Angler tank questions

Raider0622 · Jul 9, 2020

Hey everyone. I just found a 20 gallon tank and I am thinking about making it into an angler tank. I have just a couple questions.

1. Where could I buy saltwater feeder shrimp or small, cheap, mollies?

2. Is there any good place to buy the angler besides LA?

3. What would a good clean up crew be that wouldn't get eaten?

4. What would the best frozen food be? I have heard of using tilapia but I'm not sure of it's nutritional value.

5. What would be some good, sturdy, nano corals that aren't too hard to care for?

Thank you in advance!

ichthyogeek · Jul 10, 2020

1. Sach's Aquaculture sells them, as does LiveAquaria and other online retailers. You could also check the nearest saltwater bait store if you live near saltwater. Mollies are common at Petsmart/Petco/most LFSes, but you might need to ask them to bring some fish in for you. I strangely had to ask for black lyretail mollies for a different project, since the LFS never stocked them. Apparently people don't like them all that much as pets?

2. Your Local Fish Store if you have one!

3. Depends on the angler species. Snails are probably a good choice, and possibly hermit crabs. Brittle stars could also work as well.

4. I'm of the opinion that there's no "best" frozen food, as all have nutritional deficiencies in a monodiet. But you could probably look into leaner saltwater fish (not salmon, not tuna, etc.). Silversides are available, again at local fish stores, and sometimes at Petsmart/Petco.

5. Mushroom anemones. Xenia would also be good. GSP and Sansibia get a bad rap, but I really like them. If you take the time to feed them, Micromussa lordhowensis also is a great nano coral.

Raider0622 · Jul 10, 2020

Thanks. The only thing is that my lfs isn't very good. They are over an hour away and their live stock is very bad. For example, I once got a plecos that looked completely fine. Less than a week later, every single fish except 3 died from ich. Also, my Petco has awful feeder fish. In a 20 gallon, there are probably about 100 fish, half of them dead. I might be able to get mollies there though. Also, do you think a smaller urchin or a conch would be fine? Thanks again!

ichthyogeek · Jul 10, 2020

So urchins and conchs should be fine.

Regarding Petco/Petsmart...I'm not talking about their freshwater feeder fish. You shouldn't be buying feeder fish (goldfish/minnows) for saltwater fish in the first place since there's weird nutrition stuff involved. What you should do instead is buy the "pet" mollies that go for $3-$7, and breed them yourself as food.

Regarding the LFS, it depends on how "bad" the livestock is. Getting plecos once and having all of the display tank fish die of ich is more of a signifier that you were the one that didn't do the proper quarantine procedures, as opposed to the LFS having ich in all their tanks. Very few LFSs quarantine their fish. The operate on "get fish out quickly", in order to increase profit margins. It's on the hobbyist to do the quarantine, not the LFS. Now, if the LFS has large numbers of visibly dead/dying fish consistently when you go, or if they're selling wildly inappropriate fish (red tailed catfish, sharks, tank buster fish), then that's a different story. But selling a fish in water that just so happens to have ich in it is a different story.

Which brings me to another point: if you're feeding live foods, quarantine them!

Raider0622 · Jul 10, 2020

Thank you. That was just one example of my lfs. They have tons of dead fish in their tanks too. I got some saltwater inverts just to see if it was just one bad experience but I haven't seen them since introducing them to the tank. So for a small angler (1-2 inches) what should I feed. Baby mollies? I have also heard that if you add macro algea that they will eat the copepods. Is this accurate? Thanks.