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new fish

Joined
Dec 14, 2007
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As I spoke of in this thread, damn hermits, I got a fish yesterday...actually, I faultered and couldn't resist getting a fish and a shrimp :roll:. I got a watchman goby and a tiger pistol shrimp, pictures to come. I was told to feed two mysis a day, and that would take care of both of them. This leads to two questions

1) I have the little tablets of 25-30 frozen mysis each. What I am doing now is putting one tablet in a shot glass to defrost, then removing two mysis and dropping them in the tank once a day. I then place the shot glass back in the freezer. Is this the right idea? Will continuously defrosting and then freezing ruin the mysis?

2) Upon further research, I found some articles that say pistol shrimp eat something else, is this right, or should I just continue doing what I am doing?
 
As far as mysis is concerned you are not doing it any favours by continually defrosting and freezing it... you should use a fresh block everytime and I think you will find that your shrimp and goby will eat more than just two mysis a day. If the goby will feed in front of you, feed it to satiation and try that a couple of times a day... Also mix the food and dont just rely on one type, there are many types of frozen food available suitable for marines.

As for the crab - don't know but I'd guess that they wont like it too bright?
 
If you use one of those little frozen cubes, allow it to thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature, pour off the water, and give it to your fish. Since other inverts in the tank will eat mysis too (crabs, even corals), I think you could feed the whole cube. See how much is left over, if any.

Nancy
 
If a whole cube is too much and you have waste that is not gone by the end of the day (or next AM if feeding at night), you can cut the cube in half with a knife. If that is still too much, you can use a potato peeler to shave the cube (watch your finger!).
 
I would NOT feed a whole cube in a 12 gal... I have a 29 will corals and i feed half a cube... are you running a skimmer.. if not i would only do a quarter... i still would probably only feed a quarter every other day...
 
I use a baster to target feed my fish and seahorses. You can squirt a few out toward the goby and put it in the refrigerator to use the next day. Discard any leftover more than 24 hours though. It would be best to just squirt out a few at a time, watch the goby eat, and when it's eaten a decent amount put the food up. Unless they're huge, 2 mysis aren't going to go very far. Our baby Hippocampus comes will eat 8-10 each in just a few moments. The pistol shrimp should be fine with mysis also. I haven't seen a shrimp yet that didn't like the fishes leftovers.

As for the Pom-pom crab, they stay very tiny and they use their little anemones to gather food and fend off predators. I would think the pistol shrimp might be a threat to such a small crab. They can live without their anemones, but that's usually the most appealing part of them.
 
one more question, Is there a species of sea horse that I could keep in a 12 gallon? I would never get any fish, let a lone a seahorse without doing plenty of research, I just want to know if I could keep one.
 
Seahorses are like octos in that the most successful tanks are species only. Twelve gallons is really too small for any of the larger species but you can easily keep dwarfs if you are willing to hatch brine shrimp EVERY day. If this is of interest, PM me and I can give you some recommendations on easy brine hatching. You will need to research keeping them and your current tank is likely to be unsuitable because of the LR and potential hydroids that live in the rock. I have, however, successfully kept several in a nano reef for 6 months or more.
 
Certainly anemones have light requirements! They require a very good amount of light. Also, I hope you aren't planning an anemone for a 12 gallon. Anemones require very pristine water conditions (8.2-8.4 PH, 76-78F Temp, 0 Am, 0 Ni, 0-5 Nitrate).
 
Inception7;114878 said:
Certainly anemones have light requirements! They require a very good amount of light. Also, I hope you aren't planning an anemone for a 12 gallon. Anemones require very pristine water conditions (8.2-8.4 PH, 76-78F Temp, 0 Am, 0 Ni, 0-5 Nitrate).

We're talking about the tiny anemones symbiotic to the pom-pom crab.
172_boxingcrabdemartini.jpg
 
i am pretty sure he just wants to know about the anemones on the crab itself.. .and I asked shane and a friend chad and we don't think so... are you planning on any lights...
 

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