Recently set-up a 20 gallon fowlr. Have slowly expanded to a few corals since fish are kinda not much of an option since I have aYellow Tail Blue Damsel. In the tank are 4 hermit crabs, 3 nassarius snails, 1 margarita snail, a coral banded shrimp, star polyp, hammer coral and a mushroom. Oh, and the Damsel. So far, eveything has done good. Only thing i've experienced is the loss of a hermit crab (not sure if he molted ot died as only found the exoskeleton and not the shell he was in. He also changed shells about 10 days ago). The shrimp has already molted after 2 weeks in the tank.
here's my current water test results:
PH 8.2
Amonia- less than .25 (I'd call it 0 but it may have a slight spike due to probably overfeeding last night trying to target feed my corals a bit of flake)
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- < than 5 but looks closer to 0
Phosphate- < .25 but looks closer to 0
Newest additon. I picked up a lawnmower blenny. I know it's it tight squeeze if I don't upgrade the tank in the near future but couldn't resist. My question is, is my damsel in more danger than the blenny if they don't work things out? The blenny wasn't having anything to do with the damsel coming at him. Also a shot of my hammer coral with it's first piece of fresh shrimp. So, did I mess up or will they work things out?
You know I always wanted one of those. They're really cool little critters but my LFS hasn't ever had one. They get quite large actually too which is neat. Posted via Mobile Device
So, I've decided to change things up a bit. Pulled out the top layer of rock this weekend and scooped out the YT Damsel and the Coral banded shrimp. The Damsel was returned to the LFS ( already kinda miss him but not enough to chnge my mind) The CBS was moved to the QT until I can rehome him. He was just to hard on the corals.
Here's a few things I'm looking at and would appreciate any input. Current tank stock is a Lawnmower blenny and corals.
I'd like to choose between one or two of these and then in a week or two add the final fish, an ocellaris and a black and white ocellaris. Would that be too much in the long run? I'm trying to keep it fairly peaceful.
Just picked up a high finned red banded goby and a tiger pistol shrimp. Hopefully they pair up. They are following each other around in the bag while acclimating.
While searching the net trying to decide which one o get, this one was always my first choice. While very small, the colors are gorgeuos. Hopefully they dont decie to make their burrow behind the rocks.
They've been in for a couple hours. The Shrimp disappeared into the substrate ( I think) instantly. The Goby was out for awhile, now they've both disappeared. Now let the waiting game begin to see what happens.
A little update. The shrimp has made his burrow, lol. Now to find the goby. The burrow is kinda between rocks but hopefully they'll get out in front soon.
They find each other. It's starts out at one burrow, ends with an infinite amount of tunnels. That's what I love about them. My goby will pop out at the most random spots sometimes with his buddy not far behind. Posted via Mobile Device
Goby is starting to show himself between the rocks a little. I put some frozen reef plankton in tonight and saw both the goby and the blnny eating some.
Wow nice that is pretty cool. I actually picked up a yasha hashe goby which is like your high fin guy only he's all white with orange stripes and a big tall fin. The pistol shrimp/goby pair is so cool. I've been waiting a month for my LFS to get a pistol shrimp to add for him. Posted via Mobile Device
Hopefully you'll find a shrimp soon. It is pretty cool to watch what they do.
I was looking at the goby you got. The only reason I went with this one was it seems they have less of a tendancy to be jumpers. Time will tell though.
The other thing I'm hoping is he will be more friendly if he has a shrimp. I've had him about three weeks, maybe a month, and I bet I see him twice a week. I have no idea where he hides or what he eats but he isn't overtly skinny. He ate fine when I trapped him a couple weeks ago at night and kept him in a breeder net a couple days. Since then he's been hiding though. Glad yours is doing well! Posted via Mobile Device
Thanks! Yeah, I don't see a whole lot of mine. I mean, you can see him through the rocks but he never comes out from behind them. I'm acclimating a hectors goby, a clown fish, some type of anchor/hammer/frogspawn (lol) coral and my first piece of leather coral as I type. Hope for some pics tonight or tomorrow.
And I really am not sure what type of coral this is. It looks quite a bit differant from my hammer coral. lfs guy called it anchor but it looks a bit differant from the images I can find online.
Ah very nice. I'm not positive but I think there's a couple different types of hammer coral and I believe one is a branching type and another is like what you have an anchor looking one that grows into a big round ball. I know the frogspawns and hammers are all somewhat similar. Pretty neat for sure. Leathers are cool too especially when they get really big. I'm hitting the LFS tomorrow for some coral, cleanup crew, pistol shrimp and maybe some type of critter for my 20. I had a couple larger hermits go rogue and pull my snails out of they're shells this week. Posted via Mobile Device
Awe man, that sucks for the snails. I haven't had that problem yet but I' sure I will run into it at some point. Hope you're able to find some if not all of what you're looking for.
ugh! Woke up this morning to the clown trying to host the new anchor/hammer/frogspawn (whatever it is) coral. Is this going to be an issue for the coral or will it "get used to it"?
Mine periodically try to host a small clump of those yellow colony polyps....I don't know why, kind of comical seeing too fervent sized clowns trying to cram themselves into a couple little tiny corals. They just close right up until the clowns leave no worse for wear.
New anchor/hammer coral with Benny the blennie off to the right.
New Hector hover goby and a leather coral my wife picked out. (and an upset star polyp)
Clown, was labeled as a perc but the more I look around, the more I think it's an occelaris?? And don't ask for a better photo of him. That's like trying to take a photo of a hyper active kid on crack, lol. Not to mention, I got a razor scraper today to get the corraline off the front glass and he would not leave me alone, lol. It was hilarious, I was actullay worried that I might nic him with the razor.
Another shot of Hector, original hammer and the new leather. You can also see a bit of the mushroom. It started as one and has become five. I need to get a good pic of it.
And finally, the high finned red banded goby. A little rock work movement and at least now you can see him. The pistol shrimp however :dunno:
Thanks for looking. Also, thanks to those who've answered so many questions and helped along the way.
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