissan577]

+1. you took the words out of my mouth! lol

 

[mgeraci2007]

I had no idea sixlines were not shrimp fans. I am thinking a pom pom and decorator crabs. SO definately no sixline would a fire goby work they seem to be larger fish though. I will go add more rock as soon as I get a chance to go to the LFS

 

[mgeraci2007]

I am thinking about going with a mandarin dragonette, the ones at the fish store are eating a combination food that they have there. Would I still need to be worried about them running out of corepods?

 

[mgeraci2007]

Just a quick update. I have been without my laptop for the last month, Alienware has it in their shop. I am posting on the school pc right now. I purchased a peppermint shrimp and a spotted dragonette. The dragonette eats 4 to 8 brine shrimp every feeding. he now swims right up to the turkey baster to get his food. Is there an additive i can get to make the brine shrimp more nutritious? the dragonette has lived at the lfs for over a month on that diet and has not been observed losing any weight. and that was in a tank without any live rock. I will post pics as soon as i get my pc

 

[subielover]

https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/340890/trying-to-research-calling-all-mandarin-owners
This should help a bit. IMO, get rid of the mandarin. 99% chance of not living in your tank. Your tank is less than 4 months old and you have under 20 pounds of live rock. It just won't work in your tank. Be responsible and return him.
Sorry for being so direct, but this fish will NOT survive in your tank.

 

[rotarymagic]

get you a 10gallon setup asap... get some DT phytoplankton as well and a sponge filter..
fill the tank halfway with saltwater. put enough phyto in there to turn the tank a greenish color... get the sponge filter going with tank, but soak up tankwater from your current tank into it to jump start the bacteria colony in the sponge. I would recommend a 23watt CFL running over the tank for 12hours on/12hours off... you can use a cheap 8inch walmart dome fixture for it... basically you can get everything you need for this at walmart besides the phyto, saltwater, and tigger pods. you already have saltwater.. so you're good there.
Wait a week.. giving the tank alot of light since the phytoplankton are photosynthetic.. then add a full bottle of that reef nutrition tiggerpods to it. It may take another week or two before they boom, but they will..
add phyto as necessary to keep the water green.
use a brine shrimp net to catch copepods and use a flashlight or LED to draw them to the surface. This light also helps when doing water changes on the phyto/pod breeding tank.

 

[subielover]

Or you can do that...lol...either one will work.

 

[mgeraci2007]

Ill get on growing pods ASAP right now I am about to go get about 6 pounds additional of live rock as soon as my LFS gets some in. The mandarin looks much happier than at the LFS without any rock he is also gaining weight so I am not overly concerned about him.

 

[subielover]

IMO, you should be overly concerned about him. It will be very difficult to keep him long term without providing pods on a very very frequent basis.

 

[mgeraci2007]

ordered 2 bottles of pods at my LFS today, naturally while I was there they just got a new stock of coral in, Bought myself some star polyps will post pictures tonight. I told them to order me a bottle a month which will be about 100 pods, setting up the pod tank soon but this little guy looks fed. I know looks can be deceiving though.

 

[mgeraci2007]

 

[fcatch76]

I am a big fan of keeping a dragonet but the "trigger pods" will not do very well for breeding. They are a cold water species and will basically die before you can keep their numbers going. I tried this and spent the $20 a bottle for 3 bottles. Get yourself the SWF.com pod bags. I poured half a bag the other day in my 14 and voila, pods everywhere. As of now, I have pods in the 14 and in the 29's fuge. These guys are voracious pod eaters, you will have your work cut out for you.