Ben's Pico Flaming Prawn Goby Reef

[bshowe]

Hello Reef2Reef!

I just joined today and I wanted to share my newest tank and build! It was my Christmas present yesterday! :bounce:

My father owns a local fish store that he has had for over 40 years and I have been in love with these little Flaming Prawn Gobies since they arrived in August. Here is a video I took of one of them in the store in August https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-q1CsjBGvo. They are adorable! Since no one wanted to buy them, I decided to set up a little tank for them at home for the two of them.

I was looking online and I found some pico reef tanks that looked beautiful with the Fluval Spec V, so I knew that would be perfect for the gobies! Plus I wanted something where I might see them! :lol: I picked up one on sale from Petco and it sat in my father's store for a week to make sure it was stable and while I figured out the whole LED lighting scenario since I knew the stock LEDs were no good. I nor my father have never used LEDs on corals so this is an experiment to see how they do. We are more T5 fans but want to experiment. I did a RapidLED build to see how the corals might do under them. If they do well I might upgrade my 75 gallon reef tank to them when I get some more money. We skipped the whole cycling issues by using a fine coral gravel/sand he had sitting in one of his tanks for years and the system water.

So here are the technical details of what I have and the stock list.

Fluval Spec V Tank
ViaAqua 50 Watt Quartz Heater (Tank is 75 degrees Fahrenheit)
Coralife Tank Ground
Coralife Digital Thermometer
Reel Reef Live Rock
Small Tupperware size of fine coral gravel/sand
6" x 10" Drilled/Tapped Black RapidLED Heat Sink with Solderless CREE 3W LEDs and Dimmable Driver (This was surprisingly easy to put together!)
- 2 Royal Blue
- 2 Blue
- 2 Neutral White
- 2 Cool White
- 2 UV
- 2 Royal Blue Moonlight System
1/2" EMT conduit light hanging system I built at Home Depot. I needed a free standing system to hang the LED lights above my tank on my dresser since I was not allowed to drill in the ceiling or wall.

Livestock:
2 Flaming Prawn Gobies
Red Sea Star
Australian Acan Lord Frags
Kenya Tree Frags (They are there for looks currently and fill up the tank. Will probably remove them later.)
Neon Green Star Polyps Frag
Hydnophora Frag
Favia/War Coral Frag
Yellow Colonial Polp Frag
2 Orange/Blue Ricordia Mushrooms (They fell off the main rock in my 75 gallon reef tank
Trumpet/Candy Cane Coral Frag
Random Mushroom Rock
Orange Bam Bam Frag

Now for the good stuff. Here are some tank pictures! All taken on an iphone (Sorry for the blue. I haven't figured out how to get good photos under the LEDs yet as they mess up the camera. The tank does not look that blue in real life!)

Full Tank Shots

 

[bshowe]

Here are more photos.

Flaming Prawn Gobies:

Acan Lord Frags (The first photo are two recovering from my big tank. For some reason they got a little die back and algae grew on their skeleton. I moved them to this tank while they heal and grow back over the exposed skeleton.)

Hydnophora:

 

[bshowe]

More photos... (Oh on the acans, I dremeled off the algae so they can grow back over the die back. Still learning this forum and do not know if I can edit posts.)

War Coral:

Orange/Blue Ricordia Mushrooms:

 

[revhtree]

Welcome to R2R! Cool fish and tank!

 

[bshowe]

Welcome to R2R! Cool fish and tank!

Thanks! I am excited about this as my first nano tank. I also found this article on the Flaming Prawn Goby The Myth-Shrouded Spikefin Goby | Coral Magazine. I am going to go for broke and try to do a school of about 5 of them like the article says and see how it works. Hopefully they will all get along and swim around together! The new gobies should be arriving this week or next.

 

[MistaOrange]

Nice tank & awesome goby...

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

sweet tank. i love these goby. never seen them before at any lfs around me. cant wait to see them

 

[mOnsterzOas26]

Really nice gObys !

 

[bshowe]

Thanks everyone! I will definitely keep you all updated with photos and maybe some videos.

Hopefully they will behave with one another. The order was placed today with the wholesaler and 3 or 4 of them should be arriving this Friday!!! Not sure how long I will leave them at the store though before they come home.

 

[mOnsterzOas26]

Where did u ordered the others by the way if u can tell me ?

 

[bshowe]

Where did u ordered the others by the way if u can tell me ?

They come from a local wholesaler to my father's store. They only serve the Mid-Atlantic area and I see you are in Utah so it wouldn't matter if I told you who they were. hwell: Sorry.

I would try seeing if you have a local fish store that has good connections to reliable wholesalers. It might be something they could get in a special order for you. I know there are some good wholesalers in LA that might be able to easily ship to Utah and your local fish store. I hope that helps!

 

[mOnsterzOas26]

Thanks , yea it's hard to get them here , actually never seen one around

 

[bshowe]

The new Flaming Prawn Gobies arrived today!!! :bounce:

They arrived looking good in the bag so they were brought straight home. I knew they sat at the wholesaler for at least a month so we figured they would be alright being brought straight home and had been eating. These ones were tiny!!! They were about 3/4" and half the size of my other ones. I was afraid I might squish one!

Here is a quick video I took of two of the new ones flashing their fins at one another. I cannot wait to study and see how they interact with one another! So in total there are now 6 Flaming Prawn Gobies in my tank!

I will keep taking photos and videos as things progress for everyone!

[video=youtube;S3krLKW3JUg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3krLKW3JUg&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[lps1212]

Very cool video not too familiar with these gobies but it looks like I want some now

 

[mOnsterzOas26]

Cool gObys definitely ! Their interacting to each other like have u found something to eat yet ha ha cool video

 

[FLipp]

those flame gobys look awesome.

 

[bshowe]

Thanks everyone for the compliments! :biggrin1:

I figured it was time for an update for everyone. My father got in a beautiful pair of Bluestripe Pipefish and I fell in love with them at his store. Plus the original article I read and published earlier about the Flaming Prawn Gobies says the two species do well together. The Pipefish acclimated in the store for a week to make sure they were eating. They were pounding live brime shrimp in the store so I knew they were ready to come home. :lol: They love the live brine shrimp and they also hunt for copepods and other various critters in my tank. It is fun to watch them turn upside down and all sorts of weird angles to get into crevices for little critters to eat. :biggrin1:

My tank also went through a hair algae bloom that I had to fix. (Lesson learned, do not leave LED lights on so long. I raised my LEDs higher up and lowered their power some. I also put them on a timer now. Lights on for 3 hours in the morning and 4 hours at night. Been a few weeks and the tank is staying nice and clean.) To clean my tank I pulled out all the sand and rock to remove all the hair algae. I put in new sand and rock that had been sitting in my father's stores for months so as to not start a cycle again. I also now have three Flaming Prawn Gobies so I would have room for the Pipefish in my tank.

So here are the photos for everyone!

Here is a picture of the gobies while I was cleaning the tank that I kept. Notice how big the ones I have had since August got!

Here is a photo of one of the Bluestripe Pipefish. They are gorgeous! :biggrin1:

I also tried to take video of the tank with the new aquascaping. I got a good shot of one of the gobies. I did remove some corals as the acans seem to do better in my bigger tank under a little less intense lighting. So this tank now has 2 hydnophoras, a war coral, and some orange bam bams and orange palys. Enjoy! :biggrin1:
[video=youtube;ebyoOkXeNPQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebyoOkXeNPQ[/video]

 

[mOnsterzOas26]

Looks sweet

 

[Small triggers]

Very cool! I will need to come down and visit your dads store my next time I'm near short pump....

 

[bshowe]

Very cool! I will need to come down and visit your dads store my next time I'm near short pump....

Awesome! I assume you live in Northern, Virginia? My dad's store is over near the intersection of 95 and 64 west though. Here is a link for directions to his store Location | Azalea Aquariums.