Starting Over..

[ThatDarnDragon]

Alright, all my fish had died as everyone had predicted, except my tang, I still cant find a place for it and Im assuming it will die too.

Once the tank is cleared, only my shrimp and crab will remain.

I decided to keep an invertabrate tank (if possible) with shrimps and crabs, they amuse me.

Any suggestions what to do for that? I really dont want to buy any more stuff than what I already have.

of course I will let the tank cycle back to normal (I think nitrite spike killed the rest of the fish). The crab and shrimp I have seem to be doing fine.

What I have in the tank are:

Two sunken ships (my shrimp likes to hide in one)
1 moon rock
1 live rock
gravel/live sand bottom
1 rock with a hole (looks like a coral, but not)
and 2 fake plants.

Any sugestions how I should go about this?

and is adding a goby (when the tank is ready) a good idea?

Nav, I know you wanna help!

 

[Navarre]

Im sorry to hear about your losses ) Dont blame yourself though, you were given poor advice and i think its very poor practise for a shop to not rehouse these fish (even if only temporarily) They will lose loads of custom over treatment like that.

The Tang was probably the largest cause for the demise of the tank to be honest, as was mentioned, they stress easily and contract whitspot. this is then passed onto the rest of hte fish and you get a wipe out. )

Ok so lets think about the future. More liverock, seriously, its the only way to go.. get rid of the ornaments (you know it makes sense! B) ) and use this room to pack liverock.. a rock that will actually do some work for you in the tank.

Ok now the good news is that invert/corals etc use only a fraction of the bioload compared to fish.. hence why people can have cleanup crews in the 100s in their tanks with no spikes in nitrite etc. Coral are the same, they use very little in the way of bioloads. This can be seen when you see some tanks that are so full of corals that you cannot see the rock they are mounted on! so for a tank of this size its a good idea to have such livestock as you can really pack em out and make the tank look stunning!

ok now.. assuming you have lots of good liverock and the tank has been running a few months with the inverts happily doing their daily routines, then and only then would i say its ok to house a goby. They are small and dont demand much from the system but i advise you to wait just to let the water get mre balanced.

Cant remember what type of lights you have on there but this will be a oncsideration of course with taking an option for coraletc as they need better lights.

 

[ThatDarnDragon]

I have a regular tank light on it, with sunlight coming from the back (not through the entire tank, just a few streams if they liked the light or not), and I have a heater in there, which is around 82* right now

 

[Navarre]

Put a guard over the heater. I have seen nasty wounds from creatures that cant escape a heater when it turns on. I saw a poor snail cooked once because it was happy on the heater when it was off but when the heater kicked in the snail was too slow to get off and it was badly burnt. The same goes for coral that might brush against a heater. this can badly burn them. A simply guard over the heater to stop anything touching it will suffice.

With your current lighting i would advise you try soft polyps like zooanthids etc. perhaps a few mushrooms just to start you off. If these are happy then perhaps consider something a bit more demanding. however you will need more lights ofr anything other than these really.

 

[ThatDarnDragon]

are corals and those planty things whatever you called them (name slipped already!) are needed to keep an invertabrate tank?

and what sort of guard? like a fence around it? Does petshop sell them?

 

[Navarre]

Coral/crabs/shrimps etc these are all inverts. Most people call just the crabs and shrimps inverts but corals are inverts too (they just dont go crawling all over the tank like crabs do... well someof them do ) )

Yes the planty things... They are corals and arent plants, they are infact animals (although they do have algea living within them).
Corals and polyps tend to get their energy from the sun and tiny particles in the water. This is why tanks with corals need very very powerful lights so the corals can thrive. As you tank is small there is no need for Halides (extremly powerful lights.. and pricey too) but you might need to put another tube under the hood if possible. They also need specific lighting so your standard tropical fish tubes wont do (this will promote algea) if you ask at your shop they "Should" tell you the type of lighting you need. Before you purchase anything however, please come back and tell us what they said. I would hate for themto sell you the wrong things all over again.

You should be able to get guards from your local shop yes. If not then a simple bit of plastic pipe (waste pipe will do) that is large enough to cover the heater. Place the heater in this and make holes in it, block the ends so nothing can get into the heater and you will find this far safer for your livestock.

 

[ThatDarnDragon]

lol, did I offend you with the 'planty thing'?

i was in the LFS the other day and I was looking at their live rock/coral tank. I saw one that caught my eye, it was small, and it looked like it had a blue electric current going through its opening. I have no idea what its called, but would that do? it looks pretty cool.

I'll be back later on.

 

[Navarre]

No offence taken, just me kidding around.


No sure what coral or invert that would be. The only thing i have seen that shoots neon blue flashes acros its surface is a Flame scallop. I would ask at the shop for its name and perhaps we can give you a better description on how best to care for it.

 

[ThatDarnDragon]

last question before I dissappear,

its ok to have a 10 gal for this? whats the most I can get? I dont want to get too many and it gets cramped.

 

[Navarre]

You can keep corals and polyps in a 10 gallon but just make sure they are compatible before purchasing. Some corals will stign each other if they get too close.
If you come back nad tell us what you are interested in when the tank is cycled again properly then we will be able to help out here. Corals are far easier to work with in a small tank than fish are IMO.

 

[ThatDarnDragon]

thats what I figure would be easier. pretty too!

Can i keep a goby in it eventually, or it should be strictly invert tank? I dont know with all the rocks would make the goby feel cramped. If not a goby, any sort of fish?

and I might take a ride to the petshop/LFS later on today just to see what they have and get ideas.

NOW Im off!

 

[Navarre]

Gobies love rocks. the more rocks you can give the goby the more it will love you. and blennies.. their favorite passtime is to find a hole and stick their head out to watch the world go by. you cant give thiese little fish enough hiding places IMO.

 

[ThatDarnDragon]

Blennies? *goes to look for pics*

so Im assuming one goby or one blenny would be fine? Do not get more than one?

I wanna make sure I do this right, lol.

 

[Navarre]

it really depends what type of blenny or goby you want. I have a Hectors goby in my tank along with a Dot Dash Blenny and an Algea blenny. no fights.. of course the tank is larger so it has less chance of territorial fights but i would say 2 fish... perhaps a goby and a blenny but dfefinately no more

 

[ThatDarnDragon]

I saw the algea blenny today at the petshop, they're cool.

I decided I def want a feather duster, and there were so many others in the tank, I couldnt keep track of what was there. next time I'll go back with more time and write down what I see.