stocking levels

[Jez]

Hi,

I have a 22g tank currently stocked with a percula clown and a cleaner shrimp, i'm planning on adding to these but wanted to check your opinions on the stocking levels before i buy anything.

I want to add a yellow watchman goby, another clown, a mandarin (seen it eating frozen bloodworm in LFS) and finally a six line wrasse.
Was also thinking of adding a couple of porceline anenome crabs and 3 sexy shrimps, will these be ok with the 6 line?

Filtration is live rock and a fuge with chaeto.
Will this be too much of a bio load for the size of the tank?
Any opinions will be welcomed.

 

[johnanddawn]

mandarins IMO even eating = no in a nano and def no with a six line - ie they have too similar a niche' one or the other not both
the rest may??? be OK - the 6 line is iffy should be OK but there are exceptions to every rule - better your odds by adding the sexies a month before the wrasse

 

[Trogdor]

Personally I would say no on the watchman and mandarin.

The watchman goby likes to sift the sand, as most people quickly notice. Most will eat prepared foods but the biggest concern isn't if they will eat but how much. These guys are, literally, hogs. They will eat just about anything that you toss in the tank. The problem in a nano is the sand bed. They will eat and disturb everything in the sand bed very quickly. They are known to move 1/2 of you sand bed to the other side of the tank overnight. It's doubtful that you will be able to keep anything beneficial in the sand bed for very long. If you don't mind not having a deep sand bed and can handle blowing sand off of all of your corals daily then they are fun to watch and keep.

The mandarin has the obvious limitation on food. They only eat pods and nano's can't produce enough of them in a timely fashion to keep one healthy and properly fed. Most experts will say 30+ gallons but it should really be 60-80+ gallons and a safe place (refugium) to let the pod population build up and sustain itself.

I'm not sure on the 6-line. I believe they get rather large 4+ inches if I recall correctly so it might be a little crammed. There is a fish guide stickied that might answer some of your questions as well.

 

[johnanddawn]

trogdor - do/did you have a watchman that digs like you describe??? i know and have had sleepers that do but my YWG never really did much of anything and i was lucky if i even got to see it poking its head out of its hole. maybe i just had a shy one but i really liked it and would highly recommend them??? hmmmm

 

[Trogdor]

You're right, I get the two confused sometimes. The watchman should be fine then. Thanks for catching that John

 

[Jez]

ok,
thanks for your replies, i think i'll drop the mandarin then and go for a bengaii cardinal instead if the ammonia and trites and trates are ok after adding the others.

 

[davenia7]

I have a YWG, he's a lil baby... about an inch long now. he eats anything that the hermit crabs don't get first.