Invertebrate

musho3210

I am in the very early stages of planning my saltwater aquarium (the earlier the better :)) and here is what i have so far

20 gallon tank
2 TB ocellarius clownfish
20 pounds live rock
1.5-2 inches of aragonite sand
130 watts of compact flourecent lights
Two HOB power filters (a chance i will add a protien skimmer when the fish are bigger and have a larger bio-load)
the best quality heater i can find
Instant Ocean salt
DI water
Instant ocean hydro meter
API reef master test kit
San-fran bay frozen brine shrimp (might give live once every two months or when i can be bothered harvesting them
I need to find some high quality flakes
Button polyps
Mushroom corals

All i am missing now are what invertebrate (shrimp, snails, stars, etc) should i add. Im not here for looks (although i dont mind ones that look nice lol) but i am rather here for use, ones that eat unwanted algae (hair, beard etc) but leave the corraline alone, as well as ones that eat detritus and ones that can shift the sand.

caferacermike

I'd add about 6 decorative snails, Nassarius, Margarita, or Astrea and about 12-20 blue or red legged hermits. I'd probably skip a star in such a small tank.

Everythign looks well thought out, I'd maybe switch the frozen brine for frozen Mysis shrimp. Much more hearty of a meal.

musho3210

ok, i thought of brine shrimp since i have some frozen chunks in my freezer that i feed my freshwater. It mysis is better, i will switch to that (can freshwater fish eat mysis shrimp?)

I also have to say that possibly in the next few years my mom will let me get a bigger saltwater tank (55 gallons) to put on our empty wall space in our loft area. Just informing.

Would an invetebrate kit like this work?

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...cfm?pCatId=520

i wont buy it online (i have a great lfs nearby and it costs just as much as online + shipping, which means expensive, but they have really healthy looking fish and surprisingly, i have never ever seen a dead fish there.)

any room for shrimp? I know i said i dont want much for looks but more for quality but i really do like shrimp. Sexy shrimp and blood shrimp apeal to me.

caferacermike

I'd say you have room for shrimp, just don't add any fish that will harm them.

musho3210

What kind of shrimp should i put in? I like the cleaner shrimp but they seem kind of big for my tank. Blood and sexy shrimp both seem good but they dont seem to do anything beneficial.

Also another question, how do i succesfully raise hermit crabs, i mean by there shells, do i put in empty shells every once and a while?

Melissa

yeah you have to put empty shells that are a little larger than the ones they are in.

Andre

if you dont put a shells for them to move into they will kill eachother or your snails for there shells.