River To Reef

[372xp]

Update; water tested, everything spot on. So the cuc went in today. 2 turbo snails, 2 small blue legged crabs and a cleaner shrimp.
Why do the snails go up to the top of the tank and hang out on the water line?
Nice tank by the way techen, voted for you. Whats that growing in the top right of your rock pile?

 

[techen]

One thing you should note is a cleaner shrimp is not part of the CUC. It's more hermits, snails etc.
 
You'll need to watch your waterstats carefully now with the cleaner shrimp. But there quite hardy and you should be fairly good with him.
 
And do you mean the Pulsing xenia?

 

[372xp]

if thats what it is then yes. very nice. how do you sex a cleaner shrimp?

 

[techen]

Asking the wrong person for that, Fairly sure one picks and the other follows really. Getting two is a good start as they'll more than likely team up.
 
Am getting a pair of clown fish for my tank which will soon be moved to my 100ish litres am due to get.

 

[Donya]

how do you sex a cleaner shrimp?

 
Lysmata cleaners like skunk cleaners are generally hermaphrodites as far as I know. So, put two together and eggs happen eventually except in rather rare cases (some individuals will only be functional males). Coral banded shrimp (still "cleaners" but Stenopus) are male/female and difficult to pair and often difficult to sex as well, but I can't remember offhand whether they are serially male then female or male/female from the start. 

 

[372xp]

Thanks Donya and Techen. My tank really isnt big enough for 2 at 55ltrs. I only asked about sexing because my wife wants to know wether to say 'he' or 'she' when refering to the shrimp, nothing more exiting than that.
So this shrimp isn't a skunk cleaner shrimp then?

 

[techen]

It is a  skunk cleaner shrimp, But I just call them cleaner shrimps really.
 
I would say 55L is more than enuff for two. Feel free to get two

 

[372xp]

update; Water stats spot on, so time for some fish.
Got a yellow watchman goby and a fire fish. Getting them aclimatized with a slow drip. Fire fish in a blizzard of mysis shrimp. I broke the cube into small bits, still far too much for 2 fish, fed the rest to my female bettas.
How much will they need to eat a day? I have mysis shrimp, brineshrimp and spirulina and Dutch select invert food.

 

[BigTuna]

Overfeeding is something that got me into a lot of trouble.  Troubles that I am still battling today.  I've read that the food should be entirely consumed in 3 minutes.  I go less than this.  I make sure that the fish can consume the majority of my food in less than a minute and the rest is gone shortly after.  I also provide seaweed on a clip once a week, and mix up a variety of frozens and flakes. 

 

[372xp]

The problem is knowing that everyone is getting fed. Whereas the fire fish gets straight on with it the watchman goby stays in the cave. Maybe its like with your kids, if they are hungry they will come out and feed. Tommorow I will be giving them a lot less. Do you buy the seaweed or go to the sea for it? Who eats it?

 

[BigTuna]

I buy dried seaweed and a frozen seaweed/algae mix.  The dried seaweed goes on a clip in the tank and all my fish graze on it.  Just Tangs and foxfaces in my tank currently.  The firefish will eat algae growing in the aquarium, but as for seaweed clips, I have no idea....  don't know enough about them. 

 

[techen]

You are just as bad as me, Cept you added fish really really early on.
 
You may now get a mini cycle now that's there's going to be a bioload in the tank. So be prepared to do waterchanges often and not once a week. Keep a check on ammonia and nitrite. It's possible you'll get a large spike in those.

 

[372xp]

Water change after work today. It would be my wife who is as bad as you this is her tank. She has had it up and running 3 weeks and as all the water stats come back consistantly ok, she was told she can add fish. I will keep an eye on levels.

 

[KeyboardWarrior]

Hey nice tank mate, did you get a TMC tile? If not I'd recommend looking at a PAR38 bulb. A few other things I wouldn't really recommend 2 cleaner shrimp for a small tank as the one you have will grow also as said you should really only try to add one fish at a time and not so early to ensure greater stability but since you you've done it now you should look into getting a pistol shrimp for your YWG

Josh

 

[techen]

Keep a eye on the firefish, They get upset very easily.

Also give it a week or two before adding anything else but like above you could get a goby/pistol pair.

I run a par 38 led bulb over my tank and my corals love it. Well worth the money.