Biocube 32 Stocking Question

[Rich 9_70]

Hello R2R,

I have a Biocube 32 running for 5 months and am considering one more fish to add to the little reef.

Here is my stock list:

A pair of Occelaris Clowns
One Yellow Watchman Goby
One Royal Gramma
Two Nassarius Snails
Two Trochus Snails
Two Cerith Snails
Three Dwarf Hermit Crabs
One Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
Four frags of Zoas
One Candy Cane
One Acan
One Bullseye Rhodactis Mushroom
One Duncan
One GSP (isolated on an island)

For equipment, I have the stock lights, stock return pump. I have an ATO, inTank Media and Fuge racks, and two Hydor Nano Powerheads. In the media rack I have inTank filter floss and a small bag of Purigen and rock rubble in the fuge. I do weekly water changes. I had some nasty diatoms, those are mostly gone. I do have some green algae, some small spots of green hair forming, and some coralline starting to appear. During the water changes I extract what I can of the hair.

My parameters have been very stable.

Temp - 79.7 to 80.4 F (living in Phoenix, AZ, hard to get it lower)
Salinity - 1.025
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
PH - 8.4
Nitrate - 5 to 8
Phosphate - 0 to 0.03

I am not currently measuring other parameters and stopped measuring Ammonia or Nitrite unless I add to the bioload.

From a bioload perspective, do you think I could add one more small fish? My wife would love one more, she loves the Helfrechi Firefish. Our LFS has one which is beautiful. If I can find one, was thinking maybe a Pink Streaked Wrasse. With the other fish already established, would they likely harass the firefish? Would the wrasse be a better fit? Any different suggestions?

One last question, the folks at the LFS said a pistol shrimp to pair with the YWG may be aggressive with the hermit crabs. My 8-year old daughter has named one of the crabs and she would hate to know a shrimp committed crabicide . What has been your experiences with both in a tank?

Thanks in advance to any who provide input.

 

[ichthyogeek]

IIRC, firefish and grammas are typically a no go because they have the same body shape, diet, and niche in the environment. And also have similar color patterns (okay not yellow + purple, but it's a color that fades to another).

A pink streaked wrasse may work though.

Something you haven't mentioned is how large/often you do water changes. Keep in mind that adding any extra "nitrate factory" (aka fish) will cause changes in your tank's nitrate, phosphate, etc. levels.

Another thing you haven't mentioned, is how big the fish currently are. I think that your tank might be pushing it once all of those fish reach adult size.

If your daughter's named one of the crabs, maybe it's time for her to set up her own little reef bowl and put the crab(s) in it, to avoid "crabicide". I haven't witnessed any hermit murders with my A. randalli, but your mileage may vary depending on individuals of each species.

 

[RDA]

I'm sure others are probably better suited to give you suggestions on the fish, and really the shrimp for that matter. I will say though, that the only pistol shrimp that I have experience with would pop most of the hermits that came near his borrow. It would use the empty shell as building blocks in his burrow. Sometimes you would find a shell that it lodged in there that still had a hermit in it but couldn't shimmy their shell loose. Your miles may vary though, as I'm not sure if that is typical behavior for them or not. Like I said, I'm sure others will be along with better info.

 

[Rich 9_70]

Good morning Ichthyogeek and RDA, thank you for your replies.

I do weekly 5-gallon water changes to stay up on nutrient export. In this little tank (about 28 gallons after water displacement due to rock and sand), thus just under 20% weekly. I am a little concerned about the Helfrechi and RG, so thank you for your feedback. Maybe the pink streaked wrasse is in our future. The tank is only 5-months old and the four fish are still young, thus small right now. To your point, that is another reason We may be at the tank fish limit, they still need to grow.

As far as the pistol and crabs, a little tank may be in order for my daughter. Do not need the pistol using crab shells as burrow building blocks as he did in RDA’s tank.

Thankfully my wife is excited about this hobby too. Wanted to start out small and easy, thus the Biocube. She is Already talking about adding, adding, adding and one day upgrading to a 120 or 150. Good thing we have the room!

Have a great day guys.

 

[reefpunk707]

I have a 29 gal with 6 fish. A clownfish, midas blenny, black leopard wrasse, tailspot blenny, hi fin goby and a sleeper blue dot goby. I just got a pistol shrimp a few weeks ago and he paired right up with the high fin goby. Hasn't killed anything that I can tell so far and I have a bunch of snails and hermits and a sexy shrimp. But I have heard they can kill other inverts mostly shrimp.

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

Hello R2R,

I have a Biocube 32 running for 5 months and am considering one more fish to add to the little reef.

Here is my stock list:

A pair of Occelaris Clowns
One Yellow Watchman Goby
One Royal Gramma
Two Nassarius Snails
Two Trochus Snails
Two Cerith Snails
Three Dwarf Hermit Crabs
One Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
Four frags of Zoas
One Candy Cane
One Acan
One Bullseye Rhodactis Mushroom
One Duncan
One GSP (isolated on an island)

For equipment, I have the stock lights, stock return pump. I have an ATO, inTank Media and Fuge racks, and two Hydor Nano Powerheads. In the media rack I have inTank filter floss and a small bag of Purigen and rock rubble in the fuge. I do weekly water changes. I had some nasty diatoms, those are mostly gone. I do have some green algae, some small spots of green hair forming, and some coralline starting to appear. During the water changes I extract what I can of the hair.

My parameters have been very stable.

Temp - 79.7 to 80.4 F (living in Phoenix, AZ, hard to get it lower)
Salinity - 1.025
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
PH - 8.4
Nitrate - 5 to 8
Phosphate - 0 to 0.03

I am not currently measuring other parameters and stopped measuring Ammonia or Nitrite unless I add to the bioload.

From a bioload perspective, do you think I could add one more small fish? My wife would love one more, she loves the Helfrechi Firefish. Our LFS has one which is beautiful. If I can find one, was thinking maybe a Pink Streaked Wrasse. With the other fish already established, would they likely harass the firefish? Would the wrasse be a better fit? Any different suggestions?

One last question, the folks at the LFS said a pistol shrimp to pair with the YWG may be aggressive with the hermit crabs. My 8-year old daughter has named one of the crabs and she would hate to know a shrimp committed crabicide . What has been your experiences with both in a tank?

Thanks in advance to any who provide input.

I wouldn’t do fire fish and clowns or gramma. Gramma can deal with the clowns because they’re tough but fire fish are huge wusses. If you’re gonna do shrimp I’d go for the coral banded. They do really bother anything and will pair with your goby. And you need WAY more snails. I have like literally 30 in my tank and all of them are doing great. I suggest ceriths. They eat anything algea related.

 

[Rich 9_70]

Thanks for the additional suggestions. The only thing I have added in the last six weeks has been a couple more acans and a frogspawn. They are all doing well.

Decided I would now let some things develop. The trochus snails are monsters regarding algae control. The few cerith snails I did have became hermit crab food. I may add a few more trochus if needed. Also decided we would not add a firefish for the reasons @cladius_galen mentioned. Though we may try a tailspot blenny. Good to know @reefpunk707 that yours is living with a couple of gobies in your 29.

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

Thanks for the additional suggestions. The only thing I have added in the last six weeks has been a couple more acans and a frogspawn. They are all doing well.

Decided I would now let some things develop. The trochus snails are monsters regarding algae control. The few cerith snails I did have became hermit crab food. I may add a few more trochus if needed. Also decided we would not add a firefish for the reasons @cladius_galen mentioned. Though we may try a tailspot blenny. Good to know @reefpunk707 that yours is living with a couple of gobies in your 29.

Blended and gobies usually do ok together. Two blennies will fight to the death though. Not sure why. Super gentle fish unless it’s with their own kind. Then it’s mortal combat.