LacroixBoy
Community Member
I'm a new reefer (5 months) and have made plenty of mistakes with my first tank, but now I need help planning my first great war.
Background on my tank:
20g cube
Dosing all for reef and ph buffer as needed
Feeding Red Sea Coral AB
Feeding New Life Spectrum pellets (too much I've learned)
This tank is dedicated to Aquacultured or maricultured occupants only. I don't feel right taking wild things from the ocean.
Bioload:
The war:
I've recently had an explosion of amphipods across my tank, almost certainly caused by my overfeeding but oh well. I understand that reasonable numbers of amphipods are beneficial to the tank but these amphipods have gotten numerous and quite large. The largest look like they may be over a centimeter in length, it is hard to get a good look at night and they scurry when I turn on a flashlight. Perhaps most importantly, my SO finds them disgusting. So I need to cut their numbers down.
Concerning, however, are the reports that amphipods, especially large ones, will eat coral (or my prized copepod population) when starved.
The plan:
Background on my tank:
20g cube
Dosing all for reef and ph buffer as needed
Feeding Red Sea Coral AB
Feeding New Life Spectrum pellets (too much I've learned)
This tank is dedicated to Aquacultured or maricultured occupants only. I don't feel right taking wild things from the ocean.
Bioload:
- 2 Young Ocellaris clownfish
- 1 Very young canary blenny
- 5 trochus snails
- 5 Cerith snails (new and phase one of my plan)
- 3 Sexy shrimp
- 1 Medium hammer frag
1 tiny hammer frag - 1 frogspawn frag
- 2 small zoa frags
- 2 mushroom frags
- 1 Gonastrea frag
- A bunch of amphipods.
The war:
I've recently had an explosion of amphipods across my tank, almost certainly caused by my overfeeding but oh well. I understand that reasonable numbers of amphipods are beneficial to the tank but these amphipods have gotten numerous and quite large. The largest look like they may be over a centimeter in length, it is hard to get a good look at night and they scurry when I turn on a flashlight. Perhaps most importantly, my SO finds them disgusting. So I need to cut their numbers down.
Concerning, however, are the reports that amphipods, especially large ones, will eat coral (or my prized copepod population) when starved.
The plan:
- Get more detritivores, clearly the tank can support them. I've already purchased 5 cerith snails from ORA and I'm looking at these hermit crabs to help out as well. I'm considering a peppermint shrimp as well. The extra scavengers will out-compete the amphipods for food.
- Kill the amphipods. This part is tricky since I haven't found any captive-bred wrasses, plus I have too small of a tank for them anyway. The best option I've found is a captive-bred mandarin like this. Hopefully, with the increased competition and predation from the mandarin, the amphipod population will reach a lower steady state and my rocks won't be crawling with dozens every night.
- Profit?
- Is 5 trochus, 5 cerith, a few hermits, 3 sexy shrimp, and a peppermint shrimp too large of a CUC for a 20 gallon? It feels like it might be, but currently my CUC is largely amphipods.
- 20 gallons is not enough for a mandarin. I know that, but at least I'd be getting a juvenile. Someday, hopefully, soon (12-18 months), we'll purchase our own house and I'll be able to get a larger tank. That means the mandarin would spend at least a little while in cramped conditions. I'm not happy about it, but it isn't too cruel, right? I would love some feedback on this.
- I'm aware of how many copepods the Mandarin needs, but ideally, since it'll be the ORA captive-bred bred it'll take frozen baby mysis as well. I also dose copepods with some frequency.
- Will the mandarin eat amphipods? I'm hoping it will but I would love some thoughts.
- Will I lose the war? Will I lose my zoas to hungry amphipods? Am I an idiot? Feedback is appreciated.
