Thinking of adding either a few hermit crabs or chromis to the tank this weekend. Any thoughts or advice. Some details of my tank are below.
So my tank (75 gal, NO lighting, don’t have a protein skimmer yet) is still young. Got LR from an established tank, transported it home in 2 5 gal buckets each with about a gallon of my tank water in it. Very little of the rock was out of the water and even that was probably getting splashed the whole way home. Never did see an ammonia spike (was detectable but never off the chart). Nitrite spike was on the 1/27 was back to 0 by the 1/30. Nitrate below 20 ppm yesterday. Today (2/6) is the first day I haven’t tested since I set it up.
More and more things are coming to life in tank. Got orange ball anemomes (mushrooms that come out at night to feed), noticed a red mushroom a few days ago. There was (hopefully still is) a snail on the tank glass today. Plus a good assortment of spagetti worms, brittle worms, and who knows what else is there that I haven’t seen.
Some things are universal in this hobby and most things arent, but here ya go…
When i first added fish i bought two tomato clowns that lasted through everything that has happened to my tank (the initial spike, random spikes, and the bug bomb). The Chromis i had died, and youll get mixed reactions from most people about them concerning hardiness, but most things arent universal…so u never know…
Most of the time i buy live rock from LFS its usually just double bagged with very little water…im sure its almost shipped the same way to cut down on cost…u probley could avoid having little splashes unless u really enjoy them…
I also didnt put a skimmer on my tank for a while, but i did have a fuge on there from the start…not sure if that mattered, but generally you can start a tank without one, but its definitly something youll be purchasing in the future.
And once you have a good light on there, the algae out break will be fustrating…if u experience one Saint:)
Well I got 2 scarlet hermits and 2 blue leg hermits.
My LFS had 2 green chromis and were selling them for $8 and some big blue chromis they were selling for $18. If I was going to spend $20 on a fih today I would hae got a clown not a chromis.
i would say wait a little longer and get the fish u really want. insted of getting 5 chromic why not get 2 clowns? i would cut down on little fish and get a nice show fish. if u want to do chromics go for it; just thought i should say that. i have never kept a chromic but i might get a few to test out. depending on how i like them in my 25 ill put them in the 75 once it’s set up. what lfs is this?
Is this your first tank? Just asking to get an idea of your experience with salt fish. I’d tend to agree with what bz said and stray towards fish you want to get and keep longer term, but don’t go out and buy a hard to keep fish until your tank is a little bit more mature (and you are ;)).
Since the LR you bought came from an established tank you have probably already gone through your first biggest cycle and the following will be smaller and smaller, so your probably a few months ahead of the game.
If you wanna get some chromis and keep 'em long term. Go get 'em! I’d prefer getting a clown or a goby of some sort.
One thing to keep in mind, it’s always best to place your LEAST aggressive fish in first so they can establish themselves in the tank, the more aggressive fish you put in later will be less likely to bother the already established fish.
Research your fish and come up with a basic game plan of fish you want to stock the tank with long term. I know, its hard to imagine what you want when you have no idea what you want right?, just do some research and ask questions.
Yup this i my first tank. We had a FW tank growing up but that was my dad’s tank and quite a few years ago. Trying not to rush things. But patience i hard at times. I think having something (other than hey look at the worm crawling on the glass) in the tank will help with the patience.
Yeah I have started doing some research on different fish and getting a better idea of what fish I want and some order of adding such as:
a) fish needs based on fish needs -some needing more mature tank and not willing to lose certain fish cause I didn’t wait 6 months. Not that I want to kill any fish, cause I don’t, just losing an under $20 fish is easier than a $40 fish.
b) aggresion issues (reading that some fish are more of a bully if they think the whole tank is theirs vs used to having to share)
c) my and my family’s wants. Clown leaning toward an Ocellaris but maybe a perc. Sometime down the road (late summer/early fall at the earliest most likely even later) we are looking at getting a tang.
Right now looking at a pair of clowns, tang (yellow or hippo), I like gobies and blennies.
Coral wise we are limited on options until we upgrade from NO lighting. Not that we can’t have anything but just limited options.
I was going to say something about the price to, because $8 for chromis is a little high…did u say u worked at Petco? Thats where i always bought my chromis from because they are consistently $3-4…
Even at DPA the price for them is a little too high compared to Petco.
I work for the Navy. The LFS I was at was Aquarium Center in NJ. Their prices usually are decent, especially for the convenience. I have to factor in bridge tolls into the cost of getting a fish in DE. MAn why did I decide to get into this hobby after I moved out of Delaware COunty, PA (we were right across the line from DE and were always in DE shopping, not just the no tax they were the closer stores as well) I looked around at price before I went and figured somewhere between $2-$4. $8 was just ridiculus.
if you can find one in the $2-4 range, i would go ahead and buy it if you water parameters seem reasonably ok…u’d only suffer a little emotional loss if the fish didnt make it…along with a couple $1’s
I don’t know when I might be doing this… but I have a pair of Reg. Osc. Clowns that have bonded. What I really want is a pair or Misbar Black and White Osc. Clowns. $50 a piece but love em. Anyway if i do this within the next few weeks would you like to take em? O and they host a sebae anenome atm.
Clowns will truly host in whatever they feel like. Cyano is not uncommon, nor is hair algae, zoo colonies, GSP, mushrooms, or anything else previously mentioned.
My pair of clowns hosted at the front top left corner of the tank at night. During the day they would move between the left top and the left bottom in the sand bed
MY pair of ocellaris are still spawning on a large flat oyster shell that has a big green frilly mushroom growing on one end. they lay eggs on the other at the edge of the mushroom, or is it a rodactus?
