PLEASE check out your intended fish purchases here first!

[Sk8r]

I'll bet if you put a yellow watchman in there he'd find that pistol shrimp.

[ihavtats29]

my diamond goby eats when i feed the tank( a mix of brine, squid , seeweed , and mythis) but he is the best sand mixer upper i have a watchman and pistol they donot near as well stri up the sand

[ihavtats29]

my diamond goby eats when i feed the tank( a mix of brine, squid , seeweed , and mythis) but he is the best sand mixer upper i have a watchman and pistol they do not near as well stir up the sand

[ihavtats29]

oops dbl post sorry

[Sk8r]

ihavtats, good info: you have a tolerably rare one in that diamond goby. Some will, which is excellent. I've also heard some have gotten the little rascals to eat by sticking frozen food undersand near their burrows. They're relatively plentiful in my lfs, and I worry about so many of them being sold, when they are not for every tank. I am particularly interested in your news about them getting along with a yellow watchman and pistol: I wouldn't have expected that. Note: ihavetats I think is referring to a 90 gallon in which this combo exists.

[lukinrats]

ahight... I will give it a shot then... I figured that it may need the tiger pistol, and that the tiger and whatever I have may not get along

Thanks,
Nathan

[ihavtats29]

yup they are in the 90 , the pistol and watchman have allways stay under just 1 rock, ive had the diamond goby for about a month now and yes he is everyware but his burrow is on the oposite end of the tank so far there have been no conflicts between the 3 , and the sand bed has never been so clean and white. best sand sifter i have ever owned.

[lukinrats]

What about these guys ?

Thanks,
Nathan

[lukinrats]

Originally posted by Sk8r
Inverts: I like plenty of bristleworms:

Where on the net might one procure some? I have always heard about these being bad, and have even seen traps dedicated to catching them... I will say that even though I have heard this, I have never tried to remove any that I have seen

Originally posted by Sk8r
I like varied worms like the spaghetti worm and the fanworms and the peanut worms:

Same! I think that IPSF has all fo these, but is there another good place to get some?

Originally posted by Sk8r
I like a moderate amount of vermetid snails and spiorbids:

Have not seen these for sale before... Matter of fact, have never heard of them... Source?

Originally posted by Sk8r
strombus grazers, agile, maneuver on silk threads, never need rescuing and get into small places like worms.

Would these be the same as the snails that IPSF sells?

Originally posted by Sk8r
I like about 4 or so nassarius to live undersand

I have nassarius snails, but I am not sure you would be referring to the same ones that I have... Look like whelks? Maybe mine are called Vibex

Originally posted by Sk8r
I don't mind live mysis

How about these ... (Palaemontes Vulgaris)... Bout halfway down the page... Could they possibly be ok to put in the display?

Originally posted by Sk8r
I wouldn't mind having a chiton

How about this guy ?

Originally posted by Sk8r
I'd like half a dozen stomatella (cap snails):

I see a lot of info thru google search on these, but no where to buy them... Also I saw a couple of places claiming that a stromatella is a margarita snail... I have had my fair share of margaritas, and though they get around and do a good job, they seem to die in the higher temps

Thanks,
Nathan

[Sk8r]

Nope, a margarita is a margarita: tightly coiled shell often with mother of pearl showing in the middle like pupil of an eye. A stomatella is an almost shell-less snail with long antenna and moves fast---for a snail.

The fuzzy chiton is a good citizen. Note the size, and that chitons are big guys: not for a nano. Some species grow up to 3 feet and they look like a seagoing pillbug.

On abalone and chiton: they are not kidding about water quality, and they don't do well in high heat.

Strombus grazers spin silk like spiders and use it to rappel from rock to rock. Very small snails.

I think the mysis I have grew from eggs accidentally included in frozen mysis. They just appeared in my fuge and tank. They're not brine shrimp---act and swim more like larger shrimp. They're fishfood if a fish spots one. They love them even better live. Your palaeomontis vulgaris guys look quite nice, too.

Here are 4 sources I know for odd inverts:
inland aquatics (google)
live aquaria (one of our sponsors; topmost on the list)
reefcleaners.com
garf.org: their site is difficult to navigate to find things actually to buy, but the garf grunge is good fuge material: contains a random assortment of lots of little guys.
And I'll add a fifth: live rock and specimen rocks. Hitchhikers. I was horrified at the practice of 'cooking' good live rock until you've killed everything on it. Off mine, I had some 50-odd different forms of life that proliferated in my tank. Someone who cooked their rock would only have bacteria left. I think an interesting thing for reefer-friends who trust one another's tanks is to trade a rock...seeding your tank with what they've got and vice versa. You don't want ich or flatworms, redbug or bad nudibranchs, but live rock is an amazing easter egg of surprises that come crawling out or grow on it: sponge, worms, etc.

If you ever have an excess of bristleworms you are feeding too much. Shorten up your feeding and you'll see their numbers decline to reasonable. Rushing out to buy bristleworm traps misses the point---and besides, those poor worms are keeping your tank from crashing. Kill them, and go on with bad overfeeding---well, you get the picture.

[lukinrats]

Ok Sk8r... Here is what I ordered from inland aquatics

5 x baby bristle
2 x orange spaghetti worm
2 x pink spaghetti worm
6 x cap snails
4 x gammarus shrimp


and here is a screen shot of my reef cleaners.org order




Recommend anything else? I will wait for your reply before ordering from reef cleaners, but they are out of the fighting conchs.... Also, I did not see the vermatids and the other snail you mentioned @ any of those places you listed... Not sure who would have those

Anyway, thanks for your replies... It sure is nice to be able to draw from such experience

Later,
Nathan

[Sk8r]

You should be well-off with this crew. If your chiton or other munchers runs out of algae, offer rock-weighted sheets of nori or a scatter of spirulina, OR Formula 2 Frozen cubes. Formula 1 sinking pellet can feed whatever of that crew doesn't eat algae. Bristleworms have no jaws, just a sucking apparatus, but you'll see them heroically trying to drag a pellet away to wait for it to dissolve.

Thank you for the kind words.

You'll probably find vermetids and spiorbids as hitchhikers on rock; and others will happen from time to time--It's a lot of fun when you get a new one. Just beware of any crab that comes in that's hairy all over, or has big claws. Those are the hitchhikers best sent immediately to the sump.

Fighting conchs may be somewhat seasonal in availability, but they're not too hard to find. They're fun---sometimes you dont' see them for 3 months on end, then there they are.

[MisterTang]

And to my surprise I've heard good things lately about the chalk basslet, that it's quite mild-dispositioned. They're beautiful fish who look as if they have water-ripple emblazoned on their heads.

+1 on the Chalk Basslet. Mine has a very curious personality - rather like cats. After the initial "freak out" when something scares the entire tank, they will wander over and investigate when other fish are still cowering.

[mrozdak]

12 nano dx i am planning on getting 2 baby clowns shrimp/ goby pair some crabs snails/corals >< is this 2 much?

Oh 14 lbs of lr 12 lbs of ls

[Sk8r]

I'd recommend percs or pink skunk clowns---and you know they grow to 3". So you WILL be buying a 30-50 gallon tank next year. It's like that. You might as well put in a request for a birthday tank.
Something I saw today that was pretty and very nano: a pair of yellow citron gobies in a nano tank. A curious, interesting fish.

For shrimp goby, go very, very small, in the Stonogobiops family.

Your clowns will host in a mushroom quite happily. So will citron gobies. Google them. You might like them. They hang out in coral and are very colorful.

BTW and on another topic: I did check out the pipefish---peaceful, tiny mouth, don't bite; hardy, and can go in big tanks. Pretty self protective: suprisingly good with larger fish. Eat frozen mysis.

Which is another nano fish for you that can go big---I saw two in a 400g tank, that would have made hardly a gulp for their tankmates, and they were doing fine.

[kevin254]

90 gallon tank, 30 gallon sump, 30 gallon sump, 130 lb live rock.

Have:
1-blue damsel
1-tomato clown
1-foxface

would like to add:
1-orchid dottyback
1-coral beauty
1-purple tang
2-dragonettes-paired

My concerns are, will the purple tang get to big for my tank and is 2 dragonetts to many?

[kfisc]

Originally posted by kevin254
90 gallon tank, 30 gallon sump, 30 gallon sump, 130 lb live rock.

Have:
1-blue damsel
1-tomato clown
1-foxface

would like to add:
1-orchid dottyback
1-coral beauty
1-purple tang
2-dragonettes-paired

My concerns are, will the purple tang get to big for my tank and is 2 dragonetts to many?

If your pod population is huge, and replenishes itself in a refugium, you may be OK with the dragonettes, but it's a gamble.

[PVChick12]

I really want to add a Scott's fairy wrasse to my tank, but I think I'm getting close to or already at my limit, tell me what you think...

My tank is a 60 gal display with a 30 gal sump thats filled to the brim with LR and a coralife ss 65.

Current inhabitants are:
Pair of clarkii clowns
Lunare wrasse
coral beauty
purple firefish
cleaner shrimp

who all live among a mostly mixed LPS tank thats been set up almost 16 months.

I feed a lot already because the female clown and wrasse are total fatties, but I also keep up on my 10 gal water change every week, sometimes a little more than that without fail and I test my nitrates a couple times a week as well and so far, so good.

So yay or nay on the Scott's fairy?


oh here is my tanks thread: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...readid=1443142

Thankssss
=]

[Sk8r]

Kevin, with the caveat about a 20g fuge, you're golden. I had a purple tang temporarily before a move, to clean up some caulerpa, and he and my mandy were pure love-fest, despite his fearsome rep. He taught her to eat mysis.

PVChick, The lunare/fairy wrasse combo worries me.
: Has anybody had 2 wrasses of that sort in his tank? This one I've never seen.

I do know the fairy wrasse is not a good combo with very small gobies (wrasses can be persistent and aggressive) but he'd be probably on the receiving end if the lunare took exception.

Tell you what i"d do if you can't get a good report: of course NEVER put store water in your tank, but float the bag containing the fairy wrasse in the tank. If the lunare attacks it, that's bad news, and you should have an agreement with the lfs that you could bring him back. If no interest, it'll probably be a territorial squabble or two on which you can turn out the lights and maybe solve it.
If you had no lunare, I'd say you could have the fairy wrasse, no problem at all. THat's the guy to watch.

[johnboy16]

(Just throwing around an idea)40 breeder- 20 long sump/fuge. about 70 pounds lr

2 percula clowns
potters angelfish
red head solon fairy wrasse
3 bangaii cardinals

Any suggestions on a cleanup?
shrimp, snails, hermitcrabs.....etc.

thanks guys

[Sk8r]

Johnboy, should work fine. I'd get a couple of peps, a variety of snails: the chestnut snails look promising: they're newish; nerites, turbos, no astraeas, unless you like picking them up and setting them back on the rock; and some ceriths and nerites. 2 nassarius. Bristleworms if you can thicken up the rock maze at some point so they can live there without the wrasse finding them; or just keep them in the fuge. And every variety of micro hermit you can lay hands on---but my personal favorite is the scarlets. Be sure you buy extra shells at the same time you buy the hermits. I just got some more myself today, and one changed shells 5 minutes after hitting the tank.

[smspring]

Nobody has any thoughts? I'll try this a third time....

Originally posted by smspring
Sk8r - great thread, thank you. I just noticed you live in Spokane. We moved here about 3 years ago, would love to see your setup.

Here is where I'm at today:

75 Gal
20 Gal sump
~90 lbs LR
2-4 in SB
tank about 5 months old

Currently have:
4 inch Yellow Tang
Orange spotted goby
Bi-Color Angel (until I decide to bait and hook him out)
Scott's Fairy Wrasse
Bi-Color Psueodchromis
Peppermint and Cleaner Shrimp
Variety of snails and hermits

Considering:
Pair of percula clowns
and/or
3 green/blue Chromies

Or am I max'd out now? If not, any other recommendations?

I plan on adding corals down the road... I know I'll need to get rid of the angel before I do that... dreading the thought though.

[Sk8r]

I'd say 3 small chromis (I prefer the blue phase of the bluegreens)---I'd skip the clowns for now, because they get fairly large for that tank, plus would take about 1/3 of it for their territory once mated. I found clowns in an otherwise nicely balanced community tank to be an ongoing struggle: nobody's dead, but ain't nobody happy, either, so long as they're running everybody out of their corner every 3 seconds.

Re corals, angels won't bother shrooms and some softies. So if you go that route you might be safe. Our lfs has a nice little angel in with xenia and shrooms completely untouched: you might ask there about your chances of keeping him.

Salutations to another Spokanite.

[smspring]

Thanks Sk8r.... I'll pass on the clowns. Good to know about the shrooms and softies. Which LFS are you referring to, Aquatic Dreams out on Pines?

[Sk8r]

Yep. I think what he has is a coral beauty in a tank with some impressive shrooms. He's taken down his own tank, fragged a huge lot of things, and you can get some amazing speciman pieces...but he's also got some tiny, tiny chromis that would start off pretty nicely in a tank and maybe avoid warfare for a while.