My 13.5 evo fluval build!

Turtle_reef · Feb 27, 2022

Hello again!

Update: I finally have all my rocks set up in my 13.5 g fluval tank. My corals all glued where I want them and they are slowly opening up and re adjusting to there new spots. As I said I recently started this tank about a month ago I got it for my birthday from my boyfriend and am pretty excited! I do have some help of course as he has multiple tanks and deffinatly knows what he's doing but I think I'm doing pretty good for just starting out with some help. The first fish I started out with was the watchmen goby it was either between an orange tail blemmy I'm pretty sure it was or a watchmen gobby and when I saw the watchmen I thought he was pretty cute and read about them and read they matched up with pistol shrimp so I thought that was pretty cool and got him named him Mr.wizzo and was gonna get him a little buddy. Took me a really long time to find a pistol shrimp. Waited a while, my second fish was a firefish thought they were pretty cool and they are very peaceful so I was pretty excited for my second purchase in fish. I feel he didn't acclimate properly as he was acting very weird after the hour and was pretty concerned, after about a day he was normal and is pretty energetic. Funny story ish right after having the firefish in the tank my gobby went missing didn't come out during feeding thought maybe he was just nervous or something but I was messing with my rock work and was kinda worried cause he's my little buddy and we'll he went on an adventure to the back chamber I found him later that night took me about an hour to get him out I was pretty upset gave me a bit of a scare he was deffinatly happy to be back in the tank and hasn't went on an adventure since lol. My firefish ended up kinda taking over his home he had but now they share the home and sleep in there together every night which is very odd but cute there kinda buddies now. I ended up getting a candy cane shrimp after I got a pom pom crab which btw they are pretty cool my guys pretty cute. But my shrimp was acting pretty weird about 5 days later he was out in the open not moving just what was under him was moving kinda was falling over too thought maybe he was molting I had looked on R2R if anyone had experienced something like that I did find his molt the next morning with his snapper attached and he only had the one claw when I got him but he molted and haven't seen him since or seen any sand moving so bit concerned but I'll give it a bit on that not too sure if that's normal or if he's just hiding.

The first picture was what my tank started off with had some xenia on the large rock with some green zoas, Kenya tree and some GSP I really liked that layout forsure but did feel the xenia was bit too much and wasn't much room for any other corals.

The second picture is my finished rock work which I'm pretty in love with in all honesty! Have quite a bit corals right now
A hairy mushroom, neon mushroom, gobstoper zoas, rasta zoas 3 others which I haven't quite figured out what they are called gsp, orange recordia Florida mushroom and a Toadstool.
Have a few inverts candy cane shrimp somewhere lol pom pom crab some nassarius snails, trochus snails and then some other things that have came off rocks that are good.
Anyways love to hear what you guys think! sorry for the long paragraph!

blaxsun · Feb 27, 2022

Happy fish!

tharbin · Feb 27, 2022

Thanks for posting these. Firefish are one of my favorites but I never thought I'd see one sharing sleeping quarters with a Yellow Watchman. Nice aquascape also.

Turtle_reef · Feb 27, 2022

tharbin said:
Thanks for posting these. Firefish are one of my favorites but I never thought I'd see one sharing sleeping quarters with a Yellow Watchman. Nice aquascape also.

Thank you! Yup I never thought I would see that either but they are pretty good buddies my watchmen is pretty relaxed and first couple nights let the fire fish have his home when I first put him in there now they share.

Fishfreak2009 · Feb 27, 2022

Don't give up hope on your shrimp. My yellow watchman who lived in my evo with a candy pistol were moved into my 75 gallon in december. They dug out a burrow, then 2 days later the burrow was closed and we never saw the watchman again. I bought 2 aurora gobies, and 1 moved in with the pistol. 2 months later the 2nd aurora goby moves in with the first aurora goby, sharing the pistol. I added a firefish, and a few tilefish to the tank, and they also moved into the burrow. They also moved the entrance to the front of the rock instead of the side. And a couple days ago we spotted the missing yellow watchman also sharing the burrow. Haven't seen the shrimp in over a month, but here him popping, so we know he's still in there...

Now there is a massive burrow with 1 yellow watchman goby, 2 aurora gobies, 1 red firefish, 2 skunk tilefish, 1 fourmanoiri tilefish, and 1 candy pistol shrimp all living inside it. The entrance is almost 4" wide.

Turtle_reef · Mar 1, 2022

Fishfreak2009 said:
Don't give up hope on your shrimp. My yellow watchman who lived in my evo with a candy pistol were moved into my 75 gallon in december. They dug out a burrow, then 2 days later the burrow was closed and we never saw the watchman again. I bought 2 aurora gobies, and 1 moved in with the pistol. 2 months later the 2nd aurora goby moves in with the first aurora goby, sharing the pistol. I added a firefish, and a few tilefish to the tank, and they also moved into the burrow. They also moved the entrance to the front of the rock instead of the side. And a couple days ago we spotted the missing yellow watchman also sharing the burrow. Haven't seen the shrimp in over a month, but here him popping, so we know he's still in there...

Now there is a massive burrow with 1 yellow watchman goby, 2 aurora gobies, 1 red firefish, 2 skunk tilefish, 1 fourmanoiri tilefish, and 1 candy pistol shrimp all living inside it. The entrance is almost 4" wide.

I haven't given up hope on him he was acting weird that one day but was fine from like the first day I put him in the tank to about day 5 after around day 5 he was acting weird I thought he was molting which he ended up doing but then was gone again. The home my watchmen gobby was in is where the shrimp was and it is like a tunnel I can see threw to the other side and haven't seen the shrimp in there so I don't really know where he would have gone I all honesty I did find his empty molt but then he was gone. My watchmen doesn't really leave that home since I put the shrimp in the tank before adding the shrimp he used to swim around at the top. Yesterday he went up to the top of the tank for a little bit but when I got closer he went back down. Not to sure where he would have went but didn't want to move my rock work to go look for him. So there's still hope but not too sure if he's alive though. And I don't Think he has any claws now because he had only one when I got him then when he molted he lost that one.