New 24G Fiji biotope Tank

[Duncan]

So I've been doing some research trying to decide what sort of CUC would be appropriate for a Fiji biotope style tank. There is unfortunately no definitive resource for inverts and their primary habitat. Where is the snailbase.org site???

Using the various aquarium mail order sites and Jadfox's list as a start, I have narrowed the list down to the following:

 

2-3 Electric Blue Hermit Crab - Calcinus elegans

5 Bumble Bee Snail - Engina sp

2Fighting Conch - Strombus spp.

5 Nerite Snail - Nerita sp.

2 Super Tongan Nassarius Snail - Nassarius distortus (I know it's Tonga and not Fiji, but they are pretty close, I'll pretend they are holidaying in Fiji!)

 

I'd be interested to hear what anyone thinks of that selection, and whether there is a suitable mix of detrius and algae eaters in there.

 

 

Speaking of algae - I tried to manually remove some of the garden of algae I'm growing at the moment - Slippery stuff isn't it!! I couldn't get a suitable grip and what I did get slid off my fingers and is now floating around my tank! Oh well, I guess I can now find out where the dead spots are in my circulation! I'll have to hope the CUC I get are hungry!

[Duncan]

in a shameless attempt to bump this thread, I'm wondering if anyone has any input as to my proposed clean up crew? Anything I should definitely avoid?

 

Whist I'm here, I was thinking of adding a couple of ocealaris clownfish (eventually) and was going to add a PJ cardinal, however after seeing the cardinal at my LFS, I was a little disappointed in their colors, (they weren't very vibrant) is that just because my LFS has a couple of particularly bland examples, or are the pictures you see online exaggerated to help sell the fish?

[jadefox]

in a shameless attempt to bump this thread, I'm wondering if anyone has any input as to my proposed clean up crew? Anything I should definitely avoid?

 

Whist I'm here, I was thinking of adding a couple of ocealaris clownfish (eventually) and was going to add a PJ cardinal, however after seeing the cardinal at my LFS, I was a little disappointed in their colors, (they weren't very vibrant) is that just because my LFS has a couple of particularly bland examples, or are the pictures you see online exaggerated to help sell the fish?

 

Hey there. I like your CUC list, and I was interested to learn the bumble bee snails were Indo-Pacific...I had thought they were only Atlantic (Florida). They are great. I think you'll really enjoy the Nassarius Snails and the Tonga Conchs...we love them and could watch them all day.

 

We are also planning on clownfish (either Pink Skunk Clownfish-Amphiprion perideraion, Black & White Percula Clownfish-Amphiprion ocellaris, or Percula Clownfish-Amphiprion percula). We're going to wait a while to make sure the tank has stabalized before adding an anemone. Once we choose the anemone, then we'll choose a clown pair to match (although I won't be surprised if the clown opts for the open brain coral we are getting tomorrow instead of the intended anemone). Have you considered a pistol shrimp/goby pairing?

 

Good luck, and keep us posted.

[Duncan]

Yes I was thinking about a Tangaroa Goby.. well that's todays choice - I keep changing my mind between that and a Yasha Haze or Wheelers Watchman, with a Pistol Shrimp. I wanted to ask if anyone had experience with any of the above, and whether they felt I should take precautions against them jumping - my tank is topless at the moment, and I'd like to keep it that way ideally.

 

Also, with a pistol shrimp, is it fairly safe to have another species of shrimp in there?

(I'm thinking a cleaner shrimp or two)

[Cesar]

Er. What?? Two people can have the same name on here? =p Weird!

 

WOW cool. I wanna be called Adinsqx.

[Duncan]

Well finally the Algae is disappearing!! I took Spanko's advice and kept the lights off and that seems to have done the trick.

I'm having a hard time getting the Livestock that I would like, as the LFS don't seem to stock what I'm looking for with the CUC, and as I'm in Canada, I can't take advantage of the various mail order/internet places in the States. Oh well, the delays are only good for my tank I suppose.

 

I've attached a couple of pictures of the tank, algae free!

[jadefox]

Well finally the Algae is disappearing!! I took Spanko's advice and kept the lights off and that seems to have done the trick.

I'm having a hard time getting the Livestock that I would like, as the LFS don't seem to stock what I'm looking for with the CUC, and as I'm in Canada, I can't take advantage of the various mail order/internet places in the States. Oh well, the delays are only good for my tank I suppose.

 

I've attached a couple of pictures of the tank, algae free!

 

Looking good. I wish I had a suggestion on getting the Fiji-specific CUC in Canada. Can't you ship them up from us? We ship your drugs down, right? lol Seriously, your tank is looking great! Nice work. We just added a BTA, a Euphyllia glabrescens and a green staghorn Acropora to our tank...if you have the chance, check out the pics on our build thread (link in my signature). Keep us posted!

[spanko]

Looking real nice Duncan. Keep up the good work. I really like the scape. Lots of flow through for the fishies.

[Duncan]

So I have my first inhabitants!! I managed to get some Electric Blue Crabs, and I have also added a Scarlet Shrimp. Before that however I have changed some of the rock work. One of the base rock pieces was a little too big and out of Scale for the tank, so I smashed it to bits! I also picked up a couple of other pieces of live rock, one of which looks like it's ####ed off!

[Duncan]

It's been a while so I thought I would update this thread. When last you saw me, I had just added my first inverts. Well a lot has happened since then!

I bought a pair of sebae clownfish, only to find later that they may not be sebaes and in fact clarkii's - they jury is still out! I the added a few frags - a small hammer, finger leather, and something purple, which I hope someone will be able to identify. The leather and hammer seem to be doing well but the purple thing looks the same as when I bought it, about a month ago, with no discernible polyps, I'm beginning to think I have insufficient light (VHO's) and it might need to be returned.

Unfortunately one of my clowns died, he started acting very strangely and then spent a day on lying on the sandbed - the next day he was gone, seems very strange as my other clown is fine and all the water pm's were normal, I have to assume he wasn't well when I bought him.

I added to my inverts by adding 3 trochus snails, and a fighting conch.

I then bought a small frag of green star polyps, and a large fan. I also (mistakenly) added a red tree sponge. It was an impulse purchase - won't do that again - however it seems to be surviving, I shall keep an eye on it!

My most recent purchases are a pair of pajama cardinals who seem to be getting along swimmingly!

I shall soon be adding a large frogspawn - my remaining clown will think he's died and gone to heaven! And in the future a pistol/goby pair of some sort.

I have also had to capitulate that a strict fiji biotope is nearly impossible when you live in Canada, and are at the mercy of LFS. All of you Americans, should count yourselves lucky that you have such a wide variety of mail order places to choose from, choice is few and far between in St. Catharines! Oh well, the aim now is simply to have a beautiful reef tank, regardless of origin.

I have added pictures - feel free to comment, particularly on any opinions of the name of the purple coral. These pictures were just taken, and the lights had been out, so you'll have to forgive me, everything is closed!

[lakshwadeep]

Nice tank!

I'm not sure if you've read this, but it gives a lot of answers to FAQs about Fiji and stocking Fiji Biotopes.

 

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fijifwgfaqs.htm

[johnmaloney]

Try to stay away from Bumble Bee snails. They are not cleaner snails, they will eat the small critters that make your rock live. Bad for the hobby, I still don't know why some places sell them. Not your fault, there is a lot of confusion over this snail. IMO it is better to throw them out/give them back to the pet store then to leave them in there, unless you just want them because they look cool. While they will also eat leftover food, the nassarius snail family will only eat leftover food. The Tongan Nassarius covers the same geographic range as your fiji biotope.

 

Your tank is coming along great by the way.

[kdxboy]

That purple coral looks like xenia of some sort. It opens up and looks real cool, but looks all closed up like that when it's not comfortable.

[KMG]

Duncan, if you're still in search of Indo-Pacific inverts and CUCs, the outfit linked below actually captive-breeds their own Indo-Pacific inverts. I haven't ordered from them yet, but I plan to when I get my own biotope up and running in a couple of weeks. I don't know if they ship to Canada, but it might be worth asking.

 

http://www.ipsf.com/

[Whitten]

Duncan, I saw your post and found it very interesting. Thought I would try my best to answer your cuc question.

 

The species that I ran across the most was a black almost tiger tail looking species.

I have a picture of one but I will need to locate it. At any rate here are some pics that might be of some help.

As for you livestock, Ocelaris is not as common as Clarkii and the Skunk Clowns in Bubble tip and Ritterii respectively.

 

As far as shrimp go, cleaners are not near as common as cleaner wrasses. In fact I have never once seen a skunk cleaner there.

 

Fire Fish pairs, spanish hog fish, Coral Beautys, obviously your fair share of butterfly and tang species but on the smaller sides obviously damsels, diamond gobys, and all maner of hawkfish.

 

As an interesting note you cold also do a Maxima, and a small purple lobster as something fun and different.

 

I will try to think of some other critters you could put in there but feel free to ask questions here. There are alot of very knowledgeable folks floating around that can help you out.