5 gal invert

[loki]

Hi, well the clowns will be in a new home... :cry:

I am going to just make this 5 gal a invert tank and would like some of your opinions about the shrimps I am able to get here.

Cleaner shrimps ????? Might be able to get them
Coral banded
Sexy Shrimp
Harlequin Shrimp

Which ones are compatible with each other as I would like to have a couple different ones.

loki.... :smile:

 

[dragon79]

Hi, well the clowns will be in a new home... :cry:

I am going to just make this 5 gal a invert tank and would like some of your opinions about the shrimps I am able to get here.

Cleaner shrimps ????? Might be able to get them
Coral banded
Sexy Shrimp
Harlequin Shrimp

Which ones are compatible with each other as I would like to have a couple different ones.

loki.... :smile:

Being I am shrimp freak when I was trying to get them all in my 6 gallon, I was only reduced to getting a few kinds. I have sexys and an anemone shrimp. I used to have a rare species called Tiger Shrimp or Spiny Shrimp (their nicknames) I know a harlequin we could keep, shouldn't be a problem. A cleaner shrimp would outgrow that tank fast, and the coral banded shrimp is too agressive. Hope this helps.

 

[loki]

Steven thanks for the replies. Do you have ocellaris clowns in that tank?

I have read that the harlequin shrimps need to have live star fish in order to survive. Do you know anything about this?

 

[Iceburg98]

Yeah, the harlequins will ONLY eat starfish.

I wanted to keep one myself, and the guy at my LFS told me to just set up a little tank with a small filter and keep a chocolate-chip star in it. Once a week or so, just take a razor blade, chop a little piece off the leg of it and drop it in your tank for the harlequin. The starfish will grow it's legs back over time, so you can have an almost unlimited foodsource for your shrimp...

I thought that sounded like too much work for a shrimp, no matter how cool the thing looks, so i haven't gotten one yet...

Although i do have a 2.5 gal tank laying around that i've just been using to cycle rock, so i might try it someday...

Also if you have a sump or refugium, you can just keep the star in there too - if you try to keep it in the same tank with the shrimp, it'll just flip it over and eat it and your params will get all out of whack.

 

[Billy2423]

Test

 

[incysor]

Test

 

[dragon79]

Steven thanks for the replies. Do you have ocellaris clowns in that tank?

I have read that the harlequin shrimps need to have live star fish in order to survive. Do you know anything about this?

Yup I have two Ocellaris Variants (black) Very beautiful.

As for the harlequins, yes they need the starfish, that's the catch with that type of shrimp.

 

[incysor]

This is really irritating. For some reason it doesn't want to take my response in any way. I even tried starting a new topic to respond, and it wouldn't take the post that way. I tried PM'ing my response to Billy and again it wouldn't go.

B

 

[incysor]

Here's my orginal response this morning, when I was trying to create a new topic to reply to this thread.

B

Once again I'm not able to reply to that thread.

By deleting my cache and all my cookies I was able to make a test reply yesterday. Then this morning it wouldn't work again. Since I can't mess with my cache and cookies every day and all the other threads are letting me respond to them I decided to just put my reply here.

Yeah, the harlequins will ONLY eat starfish.

I wanted to keep one myself, and the guy at my LFS told me to just set up a little tank with a small filter and keep a chocolate-chip star in it. Once a week or so, just take a razor blade, chop a little piece off the leg of it and drop it in your tank for the harlequin. The starfish will grow it's legs back over time, so you can have an almost unlimited foodsource for your shrimp...

I thought that sounded like too much work for a shrimp, no matter how cool the thing looks, so i haven't gotten one yet...

Although i do have a 2.5 gal tank laying around that i've just been using to cycle rock, so i might try it someday...

Also if you have a sump or refugium, you can just keep the star in there too - if you try to keep it in the same tank with the shrimp, it'll just flip it over and eat it and your params will get all out of whack.

This was sort of my plan when I got the harlequin pair. I bought 6 chocolate chip stars and put them in my sump to make sure they'd be ok in there. They did fine. About 2 months later I found a harlequin pair and bought them, and put them in the 25g predator tank. I pulled out one of the 'CC' and they went right after it. My plan was to let them have one for a few days then take it back and replace it with another one a couple days later, and just rotate all the 'CC'. That way they'd have time to heal up, and they'd keep help keep the sump clean. Nice plan. However they didn't really seem to deal with the stress of the harlequins very well. I managed to get to the 4th 'CC' star doing this, and then I noticed I was missing one. Then I lost another one. Gradually they all died. They just didn't heal like I thought they would. This wasn't cutting an arm off and giving it to the harlequins, so maybe they'd be able to heal that better, but I doubt it. After about a month one of the pair of shrimp just went missing, so I took the remaining one to work and put it in my 6g nano. I just get it a small 'CC' every 3-4 weeks now and let the shrimp eat it, and don't worry about trying to keep the star alive.

B

 

[incysor]

So for some reason the board doesn't allow the use of 'CC' ,(without the apostrophes), which I was using as the abreviation for chocolate chip star. Once I put apostrophes around it I can post it, but without the apostrophes I can't post anything that has 'CC' in it as a new topic, a reply, or a PM.
It didn't have anything to do with my cache, or IE.

What's up with that?

B

 

[loki]

I think there was some problems with the forum. I have it in my favorites and it came up as something else. When I clicked the forum thing the proper site came back. Hopefully things are back again.

So you have 2 ocellaris clowns in your 6 gal hey..... I still have not placed my two ocellaris as I am so attched to them. If they will be okay in my 5 gal like yours are with regular water changes I am going to keep them. I really wanted these fish in the first place and just adore them. They keep me enteretained in the kitchen while cooking...... :lol:

One thing I am battling right now is the green algae growing on my back glass and on my sand. My one and only snail is having a hard time keeping up till I can get more snails. I have opted to not clean the back glass as for one it is a pain in the butt, also most folks say to leave it and let the pink coraline grow on it for a natural look. I do scrape the sides and front though.

Anyone know why I am getting this green algae, it also has some bubbles on the glass with it. I know there is a bubble algae and I surely don't want it. Will more snails keep this at bay so the coraline algae can grow on the glass?

My lights are on from 8am - 10 pm and I am using 1 coralife PC 50/50 10,000k 20 watt

loki......

 

[incysor]

I just went back through all your posts, and I haven't seen mention of filtration. What are you using?

I'd cut back on your light schedule. My 32w is running 9am to 7pm. 10hrs to your 14hrs. Do frequent water changes. Stop feeding the tank as long as you don't have the fish in there. Scrape all the glass, and suck all of it out when you do your next large water change.

B

 

[loki]

I still have the clowns in there. The stores will not take them, I am quite attached to them and they are not causing any problems either, dragon79 has two clowns in their 6 gal tank so I don't feel as bad.

Our stores here handle very little marine fish, our main store as quite a selection but taking fish in is another question when it comes to marine. Freshwater yes but marine is a bit of trouble. I don't want to flush and could not flush them either..... :? They will stay where they are.....

I will make sure my water is perfect so I don't have problems again like last time. They truly add character to any tank. I feed sparingly so I don't have food everywhere. They mainly eat pellets and gobble them up before they sink.

My filter is a Aqua Clear Mini with a sponge and charcoal in there. Yes my lights are on for quite a while. I will take them down to the 10 hrs like you said. Tomorrow is my water change day so I will make sure that I really clean well.

By the way, with sand does it have to be vacumed or can I just give it a stir with a stick before sucking out the water?

loki

 

[dragon79]

When you stir things up, keep in mind you are stirring up the nitrates. I tend to leave the sand alone, and let my sand sifters to stir it up gently, so it remains nice and white. As for my lighting, I have my 50/50s on for 8 hrs and my actinic blues for 1hr before and 1hr after my 50/50 lighting schedule.

 

[loki]

Please excuse my lack of knowlege in this hobby, but what are sand sifters?

 

[Iceburg98]

Sand sifter = any critter that buries itself in the sand, or scours the bottom of the tank eating detrius (gunk) of the sand bed.

Nassarias (sp), or "Nas" snails would be your best bets in a nano. Pick up maybe 3 of them and let them do their thing. They basically bury themselves just under the surface of the sand, slowing digging through it and eating the gunk in it, as well as slowly releasing the nitrates (which get caught in the spaces between the grains of sand) so as not to cause a huge nitrate problem.

In no time at all, your sand will be pearly white 8)

 

[incysor]

I still have the clowns in there. The stores will not take them, I am quite attached to them and they are not causing any problems either, dragon79 has two clowns in their 6 gal tank so I don't feel as bad.

Our stores here handle very little marine fish, our main store as quite a selection but taking fish in is another question when it comes to marine. Freshwater yes but marine is a bit of trouble. I don't want to flush and could not flush them either..... :? They will stay where they are.....

I will make sure my water is perfect so I don't have problems again like last time. They truly add character to any tank. I feed sparingly so I don't have food everywhere. They mainly eat pellets and gobble them up before they sink.

My filter is a Aqua Clear Mini with a sponge and charcoal in there. Yes my lights are on for quite a while. I will take them down to the 10 hrs like you said. Tomorrow is my water change day so I will make sure that I really clean well.

By the way, with sand does it have to be vacumed or can I just give it a stir with a stick before sucking out the water?

loki

I wouldn't worry too much about them in the 5. If they start outgrowing it you may have to get rid of them, but lots of clowns will not outgrow their environment. If you do have to get rid of them, my first choice would be to look for other hobbyists in your area. If you can't find a seller for them that way, I've never known any pet/fish store that wouldn't take them back. They're not going to give you any money for them, or probably any credit, but it'll solve the problem if it comes up.

B

 

[loki]

Thanks for the replies. This is such a nice site compared to some I belong to.... :? When you speak to folks that have Nano tanks and have had the chance to keep things in there it makes a huge difference as they know what can go and what cannot. Hubby says the clowns stay as they are cute and entertaining. I agree......

Thanks again...loki

 

[incysor]

I'd also remove the sponge from the aquaclear, or try to rinse it out very well a couple times a week. I tried the rinse method for awhile, but found I kept forgetting so I just removed them and my levels have been lower.

B

 

[Iceburg98]

I agree - you either need to rinse the sponge really well every week, or what i do is just buy one of those big sheets of "cut-your-own" filter media and just throw it away every week and replace it. For an AC mini, you can get a few weeks worth of filters out of one $5 or so package