Stocking A 10g Nano

[izzie]

So i have done ALOT of reading and have decided im going to try the nano thing out. I have never had a salt water tank befor however my grandpa has and he lives 3 blocks away from me and has agreed to help me out and teach me everything and save my tank from disaster. Hes here almost everyday and said whenver he comes over hell check it out and help. Hes never done an nano tho either just large reef tanks for about 20 years now. So we are both wondering how many fish we can put in it. We were thinking of a clown and a blue damsi i probably spelled that wrong. But befor i get fish he adviced me to as on her weather this would be to much for a 10 gallon nano. Im also goign to be including some crabs shrimp and maybe a bristle star fish. Any comments on this set up and weather im going to be stocking it correctly.

 

[Lynden]

Smaller tanks are much harder to maintain than big mini reefs. Although if your grandfather has done other reefs before, I would put my complete confidence in him. As for stocking, i would not try to put a blue devil damsel into a ten, not only are they extremely territorial, they swim fast and need a big tank. Go with a pair of small clowns instead. Good fish for nanos are darters such as firefish, or a similiar small gobies.

Another thing that people overlook is the cost of the setup. The cost of a good nano can easily catch up to the cost of a 55 or so. For invertebrates, have a good cleanup crew ie one snail or reef-safe hermit per gallon. Have some cleaner shrimp to keep parasites at bay, and a cyano-eating crab, and a few sand sifting animals. DO NOT have an anemone in a nano as it will sting corals and kill them. For a clown host, have a leather or other soft coral.

Make sure that you have plenty of test kits and test each day while cycling, once every few while waiting for maturity, and once every few afterwards as well. Good luck, fellow reef keeper

 

[steelhealr]

Short and sweet:

would not do more than 2 fish, nano size

wouldn't do a damsel...can be aggressive, although, the yellowtail is least offensive. How bout a purple (decorated) firefish? or a small goby or blenny?

Don't do a star...it can't possible survive in a 10 gallon and when they die, nasty tank crash. Go for shrimp...a skunk cleaner or blood shrimp.

SH

 

[parker313]

Ditto the two above. My original stocking plans was for a pair of clowns, but I only wanted to introduce one fish at a time. By the time I went back to the LFS to get another clown, they were all out and weren't expecting to get anymore of that type and size (VERY SMALL) for quite a while. I didn't want the one clown that I already had in the tank to decide it was not going to tolerate another clown so instead of pushing that, I decided to get a purple firefish. It's a beautiful fish and the two complement each other nicely without any problem.

If you do get clowns and want something for them to host, definitely don't get an anemone. Clowns don't need something to host and many of the tank bred ones won't host something even if it's provided. If you want something for them to have if they want it, you can get a toadstool leather mushroom coral. They're pretty easy to take care of and clowns will often host in them.