My clean-up crew so far.. comments?

[reefnoob]

55gallon reef...
1 serpant star
1 fighting conch
15 blue legs
5 red legs.. all seems peaceful for now.. they have plenty of shells to move into so they don't seem to argue with the blues yet.
2 sally lightfoot crabs
1 fiddler crab
1 emerald crab
maybe 10 snails of different sorts
3 pep shrimp
3 cleaner shrimp
bioload
2 perc clowns
1 reterri anenome
1 LMB
corals
1 red button polyp cluster
1 golden button polyp cluster
60lbs of LR
30 - 40 lbs of LS
adding a manderin and a Royal Gramma this weekend.

 

[jarice1978]

Sounds like a lot of stuff! I have 2 blue leg hermits and 2 red leg hermits. I had about 12-13 Astrea snails and now I have 6. One of the Blue leg hermits keeps killing the snails! I would watch out for the blue legs...

 

[cimpow137]

you know mandarin need at least 100 lbs of live rock, they also usually only eat pods and i wouldnt put one in a 55 cuz you wont have enough pods and the fish will starve. just my opinion though

 

[procain]

manderins are great fish, but like mentioned they require a giant pod population to survive in most cases. Lots of LR is needed, a refuge is recomended. Before you put him in your tank I would add more LR 35 - 40lbs worth or a refuge (or even better...both). Another possibility is that a manderin will somtimes eat suplimented food. This is not the norm though. Ask the LFS to feed him before you buy him if they claim he will each suplimented fish food (which they normally do claim this... :nope: ). A manderin will be fine in a 55 as long as he has ample amounts of food, tank should be well established. Be careful not to add any type of fish that will compete for pods either. Good luck with it, I love those fish.