My Marine Tank

[fishwatcher]

Hello all!
I just want to share some pix of my progress with my first marine tank.

It's a 20g with 7 lbs LR, 10 lbs base rock. The substrate is aragonite. I am not planning on any corals, so I have only a single-strip Coral Life 50/50 bulb. There is a HOB with media until the rock is all live, there is a heater, of course, and a small power head. The sg at 1.025, temp 78, all stats are good.

The stock so far consists of:
1 turbo snail
2 cerith snails
2 nassarius snails (got free along with a few hermits when I bought my goby)
3 trochus snails
1 olive snail
2 peppermint shrimp
10 mixed hermits (red and blue legged and zebras)
1 yellow watchman goby

To be added:
1 firefish and/or pajama cardinal
1 clown fish
possibly a brittle starfish and/or urchin

The pix are of the goby mainly, with one showing the peppermint shrimp on the left hand side. There is also a full tank shot.
The rock is beginning to get some bright green spots on it, which I'm hoping is coralline algae.

Goby just hanging out. You can kind of see one of the peppermint shrimp on the rock to the left.

Goby by his hidey hole with a snail...

full tank shot

Anyone know what this white growth is? It's near the center of the pic, and it looks like lots of small circles joined together. Sorry it's a bit blurry!

Any comments/advice?


Thanks for looking!

 

[Ron]

Hey,
The tank looks great! I love my watchman goby, they have great persosanilty!!
As for the unidentified object in your tank- it's hard to tell, but its very common for small sponges or even hardy corals to hitch along on the live rock and start to grow when their environment is suitable.

 

[fishwatcher]

Thanks!
My goby finally ate today where I could see him, at least, (I've only had him since Friday afternoon), and he drug a shrimp pellet into his little hole. One of the snails found it though and went it after it, so he came out and just looked pi$$ed! LOL

 

[paul_219]

NIce tank. Cool snails like them.

 

[fishwatcher]

Anyone with a comment on which fish I should go with? I really like the firefish, but I like the pajama cardinal too.... I'm just not sure which I'd like more in the end, KWIM?
(And it'll be with a clown fish.)
Thanks!

 

[CAC]

Nice tank, love yellow watchman gobys, in Koh Tao, Thailand I was watching this one who was just off the beach with his shimp counterpart, amazing to watch.
Keep up the good work

 

[Ron]

If it were my tank I'd go with the firefish...I think a 20 gallon tank is a bit small for Cardinal fish

 

[Matty P]

Nice tank m8 Firefish are great but be careful because they are well known jumpers, so if your tank if isn't already I would put a cover on your tank if you are purchasing firefish.

Suggestions:

http/www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?pCatId=2124

 

[fishwatcher]

I have a hood on the tank, so jumping shouldn't be a problem. (In one of my FW tanks I have a gold wonder killifish, and he jumps all the time! Little turkey!)
I think I'll go with the firefish then. IYE are they really shy, or will I see him some?
Thanks for the help! (And for the website... that's where I got my stock list from! )

 

[Matty P]

No problem

Firefish have a great personality, they like a current and plenty of hiding places. Sometimes the fish are quite shy, but when they get used to their surroundings and new tank mates they will come out a lot more.

Matt

 

[fishwatcher]

Cool beans.
By the way, does the purple fire fish have that little fin that sticks up like the regular ones do? I've never seen one in person, the lfs was just telling me about them.
Thanks again!

 

[Ron]

In my experience, firefish are very actice in the tank- they spend most the of their time swimming around, mine espcially loves the filter outake's current. If you search firefish at liveaquaia.com, you'll see the different species of firefish. No, the purple firefish doesn't have as high of a fin as the orange one.

 

[Matty P]

No the purple firefish (Nemateleotris decora) dosent have as long a dorsal fin as the Nemateleotris magnifica. Both lovely fish with great colourations.

Matt