looking for nano fish with lots of personality.

[agoutihead]

so far the list includes for sure:

Orange spotted goby

maroon clownfish

once my tank is established a psychedelic mandarin

and either a neon goby or a green clown goby.

the clownfish and clown gobies dont really move around that much, and i would like something that does swim around alot.

the orange spotted and mandarin should be pretty good at that. but i would like at least 1 more fish.

[Aquabucket]

What size tank?

[agoutihead]

sorry, that would help! an 11 gallon nano 16Lx12Wx13H

i also think im going to get a serpant star fish. dr. foster has two kinds, a red and tiger striped and they said both stay under 2 inches, which would be perfect. does anyone have any history with these two?

[IndyReefMan]

How about a yellow watchman goby?

[thecichlidpleco]

those serpent stars get pretty large, I think you misread the max length of 1 foot 2 inches.

[Myka]

Wowzers! You want too many fish in that little tank! Let me help you out a bit:

A Mandarin has no business being in a tank that is smaller than 60 gallons and has less than 75lbs of LR in the display, AND has no refugium. A Mandarin needs ALL of that to have any decent chance at survival. So scratch him off your list for sure.

A Maroon Clown imo is not suitable for a small nano like that. I wouldn't put a Maroon in a tank smaller than 40 gallons. Maroon Clowns are also the most aggressive Clowns there are. I would suggest either Percula or Ocellaris.

You need to pick ONE fish...maybe two if they are real small. If I were you I would put a pair of Perculas or a pair of Ocellaris and that's it. Or, one Clown and one small Goby.

If you want those fish you listed PLUS one more fish (and definately not including the Mandarin) you'd need a 40 gallon tank minimum. Your 11 gallon nano is not even close to being sufficient for that many fish. they will just catch diseases and/or die on you, and cause all sorts of tank troubles because of that.

In my 33g mixed reef I am only putting a pair of Perculas and a Purple Firefish.

[Sk8r]

A mandy would work in your 55, best if you have a big refugium, but not in a nano---unless in a refugium, or unless you get the rare one that eats pellet---and make them demonstrate.

The little highfin gobies are one of the best, except for the clown, which would overpower everything in the nano. Look at tailspot blennies, neon gobies, panda gobies, highfins, and curious wormfish.

[agoutihead]

i dont want to do a yellow watchman because i am doing an orange spotted, so i dont want them getting territorail.

wow, i didnt know serpant stars got that big.

i am thinking of doing an orange linkia instead. I enjoy starfish MUCH more than serpant stars anyways. i do understand that starfish are harder to keep alive and generally need lots of rockwork to graze on. but arent the orange ones much harider and more subceptable to eating various other things... i.e. store bought foods, dry and shrimp?

my tank is a 11 gallon display with a 10 gallon fuge that i am running fiji mud and sand with live rock and chaeto.

a lfs by me always carries very healthy orange linkias that are about 2 inches wide from tip to tip. i am thinking of trying this and once the linkia get around 5-6 inches tip to tip i can transfer it to a 75 reef that i will hopefully have set up within a year or so.

thoughts?

[agoutihead]

by the way, i feel im a pretty experienced reefer, ive been doing it well for about 3 years now.

the psychedelic mandarin is going in for sure. its going to be the last fish i add, and wont add it for probably 4-6 months depending how well and quickly my fuge gets seeded with pods. i am also not running a skimmer on this tank.

so clown gobies really arent good for small nanos? they get to be bullies? if so i will count him out and just get a neon goby then.

[thecichlidpleco]

if you want a madarin, you will want to find a LFS that sells one that will accept pellets, and you will still want a refuge, and also try cyclops in a tube. Someone coined this a madarin diner, and the mandy will crawl inside and eat his fill. I have also heard that a specific kind of sushi they will eat. If you want a mandarin, they are obviosly a lot of work.

I like linkia also, and if you will get a 75, then go for it

[Sk8r]

Clown fish are aggressive; clown gobies far less so, ime. Re the linckia stars, do you know how many of these stars have lived and thrived after being sold by this store? They're an established-tank-nobody-knows-what-they-eat sort of critter.

[agoutihead]

the store i am reffering to is called Salty Critter... its in vermillion ohio, and they are actually a reefcentral sponser i believe. they are probably the best lfs i have ever been to and dan really knows his stuff. if he carries them in his store regularly, so hes got faith in them. he wont carry something he knows isnt a good pick.

wait till you guys hear my invert and coral list! some people are gonna freak out! haha.... but i feel i can hold down the fort!

[Aquabucket]

If or when your Mandarin runs out of food you can lay a glass on its side and place small nutritional foods like mysis and flying fish roe in it. This keeps the food from drifting but who wants to have a glass in such a small tank all the time? BTW the glass method works on all the new Mandarins and other dragonettes I get in at work.

I don't think you are going to have the best of luck getting a small linkia to grow with such a small amount of rock for it to graze upon. If you do you will be the only person I know that had such success with them in a small tank.

I suggest you go to the nano forum to see how others stock small tanks like yours. Even an orange spot goby might have a tough time in there.

[agoutihead]

why would an orange spotted goby have a hard time if it eats prepared foods? dont they stay around 2"?

the orange linkia, isnt for sure, but something i would like to try later on down the road perhaps. well see. once i get into corals for this tank i might forget about it. but, i would like one.

i feel the fact that i am not having a skimmer is going to give me a bit of an advantage over someone trying to keep a linkia that has a skimmer. i will undoubtly have many more micro-organisms floating from my fuge to my main tank that could possibly offer what the linkia may need to survive.

and dont forget guys, im getting a psychedelic mandarin... a.k.a. spotted mandarin, not the dragonette. the psychedelics are more prone to eating prepared foods. so if i can find one that eats prepared foods once in a while and he has an abundance of pods to eat, my chances are highly increased.

im not saying this is going to be easy. but i am saying that its possible if you know what your doing.

[Myka]

Originally posted by agoutihead
the psychedelic mandarin is going in for sure.

That's ridiculous. The other fish in the tank will also be competing for the pods that will be his only food source. They'll be able to almost entirely wipe out your pod population in less than a week (your only saving grace there will be the fuge). You'll hear the "I told you so" story about 3-4 months after adding him.

UNLESS you manage to find one that eats pellet or frozen foods. I've had my name in the hat for a Mandarin like that at 4 different LFS for over a year and none of them have had one yet.

[Aquabucket]

Orange spotted gobies stay small but they like to sift through the sand. There might not be enough surface area for them to do what comes natural. I would say a 20 gallon tank is more suited for them not that they can't be kept in smaller tanks. Personally I like to have my livestock behave in a more natural manner. A pistol shrimp would make him more content in a small tank like yours though.

[agoutihead]

of course my only saving grace is the fuge, why do you think i designed my tank with one included? i built it basically for him to have a good pod population, and have better water quality for my many many corals i will be adding in there.

the only other animal that will actively compete for pods is the orange spotted, and this is only because he will be sifiting my sand. i have sand in my display for looks only and im not worried about it staying seeded with pods. dont forget, orange spotted eat prepared foods. i will keep him happy digging through the sand finding plenty of store bought foods, so he wont have to graze on the live rock and that can be left for the psychedelic.

are you talking about the dragonette, or the psychedelic one? as they both eat pods, the dragonette is not as willing to accept store bought foods like the psychedelic is.

[Aquabucket]

There are no guarantees a fuge that size will provide enough food for the Mandarin. An orange spotted goby is a similar type of fish and will out compete your mandarin. It is another type of fish that likes to feed continuously.

[agoutihead]

hmm. i would like to see the symbiotic relationship they have with pistol shrimp too, and have thought about doing the combo, but i have read its kind of a gamble whether they will actually host each other.

[agoutihead]

i will also be dosing regularly DT's reef blend phytoplankton to really get my pod population to explode.

thats another reason why i dont want a skimmer, because i am going to have various things like clams, brains, bubble coral, zoas, and sun corals. and i dont want the skimmer pulling out all of my precious phytoplankton.

so i am going to try and keep my pod population as healthy and thriving as possible between the sand, live rock, chaeto and regular doses of phytoplankton.

i think ive got a pretty good chance.

and worse case scenario, IF i have to add a bottle of pods once in a while to re-seed my fuge, i will, i just hope it can sustain itself.

[Aquabucket]

It sounds like you already have your mind made up though many of the things you want to stock that tank with are best suited for larger systems than that. In another words it seems like you are really trying to push the envelope with what you can stock a 11 gallon display with.

[agoutihead]

i am, but that doesnt mean i wont be successful.

ive done and tried many things over the years, and have read alot of information, and based on experiences and research i think this can be accomplished.

i mean look at this months TOTM... hes got an 8 gallon display and he has a psychedelic. but no one told him he couldnt do it? why is that? because hes TOTM.

his tank was actually the one that inspired me. ive taken his take idea, done the reseach and tweaked alot of what he did to a better system i believe.

only time will tell.

[Myka]

Originally posted by agoutihead
of course my only saving grace is the fuge, why do you think i designed my tank with one included?

Saving grace as in...the fuge will save the population from being completely destroyed, but will very very unlikely be large enough to support a Mandarin (Psychadelic or dragonette).

I dose my tank with Phyto all the time...keeps the pod population up, but I also don't have any fish in there! Haha!

I wonder how long the Mandarin has been in the 8 gallon? Personally, I don't think that tank should have been used for TOTM specifically because it has a Mandarin in it, and people will see that and think it's ok for them to do it.

Oh well, you have your mind made up Mr. Future Mandarin Killer.

[Sk8r]

All mandarins are dragonettes, along with the scooter 'blenny' and the flying gunard. Mandarins come in 'target' and 'pyschedelic', which can run larger.

[agoutihead]

and why dont you have any fish in your tank?

why do they call them "target" mandarins? ive always wondered that?