What fish to keep in my first salty. 24 gal AP.

[odie]

First Tank Parameters....I currently have a 24 gal AquaPod with 39-42 pounds of live rock, and compact fluorescents (64watts). This came from a friend in town and was established in his sump for some months ( up to 3 yrs depending on the piece). My tank has been running for three weeks. Lots of various pods and algae. Coraline that was before on a couple rocks and had the diatom like stuff along with hair for a week now. CUC started as a couple dozen of hitchhiker snails of 3-4 types, black bristle stars and white bristle stars, and many bristle worms...some big bristle worms that gross me out!! . I added 4 Margaritas, 4 Astreas, and a 3 Nassarius (fun to watch) , 3 Scarlet hermits, 3 blue hermits along with shells.

 

I also have Kenya tree, GSP, a couple aiptasia(killing on Friday before water change), blue/green striped mushrooms, red mushrooms, and a hairy type mushroom a few small feather dusters.

No filter other than floss and small foam block that gets rinsed at each water change.

 

 

My fish ideas, things I like, things I hate.

 

Years ago when looking around at freshwater stuff (did FW for 15yrs) I saw a scooter blenny and loved his hopping around sat for 20 minutes watching him hop around. Last week I spent 20 minutes watching a Six Line Wrasse hunting around. Both were cool to watch.

I also love seeing all the life pods, worms etc. My favorite fresh water fish were African shell dwellers from L.Tanganyika.

 

I hate fighting and constant torn fins. That is what my African cichlids are for!! I also hate feeding and seeing 20 bristle worms come out to feed with the lights on!!!

 

Anyway.....

 

1. I want some crawling hopping action if it be from a few gobies. If it be clowns, court jester, green banded, orange spot. But would love a scooter blenny but maybe my tank is too new along with my skill level.

 

2. I want some color and antics for the top half. Either with a clown (maybe with anemone if lights will handle it), Firefish to swim around and look gorgeous but maybe a bit ditzy like Barbie....or a 6 Line to hunt around and lower my worm population.

 

3. I would like to add some shrimp later also.

 

So would a small group of clown gobies, a clown or firefish (not both), and six line work?? adding gobies first than clown or firefish than 6 line?

 

Am I out of mind?? I will plan on setting a cheato fuge at some point. I also might look into adding an overflow with a 15 gallon. Not sure about the later....

 

By the way this place kicks butt and I am hooked on aquarium keeping all over again!!

[petkingdom619]

try yellow watchman goby, pair clowns, sixlne. Blue/green chromis will also work instead of clowns, Maybe 3-4 of them

 

your lights wont work for an anenome.

But my clown hosts a frogspawn, that will work in your tank. It seemed they just needed the flow in the perfect spot and one day I moved the pump and they went straight to hosting it.

 

I dont think the scooter would be a good choice. They need a nice pod population to eat from.

[beeker]

ideally you could keep between 3-4 fish in the 24g, now if you are religious with your water changes like 5 gallon changes once a week you could keep around 4-5 fish, keep in mind 4-5 fish would still be nothing that gets bigger than 3-4 inches, also it would help with the bioload if you had a skimmer on the tank, this would cut down the need to do water changes weekly, but you would still want to do them bi-weekly

 

You can have as many inverts in your tank as you want as long as you are doing good water changes and not overfeeding

 

wait on a few months on the scooter blennie, when i had mine he ate flakes, pods, and mysis and brine, so i'm not sure if you could get yours to eat other stuff other than pods, but i'd atleast wait awhile till your tank is more stable/mature

 

 

you might want to look into adding some Chemi-oure elite, i use it on both my tanks and love it, it helps keep the nuisance algea to a miniumum and will also help with keeping the water clearer

[odie]

My LFS has a scooter dragonet in a tank that has been their for a couple months and eats frozen along with any pods. I could skip it and go with a trio of gobies. Will the a Six line or Clown torment the gobies??

 

Would a group of small gobies, a firefish and a sixline be bad?

[odie]

try yellow watchman goby, pair clowns, sixlne. Blue/green chromis will also work instead of clowns, Maybe 3-4 of them

 

your lights wont work for an anenome.

But my clown hosts a frogspawn, that will work in your tank. It seemed they just needed the flow in the perfect spot and one day I moved the pump and they went straight to hosting it.

 

I dont think the scooter would be a good choice. They need a nice pod population to eat from.

 

 

Would a watchman, clowns and a sixline be to much of a bio-load? Also when you mentioned "just the right flow" do they like a constant one direction or would a deflector(revolving). Is a yellow watchman active without a shrimp host?? I saw one with a shrimp once and I never saw the goby...

[lakshwadeep]

Would a watchman, clowns and a sixline be to much of a bio-load? no Also when you mentioned "just the right flow" do they like a constant one direction or would a deflector(revolving). Is a yellow watchman active without a shrimp host?? some people have observed that I saw one with a shrimp once and I never saw the goby...

[DrCooper]

I have a six line wrasse, Yellow Watchman, 2 Clowns and a Tailspot Blenny in my 28 gallon

ALL ARE DOING GREAT

[odie]

I have a six line wrasse, Yellow Watchman, 2 Clowns and a Tailspot Blenny in my 28 gallon

ALL ARE DOING GREAT

 

 

That sounds like what I was thinking about doing. But maybe one clown......I wonder if I have to much rock in my tank after looking at yours. Maybe I should take a picture of it. 40#'s might be overkill?!

[midna]

More rock = more biological filtration = more forgiving if something dies.

[odie]

Any opinions on adding a different wrasse. I love the look of a sixline but I am not sure if I want to deal with the attitude and agression.

[lakshwadeep]

possum wrasse (Wetmorella spp.) are small and peaceful.

[odie]

possum wrasse (Wetmorella spp.) are small and peaceful.

 

 

I looked them up and looks like they are hard to find for sale. Also it sounded like they like to hide? Would you agree. If they are active like a sixline it would be aswesome as I love watching the sixlines hunting around.